Do you review your grocery bills?

[LordMortis]

I started paying a bit of attention in October when BJs missed three of my coupons, and waited in lines for the $5 I should have saved. Then as I saw more and more problems, I started reviewing my receipt everywhere I go before walking out the door.

Aldi has not yet overcharged me.

Costco messed up 1 of the last 5 times I went. Their mistake was the most honest and forgivable. They somehow double scanned a Marie Calendar's Chicken Pot Pie.

Kroger has neglected to count all their Kroger Savings Coupons 2 of the last 5 times I've shopped there.

BJs has neglected to count all their Internet coupons 3 of the last 5 times I've shopped there. It's a known issue by now. The cashiers now even encourage you to review your receipt.

Meijer is the single worse. 3 of the last 5 times I've shopped there, prices on one or more items have rung up for something other than what they are marked. Always higher. And on a fourth occasion they didn't register an MPerk Coupon. Today, they actually gave me an $8 credit on a $2 over charge. So I'm not annoyed at having to wait in line to correct their mistake. But other times, I've had to have them take stuff of my purchase because they won't even discuss their own miss-marks.

As much as this happens to me, I can't be alone. At the very least, I know anyone shopping for the same stuff at the same place have same problem. With regard to Kroger one of the missed coupons happened to my parent on the same day. $2.29 half gallon milk was couponed up to 5x for $1.27. Coupon did not register for either us, a county away from each other.

I now have budgeted into my every grocery shop time the need for an extra 15 minutes to wait in line to have mistake corrected.

Theoretically in Michigan, I can demand extra compensation. If this persists, I might start doing so. Though, my only recourse if they don't honor the law it to quit shopping there. What are you going to do? Go to court to fight for $5? (or $250 as the law states, I guess)

https://www.michigan.gov/ag/consumer-pr ... er-law-act

Scanner Error Bill of Rights

The Shopping Reform and Modernization Act, or Scanner Law, requires that most items on store shelves be clearly displayed with the price; by signage, electronic reader, price sticker, or any other method that clearly and reasonably conveys the price to a consumer in the store at the place where the item is located. If an automatic checkout system (scanner) charges you more than the displayed price of an item, and:

the transaction has been completed, and
you have a receipt indicating the item purchased and the price charged for it;

Then:

You must notify the seller that you were overcharged, within 30 days of the transaction, either in person or in writing. Within two days of receiving your notice, the seller may choose to refund you the difference between the amount charged and the price displayed plus a "bonus" of ten times the difference, with a minimum of $1.00 and a maximum of $5.00. If the seller does not pay you both the refund and the bonus, you may bring a lawsuit to recover your actual damages or $250.00, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney fees up to $300.00. You may instead file a complaint in a small claims court without an attorney.

[coopasonic]

Can't remember the last time I used a coupon or the last time anyone but me rang up my groceries. There is no way waiting in line for 5 minutes would be worth <=$5 in compensation to me.

One wonders how much unrealized coupons makes those companies.

[Kraken]

I scan my groceries as I put them in my cart, so you could say I review in real time. I'm more interested in keeping my total below budget than in whether I overpaid a dime for a can of beans. If I do find a discrepancy between the shelf price and the scan price, I'll usually put the item back unless it's a matter of a few cents. There aren't many discrepancies.

[LordMortis]

Can't remember the last time I used a coupon or the last time anyone but me rang up my groceries. There is no way waiting in line for 5 minutes would be worth <=$5 in compensation to me.

One wonders how much unrealized coupons makes those companies.

Most of the places I shop, Kroger, Costco, BJs, Meijer all make it so coupons (online subscriber applications) cut a substantial amount off your every bill. Today's Meijer retail after sales pricing $46.46 Today's Meijer shop after sale and Mperks coupon shopping (including the proper cost) $26.43.

My grocery bills are always 25-40% off current/retail sale price from using their subscriber application discounts/coupons. Then they give you some trivial loyalty % on top of that. Meijer gives 1% back applied as discount on future purchase. Kroger give .1 - .4% toward discounting their gas. So if you purchase $100 in groceries you might get $.10 -$.40 off per gallon on a refill of gas as well $1 to $1.50 off your next grocery purchase.

