In April as part of the swag that given out at the Salt Lake City Marathon were coupons for a free pint of chocolate milk. I love chocolate milk. The coupon has been hanging up on a bulletin board in my kitchen all this time. Last night, the wife suggested we go for a walk and redeem the coupon. She walks on a regular basis but goes to either the gym or her work. It was a cool night and the kids were in bed so I changed into some shoes and shorts and headed out with her.
The grocery store is exactly 2.5 miles from our home (we ran to it and back that morning) so I was eagerly anticipating the chocolate milk. We arrived at the store, walked right to the back and picked up a pint of chocolate milk. It was about 10:30 pm and there was no waiting at any of the lines. We walked up to the cashier, handed him the coupon and the milk and anticipated that we'd be out the door. I had that smug i've got a coupon for a free item on my face. The coupon knocked 30 cents off the price, but didn't give it to me for free. The cashier looked at it and rang it again...no luck. He got his manager to come over. She looked at it, rang it up and same thing...balance due of 90 cents. After a minute we compared the coupon and discovered that I had grabbed the wrong brand.
So, having my running shoes on, I jogged back to the dairy and looked for a pint of Cream o Weber Chocolate Milk. To my horror, the store doesn't carry any of their products. I walked back to the cashier deflated knowing that my reward for walking to the store was crushed. Even the store manager felt bad...
You might be thinking...why not just go to another store? Well, you see the coupon expiration date was Aug. 31, 2009...
As I was posting this, I thought I'd look for a photo on the company website. Turns out, the convenience store 1/4 mile from my house carried Cream o Weber.
Been there, done that with coupons/gift cards. On 31-Jul, I remembered that I had a Visa gift card that was expiring that day. Walked into Food Lion, got some groceries and tried to use up the card -- I had forgotten to check the available balance before shopping. We tried various amounts and finally got $3.00 to work. I'm sure there were a couple more dollars left but I lost out.
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