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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
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on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
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These were the words I said in my head as I watched the clerk at Target this weekend ring me up. As I watched her sigh heavily over and over again, pouting. Even taking a time or two to glare at me.
You would have thought I pulled her away from a leisurely afternoon on her backyard hammock and had the audacity to ask her to ring up my basket of groceries. What, me? Ring up groceries?
You could tell I was definitely annoying this lady.
When I took a course a couple of weeks ago on how to use coupons - I mean, really use coupons - the instructors said this may happen. That clerks would get a bit irritated when you handed over an inch stack of coupons. The scanning and punching in numbers get a little annoying, I guess.
So I eyeballed all the registers, saw who was working. And because I'm a regular Target shopper, I knew just about everybody in the red shirts and khaki pants. I scoped out the friendly lady who looks like a kind grandmother. She's always so nice to our boys.
But she's going on break. Dang. So I go for the other lady who's always pleasant. A good person, I think, to hand about 30 coupons to on this, my inaugural trip using my "Becentsable" knowledge.
Must admit, I was pretty damn excited. Had already called my husband twice from the store. I was determined to make shoppers like mom2momer Stingyhag proud.
Until the usually-nice clerk lady burst my bubble.
Initially, she was all smiley. Asked me how my day was going. (Oh, isn't that nice, I think to myself.)
Then she sees my coupons. I get the first sigh, and a lovely, "Oh, great," said in a voice of disgust. (Not the reaction I was hoping for.)
My total comes to $63-something. I make a mental note, then hand over the coupons with a little bit of pride. Hell I spent 20 minutes printing and cutting everything out.
Second sigh from lovely clerk. Even a "ughh."
Then one by one she swiped each coupon with attitude. Kind of like when you ask your kid to stop watching TV long enough to pick up all of his junk in the living room. Tons of attitude and dramatic grabbing of things.
Some of the coupons wouldn't scan. Gasp. Third sigh, here. All of those non-scanning coupons she dramatically put in a pile with an eye roll each time.
I was feeling bad, and said a couple of times how sorry I was for being a pain. (Stupid me.) She was silent.
Is this what I can expect each time? I think to myself. This isn't going to be any fun.
At one point, friendly grandma lady came by to grab a bin from underneath the counter and asked her so nicely if she could scoot over a few feet.
"No," said the sullen, coupon-scanning clerk.
"But I may hit your legs," she said.
"Go ahead," the clerk answered, still angrily scanning the coupons.
After all the scanning and button pushing, my bill was $31. I saved more than I spent!!!
Right on, Becentsable ladies. This was fun. (But wait, the mean clerk's about to strike again.)
The lady behind me in line was amazed, asking how I did that. I told her about the seminar. All the tips and the websites.
Before I could say more, the clerk butts in and tells her how much trouble it is to scan the coupons and how it holds up the line. How sometimes the coupon is higher than the on-sale price and that's a pain because she has to go back on the sales ticket, or something to that effect.
Excuse me. Haven't you heard there's a recession lady? My kids have to go to college, got a problem with that? Just trying to save money here.
Once I got home, I vowed to my husband never to go to that clerk again. But then he had a good idea.
I will go to Target, eyeball all of the checkers and go directly to her line, with my 40 coupons this time. Then I’ll wait and see if she’s a little nicer. She’s going to have to earn the right for me to go to someone else.
First of all - great savings!!! How proud you should have been! Secondly, how rude! Isn't that just part of her job? Maybe you should have reminded her of that. I agree, keep going to her line. One day she will have to be nice to you. Myself, I would have been calling the manager when I got home. She needs to be reminded she should be lucky to have a job. I know some checkers really hate the free coupons. I try and put those items on the belt last so they are easy to find or I tell the cashier. Sometimes I forget though. Or they question what I bought and I am the one digging thru my bag to prove I bought the right thing. A penny saved is a penny saved. Those pennies add up quickly.I get so annoyed with checkers (or anyone else) that doesn't want to do their job - and they want to be sure that you know how much they don't want to be there! If you take a job working with the public you really need to be a people person. :) Would you mind sharing where you took the seminar? - sounds great!!Never say you're sorry! You're saving money, the store is making money and the clerk is getting paid. The people behind you are getting a lesson in patience. It all works out great! Congrats! Oh, and you'll find that some stores don't pay attention if you make 3c off a bottle of BBQ sauce - the coupons will scan just fine and the computers don't freak out. Not a big Target person, myself.A couple of things about this were a little shocking to me. First, the savings! Wow! I'm really impressed, and please do share your secret. Second, her attitude!!! Some people. I'm with ilmomof3, the only difference being that I would not have waited to get home before consulting the manager. I would first have asked her if that was what she wanted, and if her attitude didn't improve, then I would have marched right over to customer service and had a little chat with the manager before leaving the store. There is no excuse for that kind of rudeness.Yes, I am impressed. Good for you! Gives it's own kind of high doesn't it? You had better luck than I did at Target yesterday. I had $7 worth of coupons refused because they beeped "item not found", including 4 Hormel Pork coupons for 4 slabs of Hormel ribs. I asked her "well, I wonder what those 4 hunks of meat were?" And yes, you