Oh me, oh my, will the coupon trials and tribulations never cease at Market Place. Now, with that said, I love to shop at Market Place. I feel like I am shopping among my people when I shop there, probably because my people (aka: my family) have shopped at Market Place for as long as I can remember. After some shopping trips, though, the only saving grace for Market Place is their customer service rep, Carrie. She's great. If you've ever had a problem with or a question about Market Place, she's probably the person on the other end of the 1-800 number.
Today was not so much a coupon incident as it was just a random series of events. I had put a few items on my shopping list to price check during my shopping trip today. I do this all the time. But, today, as I began jotting down prices, my ink pen stopped writing. It's as simple as that. And it was one of my favorite pens, to boot. So, ever resourceful, I pulled out the camera phone and started taking pictures. Then up walks a store official who tells me, rather nervously, that I'm not allowed to take pictures in the store. And I am completely fine with that. I completely understand that. I obediently put the phone away.
Here's the head scratcher. I asked him if he had a pen I could borrow, since mine had stopped working. Wait for it....He said, Market Place doesn't allow you to write down their prices either! I would have loved to have seen the look on my face. Really, I think it might have been priceless. He said that they had had problems with competitors coming in and checking prices, yada yada yada. I asked if the manager was available (he was at lunch) and I really don't know what I said after that, I hope I wasn't "one of those couponers". But I did pull out my phone and immediately called Food Giant Customer Service and chatted with Carrie as I finished up the rest of my shopping. Now, I do not condone calling "corporate" for most matters. I think I've only called twice, once as a naive beginning couponer and today. Sometimes you just need a second opinion to put things into perspective, you know? Most of the time you can probably get that just by calling your best coupon pal. Sometimes you need to call corporate.
Did I mention that Carrie's great? She seemed just as confused by this encounter as I had been, and I learned that the Food Giant Coupon Policy is now available on the website. She did a little research, returned my call, and to my utter disbelief, informed me that Market Place doesn't allow you to make a list of prices. I asked, what are they going to do if they "catch me" writing down prices and she really didn't have an answer. I seriously doubt that I'll be getting an escorted trip out of the store, or I certainly hope that doesn't happen! She asked me to explain why I was making the list in the first place, clearly I'm not an undercover price checking spy for crying out loud!
Maybe this will by my new mantra: I am a couponer. I will not be deterred. I will use my valuable, money saving coupons at the lowest priced retailer to get the most mileage out of those coupons. And I'll price check to find the place that'll save me the most money.
I'm going to try and take this weird incident in stride because I know that the coupon revolution has been hard on retailers who may not have been up to date on coupon use before Extreme Couponing exploded all over the place. I'll keep shopping at Market Place because, like I said, I love to shop there. For now. I can only hope that we continue to see a positive improvement toward couponers.
Thanks again, and happy couponing!
--The Hopkins County Couponer (6/23/2011)
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