Queen Mother Blog

I had my first rude couponing experience at Wal-mart last weekend. First, I'll say that I almost always bring the Target coupon policy with me when I'm shopping there. I also have a newspaper insert they had put out ages ago that showed the savings with a Target coupon *combined* with a manufacturer coupon, just in case my local store gave me some problems like they had in the past.

Wal-mart, however, has always been easy going to me. Whenever I go, the cashier scans every coupon dutifully and never blinks twice. Yet a little voice told me to just go ahead and print the Wal-mart coupon policy & put it in my Couponizer bag.

Well, last weekend I went with the family to Wal-mart to pick up some of the deals that were available. This definitely included some printable coupons. As soon as I got to the register, the cashier asks, "did you print these coupons from the Internet?" to which I say 'yes.' She then says, "well we don't take those" and starts to hand them back to me.

Hubby was very impressed with my Matrix-like speed in whipping out their policy--I had *just* printed it--and began to inform my cashier that my coups were legit. Cashier calls manager. Manager says, "we do not take Internet coupons" and I calmly begin to hand her the coupon policy that I say I have "just printed" from the Walmart website. Manager does not want to see my coupon policy, but at this point thinks that I am staring at her nametag...which I wasn't! I hadn't even gotten to that level yet, I'm still positive everything is going to go just fine. She then dramatically grabs her nametag and makes a dramatic show of showing it to me and says, "The name's Deanna* since that's what you're looking at!"

Well hold up, sister. I was NOT looking at your name tag and there is no need to get snippy here. I flabbergastedly announced that I was not even looking at her name tag, and then she seemed to calm down. I'm not a psycho, I just want to use a coupon =)

So this story is getting really long, but then Deanna (why did I change her name, when she is not really "innocent?" lol) realizes that my coupons scan and are perfectly legitimate, but she still has to check with a mysterious manager that is somewhere in the front offices. During this time, Deanna stops to chat with whoever she pleases and takes her grand ol' time. When she does come back she says that "the accounting person is not in, but HE said we could take them if they scan." That was all very nebulous and I think she was just faking, but whatever. I politely said thank you and I left paying not even $3 for two bags of stuff.

Meanwhile, my husband was very proud of me because I remained calm and got my way in the end. But, I stuck to my guns only because what I was trying to accomplish was perfectly legitimate and my right as a customer of their store. Now we all know that this is usually a rare occurance, but it has definitely served as a reminder to me to know store coupon policies and keep a written copy of them with me, if available.

And be sure to check your local grocery stores for their coupon policies and carry those with you, also!