will run into bad attitudes from time to time, including those from others behind you in line. Ignore them!You go, girl! I would definitely go to that chick every time. And I would smile, and then I would tell everyone to go to her with their coupons because she's so good at scanning them. I'm from the South, and we believe you get more flies with honey...That was great that you saved so much.. I tried to sign up for that seminar. So I emailed the person that was listed to do the seminar and she wasn't doing it. So I ended up not getting to do it and got the run around.. I'm going to still take it because I'm very excited about it. Anyway I get so annoyed when people act like that. It's like get over it and do your job.. So that makes me work even harder to be more friendlier at my job.. On the other hand sometimes it gets annoying being so friendly and I can't even get a smile or a thank you anything.. The worst is when people are so RUDE and your ringing them out and they won't get off their cell phone long enough to acknowledge a human being is ringing them up.. So I do understand both sides. Usually if that clerk is being rude to me I will say are you having a bad day.. Then they kind of change.. That way I give them a chance to pipe down and I don't get so mad...Uh... you might remind her that if she has so many better things to do there are a whole lotta people who would line up to have her job (or ANY job for that matter!). I've gotten the sigh/eye-roll routine at WalMart when using sale ads from other stores. It actually makes me giggle... which only makes them madder, but I couldn't care less. Everybody's job has something sucky about it. Live with it or get a different job.Good for you! I would absolutely keep going back to her...why do people take those jobs if they don't really want to do them? That's part of your job! Don't like it? Then get a different job!I'm a coupon clipper too! If I were you, I would have called the Target. They get reimbursed for those, there is no reason that clerk should have behaved that way. I've been known to save as much as $100 with coupons, and I've never had a clerk treat me that way.I'm so excited for you! That's a huge savings. Sorry the high was dampened by the clerk's attitude. If the register is set properly, then there's no problem to quickly scan a stack so the problem is surely the Target register and not the coupon. While I love the idea of going to her each time with a huge smile, I would probably avoid her just because I wouldn't want the downer attitude. Way to go, though, clipping and finding all the coupons you needed! I'm impressed by all the people who would go to the manager. I avoid confrontation too much, but this is an occasion that calls for intervention. I vote you call the manager.I had this same thing happen when I had coupons for every item that I was getting at Target. She tried to argue with me about the size of the package and I just showed her on the coupon where it said "any size no exclusions" she still tried to argue! I told her she could have a manager come over if she wanted and she finally just did it! But oh my gosh, they get paid for being there and doing a job so do your job and stop being jealous that I am a better shopper than you can leave me alone! Maybe if you were a little nicer to me I would tell you how I do it so that you can save money!**laughs so hard she's crying!!** That's great! Number one, I want to "becentsable". How I can I sign up for that?!?! I am debating on going back to work, even part time in the fall, but with this crappy economy, I'd be amazed to get an office job. And next to bills, groceries is where I spent alot of our money. I hate it, I'd like to save some money somewhere! Number two, you have to remember to do another post when/if you go through her lane again with a stack of coupons. I'll be she's even madder the next time!I contacted Target with a link to your blog and here was the response: Dear Target Guest, Thanks for taking the time to share this posting on the Kansas City Star newspaper's website. Coupons are a great way to save even more when shopping with us, and it's easy to use them at our stores. Because of the variety of coupons available to our guests, we do have some guidelines for how coupons can be redeemed at Target. We expect our team members to be helpful while you're shopping and checking out. I've shared it with the appropriate departments for review. We look forward to showing you what's new at Target. (Not sure what the rep meant by "we do have some guidelines for how coupons can be redeemed.")Details on the workshop? I REALLY want to be good at coupons. I try but I know that I could do better.Was it the Target by OP Mall? I swear their checkers are the rudest we have ever encountered. They have the sigh/eye roll/disgust thing down. I wouldn't bother complaining as we have done so many times to no avail. So, since they have no interest in improving their customers service...I too think you should go there repeatedly and make certain to get the same snotty checker each and every time. Perhaps if you tell us who she is and which Target--we will all make certain to pay her a visit!I'm so glad you all also thought the lovely Target clerk was rude. And I love it that mwrun let Target know. I probably should have complained right then, but I didn't want to further crush my high from saving so much. On the seminars, you can email Darci Evans, a BeCentsAble instructor and she can tell you lots more. I think her advice will save my family several hundred dollars by the end of the year, if not more. Her email address is centsabledarci@gmail.com. Good luck. And Stingyhag, keep the sales and bargains coming. I was too late for the cooler deal but am planning to go to Walgreen's in the next two days. Thanks!!You are very welcome. Maybe I'll actually get a chance to look at the Walgreens ad and see if there is of anything of interest. As far as Target, Sunday was my first "difficult" experience. They wouldn't take anything that wouldn't scan. But frankly, their scanners suck. However, I wouldn't expect much out of Target in regards to this blog. They give the same, prewritten, rehearsed, carbon copy response, and leave it at that.
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