I belong to that vast group that will not, no, cannot, buy anything unless it is on sale.
You see, you have to be careful; sales can be deceptive. Like, when you see “buy one, get one free” and the price on the one is boosted so the retailer doesn’t lose too much margin and like at Rite Aid when they have Planter’s peanuts on a “two for one” and they double the price on the one. (My gauge on peanuts is it has to end up $3.00 for 16 ounces but with inflation that is not happening anymore).
Another thing I hate is when you see “$2.00 off” and the small print (and it is very small) tells you it is “off your next purchase” and that is what I found in CVS when I absolutely, positively needed toothpaste. I mean, I had to use my brush handle to squeeze out the very last smidgen and when I released the brush handle, it sucked it back.
What the CVS flyer said was “$2.99 you pay for Colgate 6 oz. with card” and then “$2.00 reward for next purchase.” This also in a type size reserved for inscribing the sermon on the mount on the head of a pin.
Seeing this, an evil thought caught me – why not buy the toothpaste and then immediately make another purchase with my $2.00 off cash register receipt and- oh wow- they had Total Home facial tissues on sale for 99 cents and at my age, my nose is going all the time.
When I brought my two 99 cent boxes to the cash register with my $2.00 off receipt, the clerk said, “You are two cent short. Can you buy a candy bar or something to make up the difference?” I bought another box of tissues.
So OK, now let’s look at the cash register receipts:
First my purchase of the toothpaste:
SUBTOTAL $2.99
NY 8.87% TAX .27
TOTAL $3.26
Now my purchase of the 3 boxes of facial tissue on sale:
1 TIS FMLY WHT 184S 99T SAVED 1.20
(And it does this two more times giving me the total)
SUBTOTAL .97
NY 8.875% TAX .09
TOTAL 1.06
But wait, just below we have this legend
TRIP SUMMARY
TODAY YOU SAVED $5.60
Savings value 85%
Oh boy. This is something to boast about to all the other WestView sales mavens.
