I just got back from my trip to Food Lion to get their Aquafina water deal. For 3 days only they have a buy one get one free deal. On the way to do other shopping my mom and I decided to stop and pick up our deal. The sign (not a sale price) said the price was $6.99 which made each case only $3.50. Great deal! The clerk said we could only have 2 free but could come back and get 4 more later. Wait til you hear what they did when we came back!
After several hours of shopping elsewhere, we stopped back to pick up more water for my daughter. The clerk rang up each case as $8.99 instead of $6.99. When I told her we had paid $6.99 2 hours earlier, she told me that was before they had time to change the price!! “You still get one free”, she said with a smirk!!! I told her the earlier $6.99 price wasn’t a special or a sale price and she told me that this new price was the price for the new shipment of water. In other words, they jacked up the price by $2.00 each case and then gave you one free. NOT A DEAL!!! After asking to see the manager and showing her my receipt from only 2 hours earlier, she agreed to write the sale as a “rain check” and gave me the original price. About 4 other people in line who had water benefited from this as well. So watch out on those sales!! I was a little concerned when their flyer didn’t give the original price when they advertised buy one get one free. The clerk was very quick to point out that the flyer didn’t say the original price either. I guess that way they can raise the price to cover the sale!
BOGO’s (buy1get1) are not often accomanied with a price reduction - they know that people don’t pay attention to the price but just the offer itself. Doing BOGO’s helps move product (thus the sales force from the company will get its bonus check) and the store will give it a prominent display, which is coveted space in retail.
One thing prepping has definitely taught me is a much greater awareness of pricing and what is a “good deal” and what isn’t. Check before you buy!
Tricks like this are as old as the hills. Things such as doubling the usual retail price and then offering 50% off or in other ways raising the prices BEFORE offering a deal is commonplace among many retailers… if you don’t know the usual price of things it’s easy to get suckered. First time I’ve heard of someone raising their price in the middle of a “sale”, though. At least they gave you the “original” price without having to go to the State Attorney General’s office!
One more reason to make and keep a price book.
I’m not defending Food Lion. They annoy me just about every time I go there. However, I used to work in a retail chain and new sale prices didn’t get “activated” in our system until we entered something in the system at the store level for the price change. Not having any employees to speak of, I’d find myself racing around going nuts hoping that people wouldn’t come in demanding stuff at the sale price until I had a chance to make the changes. Or sometimes I missed the price change altogether and didn;t notice a problem until someone came in and wanted to take advantage of a good deal. And with the heat wave that is going on, I can imagine that the water might be going up in price at the source. Sounds like your store might have had one or both of those problems.
Just word to always look at your receipts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten home and noticed that a cashier scanned an item twice by mistake.
There is a large price difference in bottled water when shopping store to store and brand to brand where I live. I orginally bought 30 cases of 24 x 1/2liter bottles from Office Depot and had them delivered for around $6.00 a case. It was easy because I ordered online and the next day they brought the pallet right into my garage for me to unload at my leisure. Since then I have been replacing the used cases with 36 packs of the same brand for less money (I think they are $5 a pack) from Sam’s Club but I have to haul it myself.
I was also paying $1.25 per 1 gallon at Publix until I got a Sam’s card and now I buy it in by the case of 6 - 1gallon bottles for about $0.80 a gallon. It certainly adds up when you go through 10 gallons a week of bottled water.
I bought several of those 6 gallon containers mean’t for water at Walmart for about $6.50 each. I fill them with regular tap water and rotate. I don’t get the whole bottled water thing. Are there advantages to buying it bottled that I am missing?
Water is easier to ration if it’s in little bottles. Easier to stack as well. I found that FoodLion has been raising it’s prices on water since the last big sale. I get mine on the closest military installation. A bit better bargain.
On the fence, drinking water should never be rationed! People rarely drink as much water as their body needs if they drink only when they’re thirsty, and rationing it only makes things worse. If necessary go without bathing or cleanup, or dishwashing, but don’t ration water to a person who’s thirsty.
Kim, in a perfect world, I would agree however sometimes you don’t have enough water to go around for the time you need it to go around. Yes, today I would never ration water for my family. In the future, if the water works go out, I don’t have a well, all the creeks/rivers are NASTY around here so those few cases of water I have in the basement are going to have to last. Rationing is the only way. I figure a few bottles per day per kid, one case to wash my SUV, half a case to wet down the Slip n Slide… should be OK.
I’ve just been reading some posts, and I’m really sort of suprised, to say the least. I work at Food Lion, as a cashier (in NC) and our water prices haven’t gone up at all, either before, during or after the recent BOGOF sale. Just out of curiosity, Annie, where are you located?