An Unbelievable Scare.....

Last night McCauley and I had a girls night.

The boys were at scouts and baseball practice, Kev was doing his thang.

So M and I wanted to have a little fun.

We delivered a dinner to a family in the ward and 

were off to Ross to try on shoes and clothes.  

M likes to go through the size 5 women's shoes and see what she "fits" into.

Then we both get a load of clothes to try on and head to the fitting rooms.

I focused on new workout gear last night.

I made a purchase, we decided M should hold off because she didn't 

find just the right thing.

Well, after that super fun time we had one last stop to make.

PUBLIX - 

sweet, our favorite store.

I had finished gathering, printing, clipping and organizing my coupons 

and we were ready to get down to business.

It was later than we usually go,

so none of my usual cashiers were working.

No biggie I thought.

Earlier this week my favorite cashier Kathy told me that  they 

had changed their coupon policy...

my heart skipped a beat or two,

I asked her to please fill me in.

She said they no longer permit overage.

Oh, alright....no problem.  Can't blame Publix really for that.

So that was it....I thought.

One of my coupon friends called me the next day saying that

she had gotten roughed up a bit on her latest trip to the store, 

they had not let her use some of her coupons. 

She was frustrated and wondered what was going on.

I said, listen, I will be going to the store tomorrow,

I will let you know how it goes,

hopefully it was an isolated incident.

Back to last night,

after a good bit of time pulling our purchases together

M and I were at the check out.

I went to one of the young men that were checking.

(I won't name names so you don't pass judgement)

As he was ringing our items through he says I notice you have 

coupons, yes, you are correct.

Well, our policy has changed, I will need to have my supervisor 

come go over these with me to make sure they 

are all acceptable.

hmmm?

I said I know you are not allowing overage anymore,

there should be no problem.

Well, I see that you have the razor coupons, and I will not be 

able to accept those coupons.

Why on earth not?

They are manufactures coupons, they are for the exact item 

described.  Publix will get every penny back + .08 extra

for each coupon.

Sorry no.

I say go ahead and ask your super.

He does, well, ok, I guess we can accept them.

Of course.

Well, he scoured each and every coupon, declining one after another.

By this time Jeff, the supervisor was there as well,

he was backing him up.

I won't tell the complete story it is just too long,

but essentially they kept having to dig items out of my bagged up 

cart of groceries and returning them.

It went on, we no longer accept Target coupons....

really, since tonight?

The checker started to get upset and saying that he didn't

know what my problem was,

that they didn't make the rules, why was I questioning everything,

and so forth.

His face was going red and I was looking over at Jeff....

like...really?

Jeff kept telling him to stop it, to settle down, it took 

a few tries for him to settle.

I was in shocksville...

Stuperland.

McCauley looked so scared, she said mom this isn't right.

What are they doing?

Why is he taking our groceries out?

Man, it was so mortifying.

Finally, after the checker says, Jeff, you are just going to need to 

void this whole thing out and start over.

I said, no thank you.

Please return my coupons and you can keep your groceries.

I asked Jeff for the managers name and his hours 

for the following day.

I was having an extremely tough time keeping 

from tearing up.

As Jeff was getting a paper and writing down the managers 

name he kept saying I am so sorry this happened.

I said, I just can't believe what you are doing.

I cannot believe what you have done.

I cannot believe this policy.....

(I know waaaaaaay too much drama....like I said....shockville)

Then we turned around and walked out of the store....

I thought we did anyway.

M didn't catch on that we were not taking our cart with us,

she had turned around and snatched our cart and was following 

me with our goods.

She was like mom......our food!!

Ohhhhhh....

honey, we aren't taking that.

I walked it back in as the workers and shoppers looked on.

But mom, what about our buttery syrup, and the

fudge covered oreos that I picked?

Can you say..... Humiliation.

I felt so bad.

...........................................

OK, so I was thrown into deep dispair.

I can not imagine not using coupons,

and not shopping at my Publix.

That is my store.

I love my store. 

I spoke with Tina today,

not looking for sympathy, I knew I would get none 

from her, she does not support or agree w/ my couponing.

She said you will just have to learn to pay full price

like the rest of us.

Sounds like a lifestyle change.

No Never.  I can't.

Sounds like you'll have to.

I won't.

Noooooooo....

Nooooo.

NO.

crying my eyes out.

...................................................

The time came when I was needing to go speak with the manager.

He only works until 5pm today....it was 4:00.

I was so scared.

I was trying to figure out what to wear.

I wanted to look good, but not too good.

Classy, but not like I was trying too hard.

Smart, thrifty, something that gave me confidence.

I chose a simple brown dress with cream crochet trim,

small pearl necklace and stud earrings.

At first I had on heels......over the top,

I put on flip flops.

I felt appropriately dressed for the occasion.

I had pulled together my coupons from the night before
(minus the Target ones)

so I could go over them w/ the manager.

 I brought a note pad to write 

the new policy down and make sure I got it.

The kids were wishing me luck,

Lawson was giving me pointers on what to say,

he actually said he wished he could just go in and 

take care of it.  

I said to please just say a prayer in their hearts that 

everything will go well.

At the front desk I asked to speak with the manger....

Mr. Johnson.

I saw him come out of his office and went to meet him.

I introduced myself and asked if I could take a few minutes of his 

time and talk to him about an experience I had last night.

I wanted to get clarification on the new coupon policy.

He invited me into his office with his business assistant Tara.

The office was no bigger than a postage stamp....

Two chairs, Tara and I were sitting, Mr. Johnson stood.

I began......

I know this is going on....

I will try and cut.....here are just the highlights....

I say so I understand that you no longer take Target coupons - 

yes, we still take them.

So it is my understanding that I can only use one of any coupon

that says "one per customer per purchase",

well, one per item.  You can get as many as you have a coupon for.

So have you taken away the expired store coupons?

No, you can use all you want.

I don't understand what has changed.

He said all my coupons were perfectly fine.

Here is the bottom line - 

there are many dishonest couponers that are using BJ 

Club coupons - ie. using $7 M&M coupon on a .50 bag of M&Ms.

They are robbing them blind.

This is the issue.

Blatant abuse.

The manager is sick to death of it.

He instructed his clerks to LOOK at every coupon.

Read what it says and accept it accordingly.

So, they are just a little over the top and not understanding some 

of the wording.

The meeting was so good.

I said, so I can go out there and use these coupons

and there will be no trouble?

I can keep shopping at the store that I love?

Yes!  Yes...please.

Please tell your friends that everything is fine.

Please continue shopping with us.

I am going to give you a gift card for this experience.....

I was looking like I was going to try and say no...

but he said don't even try to say no because it is happening.

Shop early from now on when one of us is here.

He said Jeff was mortified, I guess 

he emailed them both last night after the incident.

So apparently they knew I would be calling.

I walked out of the office.

I saw Kathy checking at the speedy isle....I didn't get to talk with her.

But she was definitely wondering what went down.

After my small fast shop,

I saw Jeff on my way out.

We greeted each other with Glee...at least that was 

how I greeted him.

He looked very 

relieved after I told him that it was all worked out.  

I still get to shop here!!!

Whoohooo!

life is back to normal.

What a scare.