The Grocery Game is a winner, reporter says
Ablang
By Jim Downing - jdowning at sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, May 4, 2008
Story appeared in BUSINESS section, Page D2
http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/909116.html
Americans redeemed only 0.7 percent of the $400 billion in grocery
coupons printed last year, and until recently I was doing my part to
keep that fraction small. But a shopping trip around Sacramento has
made me a clipper.
I signed up for a $1 trial membership to the Grocery Game, a Web site
– www.grocerygame.com – that bills itself as a guide to beating
warehouse-discounter prices by taking advantage of sales and coupons
in supermarkets and drugstores.
Two aspects of the Grocery Game service struck me as especially
useful: It matches manufacturers' coupons from the Sunday paper with
in-store sales (some of which aren't advertised). And it does the math
to tell me how much I'm saving off the regular price after adding up
all the discounts.
With the Grocery Game list in hand, I browsed through the sales at
Safeway, Rite Aid and Walgreens in a few minutes and marked a dozen
items I thought we needed at home.
The big score: a Doctor's Night Guard dental protector free with an
online discount. They usually cost $20 to $25. The list pointed out a
Rite Aid offer I wouldn't have known about unless I'd happened upon it
while digging through the company Web site or the in-store promotional
booklet.
At Safeway, though, to take advantage of a deal for 67 percent off
salsa, I needed coupons from the April 13 Sunday paper, long since
recycled. Same problem with chips. Still, the list made it easier to
home in on the items that were on deep discount: a box of brownie mix
for a dollar, a half-off bottle of Excedrin Migraine ($3.99), organic
strawberries (2 pounds for $4.79).
At Walgreens, I couldn't resist the three cans of Van Camp's pork and
beans for 39 cents each (72 percent off with a Sunday coupon) even
though it meant asking a clerk to refill the sold-out shelf display.
When I got home, though, my wife pointed out that I haven't eaten pork
and beans in years – and she probably never will. Those cans may get
donated. I also got store-brand lightbulbs that were nominally free,
but to get the rebate I had to fill out a form and mail it with a 41-
cent stamp.
At the office, I tallied $13.96 (including the stamp) for my purchases
instead of the full price of $52.86 – a 74 percent savings. Even
without the mouth-guard windfall, I still saved better than 55
percent.
I doubt I'll ever want to subsist entirely on big-discount groceries,
but for some food – and definitely for toiletries – I'm sold.
clams_casino
>
>I signed up for a $1 trial membership to the Grocery Game
>
Cool. You signed up at your own website.
Did you mail the coupons to yourself as well?
Seerialmom
You know what? If someone has the time to commit to this and loves the
thrill of the hunt, it's great. But I don't think you really need to
join a club to figure out the cycles on sales. I read the related
article that was in the Bee where some lady joined that club while she
was in San Diego and was using it now up here in Sacramento; she
admits it's limited because it only covers a few stores we have.
Seerialmom
That wasn't a troll; there was the article in the Bee...and I believe
the OP was just sharing.
Rod Speed
clams_casino
posted through gmail via google groups = 99.998786565% chance of spam
Seerialmom
>
> - Show quoted text -
to be fair I did check the OP's other posts and didn't see cross
postings of the same thing. I still think he was just trying to
"share" :) You wouldn't be profiling, now would you? ;-p
clams_casino
Could be the 0.0012135% chance of a legit posting, but it would be a
very rare likeliness.
If so, odds are it will be another year before there is another legit
posting via gmail / google groups.