My Shops Today And A Call To Dominick’s Corporate

The first day of the preschool week means grocery shopping for me. There were a few things I wanted to get at both Jewel and Dominick’s, so I ran to both, daughter and snacks in hand. Luckily for me, she’s used to this. One snack at each store and we’re usually done.

Here’s what I did

Jewel

2 Brownberry Bread
1 Oscar Mayer Deli Meat
1 Coca-Cola 2 pk
1 Culinary Circle Pizza

I used
$.25 Brownberry peelie I found on one loaf of bread
1 Free Culinary Circle Pizza from Jewel Preferred Card Promo Booklet (no longer available – bummer!)
$2 came off for CC Pizza/Coke promo
$7 Wags RR

Final Price: $.65
Total Cost: $7.65

Dominick’s

1 Corn Chex Cereal
3 Wheat Chex Cereal
4 Quaker Chewy Granola Bars
1 Pace Salsa
1 Saltines
1 Bagel-fuls
2 Gallons Milk
2 Michael Angelo’s entrees
8 Yoplait Yogurt Cups
2 Go-Gurt
1 Kraft 2% String Cheese (to feed my habit – oh, and for the kids too)

I used

$.99 in-ad Quaker coupon (took off $6.04)
$1.29 in-ad Saltines coupon (took off $1.50)
1 Free Pace Salsa coupon from sweepstakes (they usually take off the full $4, but today she manually entered $3.79
2 Free Michael Angelo’s coupons from previous promotion
2 $1/2 Chex Cereal coupon
2 $.75/2 Quaker Chewy coupons
1 $.75 Bagel-fuls coupon (expired)
1 $.40/6 Yoplait coupon
1 $1 Nabisco Crackers coupon
1 $.75/2 Go-gurt coupon (expired)
$3 e-Coupons came off from Chex
$1 eCoupons came off from Yoplait

Final Price: $21.73

All in all, my trips today cost $29.38. I also bought some produce at Butera yesterday for about $4.50, so I didn’t need any here. These things are mostly “pick-up” shop and snacky things, but when you can get a great deal, stock up! Plus, when you have two little ones, snacky things (yogurt, bagel-fuls, etc) slowly become staples.

You may have noticed that there was a better sale at Jewel on Chex Cereal ($1.50 each wyb 3) than at Dominick’s (3/$5), but I bought them at Dominick’s anyway. That was because I was able to use my Cellfire and Shortcuts coupons in addition to my manufacturer’s coupons at Dominick’s and got 4 of them for $1.66.

While my cashier was checking me out at the little Dominick’s (Nagle in Chicago), we got into a discussion about competitor coupons. I asked her if she knew if they took them. I don’t lose sleep over this, I would just like a definitive corporate answer. I told her that I had been told “yes” and “no” cyclically for a year. She said that she had been told the same thing. She had no idea if they took them or not. She went to ask the customer service person, who said that if they scan, they accept them. Knowing that this meant that I could only do this while he was at the customer service desk for the rest of eternity, I decided to call Corporate.

I talked to a woman who DID NOT want to give me a definitive answer. I asked her the same question in 5 different ways just to pin her down. She first said that they did not take competitor Manufacturer’s coupons. I asked if they had a written policy that they could send me. She said that it wasn’t written down anywhere, but I could go into the stores and ask a Manager to see if they had anything. I said that I’ve talked to lots of Managers and they all have a different answer. I explained that I was just trying to get a “yes” or “no” answer. She said again that they don’t take them because they have store names on them. I explained that I wasn’t talking about the Store coupons, only the Manufacturer’s coupons which are provided by the Manufacturer – not the store. She then started to waver and said that I would have to talk to the Dominick’s Manager because there are different circumstances. So, I asked again if there was a Corporate Policy about this kind of thing that they are supposed to follow. In the end, her answer was that they don’t take competitor manufacturer’s coupons, but it varies by manager. I hung up with as much information as I started with.

So my best advice at this point is to ask your Store Manager. If you don’t want to do that, drive all the way to the Nagle location and look to see if the nice looking customer service guy is there. He’s the only one we have a real answer from!