God, I hate WalMart

I hate Walmart as much as the next liberal, educated, self-respecting 20-something, but broke ass bitches can't be choosers.  Especially when I just found out that I can no longer use my HSA to buy over the counter medicine.  Dang it!  I still have an HSA (Health Savings Account) left over from my days of having a real job with a real salary, and it has saved me more than once when I needed Advil or cold medicine and I only had 4 cents.  So, time for me to start stockpiling medicine!  I have a ton of Nyquil and Dayquil, since they go on RR sales all the time at Walgreens.  Advil is my painkiller of choice, and I was just thinking that I would need to keep an eye out for good deals when I saw that Motrin was only .78 cents after coupon at Walmart.  Fine, I'll go to Walmart.  I need sponges anyway, and there was a deal on those as well. 

I had 2 coupons for $6/2 Motrin and 2 coupons for $1/2 scotchbrite sponges so I grabbed 4 of each.  My first mistake was that I didn't cashier profile.  I'm bad at that anyway.  As soon as I handed my coupons to the cashier, I knew there was a problem.  She stared at them intently, reading all the fine print over and over.  I almost said "Um, they're real, I promise".  Then she says "OK, this says 'Zyrtec 25 count or larger, Pepcid, Motrin, Motrin PM, Precise cream or patch from the makers of Tylenol'.  So it has to be 25 count, this is only 24 count."  I told her that it said Zyrtec 25 count or larger, so that applied to the Zyrtec, not the other medicines.  If it applied to all the medicines, it would say 25 count or larger after all of them.  She told me she would call her manager over.  We waited FOREVER, and the line was building behind me.  She said she would scan it just to see, and the register accepted it, which totally stumped her.  She decided to wait for her manager before she went any further.

I offered to step aside while I waited so she could ring other people up, but she declined.  After about a year, the manager came over and read the coupon, and said yes, she could take it, but she could only take ONE since the coupon says "One coupon per purchase"  Now, we couponers know that this means ONE coupon per item purchased, so that people don't try to use more than one of the same coupon on the same item.  But at this point, I wasn't arguing with these ladies, as I could see it would get me nowhere.  So I told them just to do one coupon, and I would take the other one back.  The manager also read the sponge coupons, and said she could use both of those since there was no language on that stating only one per purchase.  The manager left, then the cashier scanned my sponge coupons and the register beeped.  "OK..." she said, reaching for the phone.  "You know what?  Why don't you just forget the sponges."  So, I left the store not so triumphantly with 2 bottles of Motrin for $1.54.

In these situations I find it is best to be polite, firm, but not argue too much.  If they aren't getting it, they aren't getting it.  There are plenty of other stores that have deals, and you can bring them your coupons and money.  And remember, that coupons are currency.  The stores get reimbursed for these by the manufacturer.  They will still get the $6.00 dollars that I gave them in coupon form, it will just come from Motrin instead of me.

I'll save my coupons for a sale somewhere else, they have long expiration dates.  I got sponges for FREE last year at Albertsons with doubles, which is better than the .34 cents I was going to pay at Walmart anyway.  I imagine there could possibly be a BOGO sale on Motrin somewhere that would allow me to get a good deal with my $6/2 coupon.  So don't despair fellow couponers, when you run into a roadblock.  There is always another deal around the corner.
PS - if you want to get your paws on those coupons, go HERE (Gone) for the motrin and HERE for the sponges.