8/24/09

More Fred Meyer info: e-coupons, and their policy on Competitor coupons

August 23, 2009

I did my first Gift Card Transaction today. I wanted to keep it small so I could learn some more about how the E-coupons work with Paper coupons and in the process, met a very sweet lady in customer service who was very helpful and informative about Fred Meyer's coupon policy. I will get back to this in a moment, because I think its going to be useful information for everyone.

On my List:

1 General Mills Total Cereal, sale price 2/$4.00 = $2.00
- .33 cents FM in-ad store coupon from last Sunday = $1.67
- $1.00 coupon that came with this last Sunday's paper (Im not sure everyone got this one, it was actually in the plastic bag with the paper and 2 sample boxes of GM Cereal) = .67 cents
- .75 cents Shortcuts e-coupon = .08 cents overage

1 Yoplait Fiber One yogurt 4 pack = $1.99
- $1.00 Cellfire e-coupon = .99 cents
- $1.00 printable = .01 overage

2 Nature Valley Nut Clusters, monthly sale price = 2 for $5.00
- $1.00 Shortcuts e-coupon = $4.00
- $1.00 Cellfire e-coupon = $3.00
- $1.00 printable x 2 = $1.00 for 2

3 Hamburger Helpers, 2 for $3.00 = $4.50
- .75 cent/3 Shortcuts = $3.75
- .75/3 printable = $3.00**
** I realized when I got home and reviewed the receipt that a mistake had been made here to my benefit. I must have handed the cashier 2 of the .75 cents/3 coupons because there is an additional .75cent MC coupon listed on the receipt that came off the total and I cannot account for it on my list. I sincerely hope that the cashier doesn't get in trouble for that, I dont think the system should have accepted it but for some reason, it did so I ended up getting a total of $2.25 off of the Hamburger Helper, meaning I paid $2.25 for all 3 boxes of HH.


1 pair of household scissors = $1.99
- $1.99 FM store coupon (was $2.00, the cashier adjusted to $1.99)

Total Spent on my Gift Card = $3.16

As I mentioned above, I had a very nice and informative conversation with a lovely CSR during this trip. I told her about my Give-Away and my challenge and mentioned that I remembered when Fred Meyer first came to Spokane they accepted competitors coupons, and did they still? Here is what she told me.

Fred Meyer will accept competitor's in-ad coupons WITH exceptions, which are:

1. If the in-ad coupon requires a minimum purchase with that store's own shoppers card, they will not accept it. An example of this are Safeway's in-ad coupons that require both the club card and a minimum purchase, these wont work at Fred Meyer. But, it appears that they will accept Albertsons Doublers as there is no verbage on them stating that they must be used with Albertson's preferred shoppers card or that there is a minimum purchase required. I asked about this specifically and was told YES, they will take them. They will take Walgreens and Rite-Aid Coupons.

2. They will not accept Catalina coupons from competitors, they are not re-embursed for them even though they say that are Manufacturer's coupons.

3. Technically, Fred Meyer does not price match. You can bring in an ad from another store and see if the department manager will ok a price match, but with-out the department managers ok, the cashiers cannot price match.

This was all gleaned from a casual conversation and I have no way of knowing if this is how it is at all the Fred Meyers in town. I will be testing the Albertsons Doubler info tommarrow and will post the results then.

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