Jill Cataldo

If you picked up the new Dominick's ad recently, you likely noticed that they're running an excellent "Buy 3 Juices, get 2 FREE Snacks" deal through next Wednesday. There are so many ways to work this sale! But if you like the following scenario, scoot right out to the store before midnight, Saturday night, as it depends on a 3-day sale ending 8/28.

Dominick's currently has 5-packs of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese on sale for $2.99 through 8/28, limit 2. Many of the 5-packs have peelies on them for "Buy this package of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, get FREE Capri-Sun 10-pack Roaring Waters."

See where this is going?

So... Dominick's has a huge "Buy 4, get a FREE box of Nature Valley granola bars" sale this past week in which not only is Nature Valley involved in the Buy 4, it's also the bonus free item. Wouldn't you think the stores would have made sure their Nature Valley displays would be well-stocked for what the store should know will be a hot sale on these bars?

I went into the Carpentersville Dominick's to do the Nature Valley deal on Wednesday, and before I headed to the store, my husband requested the Roasted Peanut Crunch variety. They had plenty of boxes on the shelf, but...

Every single box was expired. Every. Single. Box. Look at the next picture -- a December 2009 expiration date. NINETEEN boxes. There was not a single box of Roasted Peanut Crunch that wasn't expired, and the majority of the boxes expired almost EIGHT months ago.

A few of the boxes expired in April of this year. Most expired in December 2009. One box expired July 12, 2010. I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but I did buy that July box because they're my husband's favorite, and it was only nine days' expired at this point - and it was free as part of the sale and he'll eat them this week.

But COME ON, Dominick's.

You guys aren't going to like this one... but it does change how we all shop at Dominick's, so it needs to be noted.

Dominick's has changed their policy on minimum purchases for "Super Coupons." You'll remember that the old policy stated that the $10 or $20 minimums were based on the regular, non-sale, non-Fresh Values prices of the products:

What does "minimum $10 (or $20) purchase required" mean? To use store coupons that include a minimum purchase requirement, you must spend a minimum dollar amount on that shopping trip. You will reach the minimum purchase amount based upon total purchases before your Club Card discount is applied. This total will include the coupon item's regular price, not the discounted price. For example,the regular retail price of a box of Cheerios (before coupon and before Club Card discounts) will count toward the minimum purchase required in order to use the Cheerios coupon.

Got that? Now look at the new policy on Dominick's site:

What does "minimum $10 (or $20) purchase required" mean? To use store coupons that include a minimum purchase requirement, you must spend a minimum dollar amount on that shopping trip. You will reach the minimum purchase amount based upon total purchases after your Club Card discount is applied. For example, the regular retail price of a box of Cheerios (after Club Card discounts) will count toward the minimum purchase required in order to use the Cheerios coupon.

Dominick's... this is no way to improve on your already-tenuous relationship with your shoppers.

If you're not a regular reader of this blog's Forum, and you're a current or former Dominick's shopper who has had issues of coupon non-acceptance there, I have some required reading for you.

After hearing yet another story from one of my blog readers that a Dominick's cashier had denied coupons that she picked up in the store, I wrote an open letter to Dominick's. Dominick's Public Affairs department responded, and they are interested in what we have to say.

I invite you to read the letter, then post your comments in the response thread. Dominick's is listening.

How do you know what coupons a particular store takes? The answer lies in the store's coupon policy. Coupon policies are great tools for shoppers to know exactly where stores stand on what kinds of coupons they will accept.

Here are links to the most current coupon policies available at the time of this writing.

Jewel-Osco

Dominick's

Meijer

Hilander / Kroger

In my Super-Couponing classes, I'm often asked the question whether it's easier just to shop at an "everyday low price" supercenter vs. a "more expensive" supermarket with coupons to get the same savings. If you've used coupons for any length of time, you know that you'll actually get much better savings at the "more expensive" supermarkets by following the sales and matching them with coupons.