Rainchecks & Substitutions, Just Ask

You work hard to save money on groceries. You review the food ads, and plan your menu around them. You reorganize and catalog what you have in your pantry and freezer so you know what you have in stock. You plan your shopping list and figure the most efficient route to take so you can hit two or three stores in one trip. You’re armed with a great plan and ready to make a killing on the food you’ll purchase to feed your family.

Then you get to the store, and some of their killer loss-leader items are out of stock.

We can’t tell you the number of times we’ve run into this situation. It’s so frustrating, especially because we try to limit our trips to the store to once a month. Unfortunately, grocers aren’t used to our type of shopping, so they respond to being out of stock with “We’ll have more tomorrow around 9 A.M. You can come back then.”

When saving money and time are your goals, coming back tomorrow at 9 A.M. just doesn’t sit well. We don’t center our lives around going to the grocery store — much to the chagrin of store managers.

So when we run into a situation where a store is out of stock of a specific item we want, we do one of two things:

1) Substitutions   If the item is something we need for the upcoming month, we ask the manager to substitute a similar item. We’ll try to be sensitive and logical and ask that a store brand be substituted (if possible). We’ve done this with various cuts of meat, cereal, laundry detergent (asking for two smaller boxes that would equal the size of the larger box on sale).

We always explain to the manager that we don’t shop every week and that we have a large, busy family and cannot come back in the morning. We usually find the manager to be very accommodating if we come to him with a logical reason and an attitude of understanding that he might not be able to help us. Managers want happy customers who return again and again, so being gentle and polite usually makes it easy for them to say yes.

2) Rain Checks   If the manager turns us down, we go to our next option, and that is to get a rain check. Most stores will do this, but they often put an expiration date on the rain check — sometimes only one or two weeks. Again, we tell them that we shop only once a month and that we need the rain check to have either no expiration date or one that gives us a couple of months to use. Most of the time they will give us at least one month.

We also make sure to ask for no quantity limit or that they put a huge limit on the rain check (like 10 or 20 of an item) if there is no specified restriction in their store ad.

If we go to use a rain check and it is expired, we again appeal to the store manager, who almost always honors it.

This fall we wanted to buy some hams for our monthly menu (we had a couple of events planned where we would be feeding large groups), but there were no sales — the going price at the time was $1.50 to $2.00 per pound. We had a rain check, without an expiration date, with a price of $.99 per pound. Annette was passing by this particular store one night and stopped by. She asked the manager if he would honor the rain check, and when he said yes, she promptly loaded four hams into the cart. Saving 50 cents to $1 per pound really helps!

Another time, we wanted to buy some apple juice (we serve it on Sunday mornings as a special treat). We can usually find it for $.99 for a half-gallon container. But there were no sales when we went shopping. Annette had a rain check for Old Orchard juice from a certain store and decided to use it. As we walked the aisles on our monthly shopping trip, she scanned the juice section looking for Old Orchard apple juice. There were no bottles there. The only varieties of Old Orchard that they had in stock were the expensive Pomegranate / Blueberry flavor for $5 per half gallon or the more expensive straight Pomegranate juice for $8 per half gallon. The rain check specified only Old Orchard juice for $.99 and didn’t limit us to specific flavors. Annette did feel a bit of compassion for the store and passed on the more expensive variety, but she picked up her limit of 3 half gallons of the Pomegranate / Blueberry for $.99 each. Mmmmmm, it was delicious — and the great deal made the juice even sweeter . . . if that’s possible.

3) Expired Store Coupons   Our final money saver that we’ve discussed with various managers is expired store-issued coupons. You know the type; they are the coupons that have the store logo on them and come in the mail from the store’s marketing department or in special store flyers. Managers of one chain in our area have told us repeatedly that they will take any and all of their own coupons regardless of expiration date — all we have to do is ask.

Managers won’t take expired manufacturer coupons because the manufacturer gives the store only a few days after the coupon expiration date to process and mail in coupons to a clearinghouse for reimbursement. Remember that the manufacturer reimburses the store for the face value of the coupon plus a 7-cent handling fee. Stores want to get their money, so they have to play by the rules specified by the manufacturer.

But when it comes to their own store coupons, the rules change; the stores have no handling fee to recapture.

If you take our advice, out-of-stock items will be less of a hassle, and you’ll end up getting the deal you came in to get. Just remember to ask the manager — you may be pleasantly surprised at the response you get.