Thursday, February 24, 2011

FREE AND ALMOST FREE, A GOOD SHOPPING WEEK!

Those who know me know my favorite word when shopping is "free". In Canada we have a little something called "the scanning code of practise". If an item scans at a price other than the marked or labeled price, the first 10.00 of the product price is free. If the item is under 10.00 the item is free, if it is over 10.00 you get 10.00 off....I love the scanning code of practise but you have to be on your toes because most places will not give it unless you insist despite the signage on their tills etc. Wal-Mart is a place with frequent price errors and they will fight you every inch of the way to get out of allowing you to use the scanning code of practise (Queensborough Wal-Mart specifically), Well I was in Wal-Mart yesterday and the bacon scanned wrong..4.42 and the shelf marking was 3.97. After much back and forth and their clerk saying this wasn't the product etc, I finally went and got the shelf tag that clearly said Maple Leaf sliced bacon on it. The supervisor was going to correct the price and then I pointed out the big notice on their counter stating the scan of practise rules. She begrudgingly put it through as free. It is a bit of a hassle but worth it in the end. So...free bacon....  I should note here that not all stores are members of the scanning code of practise and it is a voluntary agency so the stores do not have to belong if they choose not too. Safeway, London Drugs, IGA, Shoppers Drug Mart, Costco and Wal-Mart are some of the stores that honor it. For a full list you would have to use Google and it will come up.




Now, as bad as Wal-Mart is at trying to argue you out of the code, Safeway is probably the best store around for knowing the rules and using them properly without any fight, argument etc. I love Safeway for this reason. Today I bought this meat for the carnivores in this house. Note the original price is over 30.00 but they have a sale! It was supposed to be 18.82 when you use your Safeway club card. Around here any time is grill time even if the temperature outdoors is in the minus degrees.  I used the self check out and noted the club card price that came off was only a dollar something so I asked the lady who supervises the self checkouts for help. She made several phone calls to the meat department and talked to the customer service counter and then arrived back and said "I am only charging you 8.82 for this as it scanned wrong"...oh my big score. Now I hadn't even thought about the scanning code of practise for some reason in this case so having her automatically take off 10.00 from the sticker price was awesome, thank you Safeway, this is why I love to shop with you!

One more interesting thing I found out at Safeway today is that in the meat department, on top of the counter where their butcher shop is, they have an assortment of spices and marinades, teryaki, steak sauce, all kinds of really great stuff and it is FREE....you just have to ask a clerk and they will package up whatever you want from their selection....they will even put your meat in a marinade for you....that is pretty cool!! I came home with teryaki marinade and powered steak spice.....can't wait to try them out!

OK, now the item below was not free however it was close. Multibionta is a new vitamin out and it contains probiotics. It contains a complete multi vitamin and essential minerals as well. Recently I was invited to join a BZZZZ campaign to try these vitamins out. I haven't received my free ones from BZZZZ yet but ran across a coupon online for 10.00 off on these vitamins and they sound so intriguing I decided to buy a package. Safeway had them on sale for 11. 49 if you use your club card so using the 10.00 off coupon I bought them for about 1.49....not quite free but pretty darned close! I have heard some really good things about them so am looking forward to seeing if they are as good as they sound! I will do another post for BZZZ agent in the near future when the product arrives from them!  If you are interested in becoming a BZZZ agent and receiving invitations to receive and review products, go and join up, they are a leading word of mouth company and the products they send out are great! http://www.bzzagent.com/

1 comment:

Betty said...

Very interesting. I don't believe we have that code here, but we should. Of course, I'd probably forget what the shelf price was by the time I wandered up to the register to pay. :) The stores would probably be counting on people like me if they made that promise.