Yesterday, I stopped at Ultra Foods tog et in on the great deal on Quaker oat products - and was told that Ultra no longer allows stacking of coupons - meaning, you can NO LONGER use a store and a manufacturer coupon on the same item. I asked when this policy began and was told it has always been their policy, but that cashiers would "allow" customers to stack if they were questioned on why the coupons didn't work.

Needless to say, I left my order and will do my best not to shop there in the future. Even when I pulled out a copy of their coupon policy (that was faxed to me back in March), I was told that's the "old" policy, but when I asked at the customer service counter, I was told they didn't have a copy of the policy on hand and that they didn't give copies of that to customers - it was for store use only.

So, if there are any bargain hunters on their way to Ultra - beware! Aside from their deals on Fisher Peanut Butter, I think I'll be shopping anywhere else.

I love Ultra, I hate Ultra. Their sales are good, sometimes crazy good. Combined with coupon - there are numerous cheapies/freebies to be had. For example: this morning I grabbed 2 2L. Coke, 1 box Keebler Topper crackers, 2 bottles of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce (I'm hopelessly addicted!), 2 canisters of CountryTime lemonade mix. My total OOP = $1.82. Why I hate Ultra? Keep reading...

First the cashier keyed down my CountryTime coupons from $1 to $.98 (no overage) - which was okay, I wasn't going to fight over that. Then she keyed down my Sweet Baby Rays coupons (which was a $1/2), she makred that to $.78 - or the price of one bottle. Next we had the Coke/Keelber coupon. $3 off WYB 2 Coke 2L's & 1 Keebler/Kellogg item. There was a 15 minute discussion between the cashier and the customer service lady (naturally this wasn't in English so I had no clue what was being said), and I asked no less than 6 times, "Is there a problem?" or "Is my transaction complete?" Only when I told them I was leaving with or without the order did they push through the last coupon.

The cashier then decided to explain to me that the store wouldn't get reimbursed for the coupon because of the way I was using it. Like she was trying to shame me. I smiled, and replied with "Read the wording of the coupon - you might learn something and try to mis-inform the next coupon shopper that comes through your lane."

The lady behind me actually laughed at that. So, just to irritate the cashier - I handed her a CountryTime coupon, too! Got to love coupon karma, sometimes the cashiers are stacked against you, other times - you hit the jackpot.

Luckily, I got to work only a few minutes late - so, this is my reminder of why I don't coupon before work. No self-checkouts are open, the cashiers are crankier and meaner, and the aggravation simply isn't worth it. But the free CountryTime and cheap SBR's certainly are!!

Last night DMom & I went hounding at Ultra, and for me it's amazing all the deals I manage to find when DM is with as opposed to me hounding alone. In the cereal aisle, we spent 15 minutes scouring for coupons to match with the oatmeal deals we were find. People looked at us like we were crazy. We even called my sister to see if she and her boys would like some oatmeal!

We found holiday themed Quaker oatmeal for $2 a box, coupons for Fisher peanut butter that was already on sale, GM cereal marked to $1.88 a box, and I was brave enough to use some expired winetag coupons to score some very free cheese.

At the register, after dividing our purchase up (trying to work around those limits they put on the really good deals) and I scan through everything. Wouldn't you know it, the coupons for Fisher product and the winetags had to be pushed through by a disgruntled cashier.

First she had to examine the Fisher coupon, before deciding that she would "let me use it." I simply smiled and said nothing. I scanned the rest of my coupons (I had a pile of them), and saved the winetags for last. Naturally, they wouldn't go through so I had the same cashier come over and tell me that Ultra no longer accepted expired coupons. I said that was strange, I had an email from their corporate office about a week or two ago that said they would accept any expired coupons up to 30 days expired, or any expired to "ensure customer satisfaction".
The cashier spent 10 minutes reading the email (while muttering to herself that she didn't see where it said that they would accept expired coupons - even though I pointed out the section to her, twice), before deciding that she would "allow it this one time."

Our transactions:
4 jars Fisher peanut butter - $.88 each
3 dozen eggs - $.88 each
6 boxes Quaker Holiday Oatmeal - $2.00 each
2 boxes Quaker Breakfast Bars - $2.00 each
1 box Quaker Simply Harvest granola bars - $2.00
1 8 oz. Centralia Pepper Jack Cheese - $1.79
1 Sargento Havarti cheese - $4.09
2 Sargento Swiss cheese - 2/$4
1 Sargento reduced fat Provolone $2
5 bottles (24 oz.) Hunts ketchup 5/$5
1 box Captain Crunch $2.50
6 boxes GM cereal - $1.88 each

Q's:
$1 Fisher product any x3
$.70 Quaker oatmeal x3
$.55 Quaker breakfast bars x2
$.50 Quaker Simply Harvest granola bar x1
$.50 Captain Crunch x1
$1 off any 3 GM cereal x1
$.75 off Cheerios x1
$.50 off any Cheerios x3
$.55 off Sargento cheese
$2 off any cheese purchase (winetag) x5
OOP: $37.67
Savings: $56.84
Item count: 33

I did notice that the cashier pushed through an extra Cheerios coupon, but after all that hassle, I wasn't about to point that out. I was afraid she'd make me start all over again!