That's the riddle hubby said I was trying to solve today.
On Saturday, I took off for the afternoon(which stretched into the evening too)and made a pilgrimage to Acme.
There is a Buy $30(shelf price), Get $15 Back Catalina Deal this sales week there. Not as good as the last B30/G15 Deal in August, but with the crappy Deals at Weis around here....I'll take it!!
I had ordered coupons but they didn't come in Sat. morning's mail so I took what I had(some insert Qs and some IP Qs-not much really)and I flew like the wind to the store. The area I went to had 3 Acmes within close proximity and I planned to hit A, then B, then C and backtrack, hitting B again and A again, before heading home.
I was ready this time. I had the Qs organized in the envie, I had the shelf/sale prices written out in a chart, I had my calculator and I had done up some scenarios on Friday so I could quickly get a very low OOP after sale prices and Qs.
The B30/G15 deal reportedly was doubling and tripling but I kept to single transactions to keep under the radar. After the "being held captive episode" in Aug. at the evil Acme, I wasn't about to try stacking multiple $30 transactions.
So what happened?
First off, some of the items were on "knockdown". While this is good for regular shoppers(because the price is lower), this is BAD for working a Cat Deal. If an item is on knockdown, it means the shelf price does NOT apply. IE-BC Cake Mix, the reg. shelf price is $1.59 so buying 19 boxes will put you over the $30 mark($30.21 to be exact). However, the cake mix is on sale for $.99 box, meaning you will pay $18.81 for 19 boxes instead of the shelf price of $30.21. Use the $15 in Cat Qs from your previous transaction and you pay $3.81 for 19 boxes of cake mix(or less if you have Qs for the cake mix) AND you get another $15 in Cat Qs to roll into another transaction.
Being on "knockdown" means you now have to buy 31 boxes of cake mix to get to the $30 threshold.
Using your $15 in Cats from a previous transaction means you have to pay $15.69 for those 31 boxes....$.49 a box for cake mix is ok but not such a great deal compared to $3.81, right?
So the items that had "knockdown" prices blew some of my scenarios right out of the water.
Ugh!
That was about the only problem....that and they were cleaned out of the Chicken Broth. Having to do scenarios on the fly took me longer, making for a very long day. But being out of the house and away from dogs, kids and yes, even hubby was a nice change. That and there were hardly ANY people in this Acme! I was there for many,
MANY Hours and there was barely a line at anytime throughout the day/evening.
I never even got to the other 2 stores. The store was deserted, was stocked and no managers bitching at me for doing small transactions.
Every B30/G15 Transaction worked perfectly and I got all my Cats each time. Oh, it was a thing of beauty I tells ya!
Some of my OOPs were a bit high(because of having to rework most scenarios to use what few coupons I had and to allow for the "knockdown" prices),but I managed to keep most of them under $1 for each transaction.
It was
Acme Heaven!lol
The cashiers were young, males....my FAVORITE kind of Cashier. No hassles from them or management. By about the 10th trip through the register, it got to be a joke with the cashiers.....one of them asked if I had my sleeping bag so I could take a nap(it's a 24 hr. store) and another was going to get me a job there as a goodwill ambassador, for my work helping other shoppers find items in the store.
Why is it people always think I work in whatever store I am in, and start asking me questions, like I'm an employee?? This happens to me alot!lolol
Anyway, I took it slow and just kept doing transactions...
One.
After.
Another.
I took a break after 5 or 6 and went down the street for a late lunch/early dinner at a Chinese place.
Then back in for another 5 or so.
Then back to the car to call home and have some water and a banana I bought.(Had some overage to kill so I bought 1 banana...lol)
Then back in and more shopping.
I noticed a sign in the front window about a FREE TURKEY Deal....spend $300 and you get a free bird. None of the stores around me locally do the Free Turkey for Thanksgiving anymore. Only Shop-Rite and I haven't been in there in awhile so I'd probably never spend that much in time to get the bird. All the grocery stores use to do the Free Turkey, then they stopped a few years ago. Now it's either a piddly little Gift Certificate($5 or $10 depending on how much you spend)at the local grocery or a percentage off your next shopping trip at Weis(10% after you spend $300). I hate those percentage deals because they make you spend $300 and up to get them. Now once most people have spent $300 or more, they really don't need to spend a big amount the next shopping trip, so they spend like $50 and get $5 off. Big Whoop, I say..... To make a percentage deal good, you need to spend ALOT.
I don't know, I just always thought those were lame offers. I'd much rather spend $300 and get a turkey. ;-)
So back to the Sign at Acme....they are running a spend $300, get a free bird.
So after the first 6 transactions, I look at my receipt to see how they are calculating for the free bird-what I was actually spending or what the total was before discounts.
I had spent about $6 OOP at that point.
The receipt said I had $92+ toward the bird.
So that became my GOAL for the day.
To do enough transactions that my "spending" was over $300 and I could get a Free Turkey.
I told the cashier I couldn't go home until I spent enough for the turkey and it became a running concern each time I hit the register.....
Will she spend enough
this time???!!!
How many more trips will she have to do???!!!
Can her legs hold out to $300??!!
I finally shot past the magic number of 300 at around 7pm.
She shoots, she scores!
And there was much rejoicing in Acmeland.....
Then 1 final shop to get the bird and roll that $15 in Cats
one more time....
So, after we get a shovel and "dig out the backseat area of the car" tomorrow in the daylight, I can take some pictures/make a list/get my receipts and do a final tally of my numbers.
For now, I am going to bed....my feet are killing me!
Part Two to follow--
Sluggy
