Wednesday, December 10

Learn the Value of Triage at the Register


Use this post as an opportunity not only to get free lipstick but to learn the value of ordering your coupons when checking out.

Here is what happened: In the newspaper's coupons from this Sunday there was a $4.00 off coupon for any Maybelline lipstick/gloss, etc.I was able to find a second $4 off coupon in my apartment building's recycling room. Meanwhile, CVS was also having a buy one get one free sale for these very products. The lipsticks I chose were $6.69 each.

I should point out my thought process at this point:
1) I realized if I swipped my CVS card at the beginning of the purchasing process the system would ring up the two lipsticks but deduct one from the store's sale, and thus I wouldn't be allowed to use both of my coupons. I knew I needed to swipe the products, then the coupons, and finally my CVS card.

2) I also realized if I only purchased two lipsticks the my post-coupon price would not have been high enough to deduct the full price of one of the lipsticks. So I needed another product priced around .$99 in order for me not to "lose" the value of the second lipstick's deduction.

My estimates were correct and I only ended up paying $.06 for these three items. Note that no bonus bucks were used to make this purchase. Only coupons and brain! : )

One last comment: I'm not quite sure what happens if the amount "owed" at the end of purchase is negative money. While it's possible the store will pay you cash back for taking products, most likely you will lose the funds. If someone knows the answer to this, do share!

1 comment:

Joshua said...

The frustrating thing is... when I lived in DC, this was no problem, due to the self-checkout machines that give you the triage authority, but in NYC, I haven't found any locations that have it.