The Store That Shall Not Be Named...

I can honestly say that yesterday was not my most enjoyable day. It started out just fine but things went very wrong during our grocery shopping. To begin with, let me just say that our small town only has 3 shopping opportunites-IGA (very dirty), Harvey's (great deals on meat but everything else is overpriced and the store has a funky smell) and Walmart (now known as the store that shall not be named) so we don't have a lot of choices. We have been going to Wally World since moving here 6 years ago and have never had a real problem other than the lack of product diversity (common in a small town) and a general laziness with some of the employees. So we went to do our grocery shopping and I couldn't find the price of some spinach so I sent my son to scan it. While he was gone, I found the price, $3.14. He came back and told me it scanned at $3.34. Ok, $.20 is not going to kill me and I understand that sometimes prices don't get changed in the computer. I bought a different brand and we finished our shopping. My son found a dvd he wanted to buy so he went to the self checkout and the dvd had a price sticker of $4.88 but the computer charged him $7.50. I told him to go to customer service and show them the receipt and the price sticker and get his money back.  Now it was my turn to checkout. When I shop I keep track of exactly how much money I am spending as I sometimes only carry enough cash to cover what is on my list. Now sometimes I am off by $5-$7 for whatever reason but never any more than that. Well the cashier rung up my groceries and the total was more than $20 MORE than what I had figured. I gave her my coupons and was trying to figure out what happened when she told me I couldn't use one of my coupons. I am no extreme couponer by any stretch of the imagination but I use every single one I can and I know which ones I can use in which situations. She was confused because I was using 3 identical coupons for 3 identical products. She kept telling me I could only use one per purchase and I very nicely informed her that I was using only one per purchase, however I was making 3 purchases and the coupon did NOT say one per visit. She refused to let me use them so I told her to take off 2 of the products and just keep going. By now a lot of people were in line behind me (because of course they can only have 3 of the 24 lanes open at any one time!!!) Then we came to another 2 identical coupons for free products. I was getting 2 of the products and nowhere on the coupon was any restriction. She refused to let me use both of them even though another cashier questioned her on that. Then, the other cashier starts going thru my bags and digging out my stuff. I lost it. I told them to keep all of their groceries and I would never step foot in their store again. Okay, a little drama queen-ish but, for whatever reason, it just ticked me off more than anything has in a while. I mean, how much are the little "computer mistakes" actually costing me? So we walked out of the store with no groceries. I was so upset walking out because I have been a very good customer and that cashier wouldn't even bring over a manager to settle the dispute. As a matter of fact, she called someone over to clear out the order on the register and then she just left! Unfortunately, a lot of the cashiers at this store lack the skills needed to deal with the public. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am very polite to everyone...until they push me too far. Even then, I never get abusive or anything like that. I guess I just expect more out of the workers in this store than the store manager does. Anyway, I called my husband to let him know not to expect food when we get home because I didn't get any. He's so sweet. He knew how angry I was so he tells me that he isn't too busy at the office so when he gets done, he will take me and the kids to another town (45 mins. away), get us dinner and take us to a new grocery store. That was exactly what I needed to hear. We went to Longhorn for dinner and wouldn't you know, we had the WORST waitress! She made us repeat our drink order several times until she could remember it (honestly, what is so hard about 2 unsweet teas and 2 diet cokes???). Then she got my husband's salad wrong (he ordered a cesaer salad and she brought a tossed salad covered in Ranch). Then she brought our meals and just left. Now, anyone who works in a restaurant like that knows to ask anyone who orders a steak to cut into it and see if it is cooked correctly. So my husband looks at it and asks if they brought me a mushroom instead of a steak. I ordered the steak cooked medium well and thing was like shoe leather. No juice whatsoever and it looked as though it had been sitting under the warming lights all afternoon. So when the waitress finally came back, I told her the steak needed to be changed (again very politely) and she tells me to put it on another plate and she'll see what she can do...WHAT SHE CAN DO???? How about doing her JOB? When she got her tip, she saw what I could do or NOT do!!!
After these 2 events, I was not looking forward to grocery shopping for a 2nd time in one day but I knew we didn't have much at the house and I don't like to have to come into this town a couple of times each week (Love the town, it's just far away and with gas prices and a suburban....)We finally found the store and, may I just say, I was very pleasantly surprised with this Kroger. I have never shopped at a Kroger before so I didn't know what to expect. The people were friendly, they stock EVERYTHING and several different varieties of everything!!! Did I mention they have EVERYTHING?! Yes, the prices were a teensy bit more than "that other place" but it was well worth it. They didn't have one problem taking my coupons, they even DOUBLE coupons EVERY DAY!!!! Oh I was in savings heaven! Not only do I save money on groceries but I can also save money on gas there. AND the gas is cheaper in this town then where we live!!! Talk about a happy girl. And to top it all off....they are open 24 hours a day!!! Oh a joyful ending to what I thought was going to be an awful day. Thank you Kroger...I love you...and I will be back soon!
Boy that felt good to get that whole thing off my chest. My husband works very hard for our dollars and it is my job to make sure they go as far as they can possibly go. I was feeling like quite a failure and he swooped in and saved the day. Him and Kroger.... Geez I really love him :) And Kroger...but him much more!