I didn't really do a big market shop today because I'll be heading off on vacation next week so stocking up the shelves isn't really a top priority for me right now.
But I did want to get a post in for 
Hunting for the best deal
Now I love my coca cola. My wife hates me drinking it but its my guilty pleasure. I get one bottle per day (max) as dictated by my wife. To make it less calories I will typically mix two diet cola and one regular cola together to get a mix with 33% of the calories and all of the taste. I really hate full diet cola and my weight hates the full sugar cola.
What am I hunting for today?
Now if it looks like the flyer is on my phone that's because it is. I use the Flipp app and when I am going to buy something I'll check out who has it on sale at the moment.
Shoppers Drug Mart has a rotating sale on Coca-Cola each weekend so I know where to pick up my supply.
There it is:
Coca-Cola at $3.49 for 6x710ml.
There is a limit of 4 but that's no big deal. Grab four of them then use the self-checkout like this one:
Then you can drop them off in the car, come back inside and repeat if you want to. I don't usually do that because I only drink one bottle a day and buying 24 of them lasts me over three weeks. This week I actually DID want to get more because I'll be gone for a while and the rest of the family drinks some also.
Unfortunately they only had the Coca-Cola Zero. Sold out of the regular Coca-Cola.
What do I do?
Well, there is another Shoppers Drug Mart only a few blocks away. I head there:
Only to find that they don't open for another 45 minutes. I have a few options, go home and come back later. Forget about buying the regular Cola and let the kids fend for themselves. Go to another store that doesn't have it on sale.
I go with the third option.
Off to Real Canadian Superstore I go.
Here's the thing about Superstore. They have an AD Match Guarantee.
See. The post it right when you enter the store. Our local FreshCo also matches prices but they DON'T match Shoppers Drug Mart. Very annoying. Regardless I came here because Superstore will give me the $3.49 price.
Which is nice because it is much more expensive here.
Buying the 2L bottles is slightly less expensive but (a) its still more money than the 6 pack (b) it goes flat once opened and (c) its hard to limit myself when it isn't prepackaged. Of course the absolute worst deal is to buy the ones at the front checkout.
These ones are $2.39 each vs $3.49 for SIX. It pains me when I see people just grab these and go. Ugh. Such a waste of money!
Why don't I just go to Superstore first?
The lineups here suck
Eventually I do make it to the front of the line. It probably took me 20 minutes though. Make sure the wasted time is worth the discount. As I'm not really doing anything today its not important but other days saving a few dollars really isn't worth it!
Now when I get near the front of the line I find out the credit/debit machine isn't working. They offer to bring me to another register but that would mean an additional wait. I have two options: (a) pay cash and avoid more wasted time or (b) go to another lineup and get 4% cashback by using my VISA card. 4% of $18 is about $0.65--how much do I care about the little amount of money.
Now I hate not getting my discount but in this case I decide to just get my stuff and go.
Mission successful.
Price matched by going to the second store. Mostly.
Take a close look at the two receipts:
Notice that there is a difference of 5 cents on the price matched receipt. It seems that Superstore was charging tax on the bottle deposit. This isn't the way it is supposed to be according to Canada Revenue agency.
Now at this point I had two options.
One: I could forget about the whole thing and just pay the extra 5 cents and call it a day.
Two: I could be go after my rights and march back in there and demand to pay less.
Now you might think its only 5 cents. Why bother? Well, if I really wanted to I could bring up their "Scanning Code of Conduct" which more or less states that if the register brings up the wrong price then I get the item for free up to $10. If I wanted to raise a scene I could fight to get $10 taken off the price of the purchase.
But really? What kind of person do you think I am?
Yes I'm very cheap and want the best possible deal
But In this case all the employees are obviously very busy. They have a slam of people in line. They are working hard to just get through the day.
Do I really want to make these employees lives that much more miserable?
The quick answer is no. I absolutely do not. I've worked in retail long enough that I don't want to make the average employees life miserable. I will work the game to find the lowest possible price. I'll check apps, look for rebates, check sales items, and generally look for every reasonable discount.
However, I personally draw the line at making the life of an employee miserable just to save a few bucks.
Having said that.....
I will probably write a letter to corporate office informing them of the issue. 5 cents is nothing to me. However, they deal with thousands of people daily and it really does add up. I believe their head office should be made aware of the problem and rectify it.
As a side bonus: I'll probably ask for a discount coupon on my next visit and I'll probably get it because I'm being nice in helping them find a deficiency in their system ☺️
Just me being me I suppose.
Thanks for reading the post
and as always, Love to get feedback