Summer Savings: Double-Check Your Discount

In a carefully planned grocery shopping trip based on hours of meal planning, coupon clipping, and browsing sales ads, you calculate your total grocery bill to be around $150. Then the cashier scans your final canned good, sends it down the conveyor belt, and adds up your total. The final total comes to $180, well above your $150 estimate. Do you let it go or do you check the receipt for mistakes and speak up?

Dealing with a discount:

Many customers would let it go, simply because they don’t want to make an issue of paying the higher price. Whether it’s your groceries, a restaurant bill, or the summer clothes you’re buying for the family, you should ask for the advertised discount. Here’s why you shouldn’t let it go:

• • • You could actually be helping the company advertising a deal. They may not have the offer set up properly in their computer system. Mentioning you didn’t see the discount can help clue them in that there’s an error they need to fix.

• • • You could be helping other customers by speaking up. If the store fixes the snafu in their system, other customers may automatically receive the discount.

• • • It adds up! Those “$5 off” coupons you didn’t get can translate to big bucks.

• • • It’s not fair to you to forfeit a discount or deal that may have drawn you to a store or restaurant in the first place.

Be mindful of the fine print when you’re using coupons or discount offers. Sometimes there are limitations or expiration dates for the offer and the cashier or waitress isn’t able to apply the offer. Even if you’re unsure if an offer is still valid, it never hurts to ask. You should never feel uncomfortable for holding a store or restaurant to the terms of their own promotion or discount.