Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Price Matching




I know a lot of you wise shoppers out there frequently take advantage of price matching policies, but I am new to the practice and want to highlight how AWESOMELY EASY it is to save money on groceries.

I was struck with a sudden and annoying case of insomnia, so I used the time to read up on advice from a facebook couponing queen. (Her page is Canadian Coupons and Freebies, and I HIGHLY recommend 'liking' it on facebook). She does so much of the hard work of couponing for me, reading all the flyers, and linking up sale prices in the flyers to coupons that have recently come out, allowing her fans to get some really excellent deals. My favourite deal this week took advantage of a coupon deal, as well as a price match policy. I read about this deal at 5am, and knowing I was going to save the next day somehow made the not sleeping a little more bearable.

If you are headed to Walmart for groceries, but Shoppers Drug Mart has a sale on that you want, for me at least with a one year old, it is rarely worth my time to make the second stop. That involves 2x finding parking spots, carts, unbuckling car seats, squirming toddler, and just general headaches. So you take your Shoppers flyer with you on your shop, make sure to grab the exact product (if, for example, you are buying Gain laundry detergent, the corresponding load count has to match up) and head to the cashier. Show the sale price while checking out and they will adjust to their competitors prices! One stop, multiple sales; SO COOL! There is a certain amount of time invested in looking for the products you want at other stores, and remembering to take the evidence with you. This policy though is so handy when the stars align and coupons and sales are out at the same time.

My score of the week was a bottle of Motrin, regular price at Walmart was $7.47. Shoppers had it on sale this week for $5.99. However Shoppers does not take internet coupons, which I had, and as we discussed, with the squirming toddler I don't like to make multiple stops. So I took my flyer and $5 off coupon to Walmart, and scored a bottle of 100 tablets for $.99! I did other price matches on cereal (not nearly as sweet as the Motrin, but around 40% off), as well as used a couple coupons for soy milk and Pampers.

I know that the time invested to study the flyers and carefully match products will pay for itself in deals scored and shopper satisfaction!

A list of price matching grocery stores:
Walmart, Zellers, Canadian Tire, Future Shop (I believe they also have a 10% price beating policy), London Drugs, Toys 'R Us, Sears, Save on Foods, and Real Canadian Superstore (front page items only)
Happy shopping!

1 comment:

mewseechi said...

Great tips! Unfortunately, none of the price-matching stores you listed are regular stops on my shopping trips. I'll keep this in mind if I ever move somewhere where this is convenient though! I'll also do some research of my own sometime to see if any of my preferred stops have price-matching policies.