Monday, August 24, 2009

Ask For the Sale Price

Part of last week's weekly shopping trip was a lesson in consumer shopping for my children.


First we went to Menards. This summer we have been slowly acquiring patio blocks to make walkways around our house. However, since we don't own a pickup truck, we only haul a dozen of these blocks in our trunk, at a time.


The blocks are usually on sale for $1.22 each, however, on a recent trip, they charged us $1.99 (the regular price, because they weren't on sale). The blocks were again on sale for $1.22 the next week, so I took my receipt and the sales flyer to customer service. She issued me a merchandise credit for $9.90 the difference of the sale price and regular price on 12 blocks.


I used the credit to buy the last few blocks for our project. I made almost $10.00 of "found money" in a few minutes of time.


Next we headed to Meijers. First off, I found a $20 bill lying in the parking lot. Yay! I guess I should have turned it into the customer service department, in case someone reports it lost, but I didn't think about it at the time.


Again, armed with my receipt and the sale's ad, I went to customer service and explained that the locker kit my daughter had purchased had gone on sale last week and could I please have the sale price. I was refunded $5.31 - the difference of the locker kit sale price, regular price and the additional tax price I paid.


What I am trying to teach my children is, first of all, buy it if it's on sale. But, if you can't, watch for the next two weeks (that's the time limit most stores will allow). If it goes on sale, it can't hurt to ask for the sale price. I have done this several times, and to date, I have not been refused.


One time I did ask for the sale price on mini blind. It went on sale for a difference of $2 and some change for the tax. The cashier was being a little obnoxious and asked if I had the item with me. I said, "Yes I do, it's in the car of my trunk, I can bring it in and have it refunded and buy another one at the sale price, if you like." (It was in my car). When he learned that I did indeed have the item, he cheerfully refunded the amount. He said he had to ask if I had the item, but I've never had anything like that ever happen before.


Do you have any experiences like this? Please post in the comments or leave link to your blog post.

1 comment:

Dee Yoder said...

Great tip! I also have done this and it really does work.