I spent my morning shopping! I plan all week for a shopping trip. I live in a small town. We have one grocery store, which is a small chain store called Market Basket. We also have a few gas stations, some of which sell smoked meats and such. Those smoked meats and such are a Louisiana person's heaven. But, the only other thing we have in our town is a Dollar General and a Family Dollar. Oh, we have the local jewelry and flower shop too.
Needless to say I have to travel at least 20 some odd miles to the nearest Walmart. The closest Kroger, Target, Kmart, Mall, and so on are around 50 miles away. So, I usually only make one trip a week to Walmart. One trip every two weeks if I can make it. I rarely go to the other stores. That would be a great treat for us.
Today was my trip to Walmart. I have not been there in 2 weeks, so my grocery list was a bit long. I planed my trip well. I had my coupons ready. I did my shopping and was ready to check out. Of course I had the most aggravated cashier in the place to check me out. I should have picked better. I usually can feel them out as I stand in line. But, with a 2 year old pulling on me telling me that he is so so so hungry, I didn't notice the bad mood. The rain clouds pored as she looked at my stack of coupons. I almost put them away and just paid for everything cash. That is when I remembered that this was my money and nobody was going to make me spend more than I should. She did not agree. She took every coupon I had and read it looking for a way to void it. She even called her manager to check them out. In the end she found two I couldn't use. Anyone else would have let me. One she swore I copied, which I Did Not! My printer ink was low and it was not as bright as it could have been. The other she said I used one just like it and could not use two. Even though I had two items in my cart and two coupons. One for each. She was not having any of that.
Then to my horror the customers behind me started not to quietly commenting about my large amount of coupons. The cashier started turning around and making faces to the other cashier behind her. As if to say "Everyone trying to get something for nothing." Well, I held my head up high and told her to take the items out of the bags and off my total if I couldn't use my coupons for them. This gave her more work to do. She did not like me after that. I paid my bill and smiled so sweetly to her, and said " Wow I saved $15.00 off my bill! Some items where even free after the coupons." She was speechless. I walked out with my head held high.
I am not the best couponer but I do know that I should not pay full price for something just because the cashier would rather not bother with my coupons. I should have marched myself right over to the manager and reported her bad behavior, but I had seen the manager and knew that would have been no use. As for the customers who where behind me, they sure where surprised when I mentioned how much I saved. I bet they start looking more closely at coupons form now on.
Thanks for letting me vent a little!