Jewel CAT deals are different than other stores that do CAT deals. At Jewel, CAT deals are mostly based on the SHELF price, not the SALE price. The shelf price is the one that shows up on the scanner BEFORE you scan your preferred card. The sale price is the price promoted in the ad, highlighted on the shelf, and the price that scans AFTER your preferred card.
To illustrate our discussion, I am going to use the Bertolli Organic Pasta Sauce deal that we saw a few months ago. The deals was “Buy $30 in product, Get $15 CAT.” For this deal, the shelf price of the sauce was $4.39, but the sale price was $2.
For this deal to work you had to purchase 7 jars of sauce. This would cost you $30.73 shelf price, but only $14 sale price. You would pay your $14 plus tax and receive $15 CAT back. If you had coupons to use, your OOP expense would have been even less and you still would’ve received your $15 CAT.
I know that this doesn’t make a lot of sense and seems a little too good to be true. And sometimes it is. For one thing, products on the OSCO side (shampoo, Q-tips, medicine, etc) are based on the SALE price. There are some products that cross over for unexplained reasons, but you should be able to distinguish those at the register or read about them here. Osco products tend to ring up at only one price regardless of the sale announcement. If it is advertised at $2 it will ring at $2 and not take any money off with your preferred card. It is a flat rate.
Secondly, if you find yourself in a situation where you think you did the transaction right and didn’t get your CAT, you cannot really discuss it with the Jewel employees. They are very nice, but tend not to know about this bit of wonderment and will not be able to help you out. You can return your items and start over (which usually means losing whatever coupons you’ve used) or eat the cost and try again. Most of us have done some of both trying to get these deals to work.
Third, the shelf price listed on the actual shelf is not always the shelf price that will ring. We can thank the Big Relief Price Cut for that. Not all signs have been changed and not all signs are correct. But as far as they’re concerned, why should they bother? Most people only care about the sale price, right? I used to.
For the most part, though, if you ring your items up at the self checkout (or ring them at the self scanner and add up on a calculator) you can get yourself over the cost threshold and will have no problem! Make sure you double check the prices, though. There’s nothing more frustrating than not getting your CAT and seeing that you were two cents off on your receipt.
This is how so many of us save a ton at Jewel. I like the other stores too, don’t get me wrong, but you really can’t compete with Jewel on a CAT deal.
Alli is a Chicago based wife and mother of two children. She has turned money-saving into a game and enjoys searching out the best deals to help you save money! Alli shares her insight, tips and up-to-the-minute deals for local and national retailers and brands. Her hope is that you will play the game and learn to save money at the same time!