I can understand how saving a couple hundred a month might not be worth a few hours of some people's time but it's something I've generally done. I don't clip real coupons any more. I swore that off when I paid off my house but I do sale shopping, store couponing, and loyalty aps for all of my grocers except Aldi. If Aldi offered, I would probably do them do. And now that Costco has mostly done away with useful discounting, I may end up letting my membership lapse. Mostly all they have left is the $5 chicken which I can get from BJs. The hot dog and Pepsi, which aren't good for my health tracking, and cheap clothes... that are not only inexpensive but simply don't last.

[Blackhawk]

3 of the last 5 times I've shopped there, prices on one or more items have rung up for something other than what they are marked.

I'd be amazed if, by the time I got to the register, I remembered the prices on more than a couple of items accurately enough to even notice. I look at them to make sure they're a good price when I put them in the cart, add them to my running mental total (rounded up to the nearest 50 cents), and then completely forget the price.

[Sudy]

I watch out of the corner of my eye/scan the receipt if I'm checked out by a human. A lot of the time I'm doing self-checkout though so it's easy to notice. Thank goodness, because my nextdoor pharmacy (a member of a huge chain, Shopper's Drug Mart) constantly leaves sale labels up too long. Really pisses me off. That used to be one of my jobs when I worked in retail though, so I don't blame the workers. I blame the managers and/or corporate overlords who understaff them, especially now that they only have one cashier on duty after hours who's on double duty.

Anyway, Ontario has an opt-in "scanner code of practice" that's supposed to give you anything mislabeled under $10 for free, but I've never once bothered to invoke it. At the end of the day, as much as I hate the corporations I'm not looking for a freebie. And I don't want to have get a supervisor involved, etc. I do try to notify them of mislabeled prices when I'm in the mood, and figure if someone's going to get in trouble, they're probably going to get in worse trouble if the store had to give something away as a result.

TLDR: I'm typically thrifty, but ain't nobody got time for that. I definitely do a detailed inventory upon receipt of a delivered grocery order, though.

[ImLawBoy]

I don't review my bills in the store, but I do review them at home as an after-the-fact audit. I don't know all of the prices of everything I'm buying, but I do remember some things (usually things I'm buying because they're on sale or I have a coupon). We do 90% of our shopping at Mariano's (Chicagoland outpost of Kroger), with occasional stops at Whole Foods for specialty items or Jewel (Chicagoland version of Albertson's) if convenient. I'm vigilant about Mariano's eCoupons in their app, and on my trip yesterday I had a bit over $17 in eCoupon savings, which is distinct from typical "perks savings" (i.e., loyalty card). The total perks and coupon savings were $55.32.

Mariano's also sends us a monthly mailer with coupons tailored to items we typically buy, and it almost always contains a $20 off "Best Customer" coupon. I try to clip coupons from the newspaper, but those have become very sparse over the years. It used to be that the newspaper paid for itself in terms of coupons in the Sunday paper, but those days appear to be gone.

[stimpy]

the Jewel by me is notoriously bad at charging correctly.
Usually in my favor.
Just the other day they gave me the wrong price on a BOGO item, so the single item was over $2 cheaper than it should have been.
Also, when I got home and started unloading the bags, I magically gained 3 cans of Pringles that I didnt buy and werent on the receipt.....

[pr0ner]

Do I review my grocery bills? No.

[LawBeefaroni]

I don't use coupons but I do check sale/clearance prices on the shelf. I'd say maybe in one in 10 trips there's an error. If I can get it fixed quickly I will, otherwise I'll try via online later. If it's minor I'll just eat it.

Aldi is never an issue because they aren't always changing prices.

Target almost always has better prices if you buy online and do pickup so I just do that. Same at Walgreens.

Jewel and Tony's always have old prices on the shelf so you have to watch them. It also helps that I can usually remember the price of everything in my cart so I just watch during checkout and self-scan whenever I can.


The wife shops at Whole Foods so most of my shopping is preemptively stocking and saving before the WF trip wipes it all out.

[Octavious]

I always check everything in every store. Hell one time a single candy bar was rung of for 20+ dollars. And many times something is on sale on the shelf and doesn't ring up. Target by me is pretty bad about this.

[LawBeefaroni]

The price of such vigilance is that you sometimes catch an undercharge.

[LordMortis]

The price of such vigilance is that you sometimes catch an undercharge.

I keep waiting for this unicorn. If it's not an inconvenience, I'll even correct it to spend the extra??? I've yet to spot it.

[Blackhawk]

I think one big factor is how many groceries you buy at once. If you are the type that goes by the store on the way home to pick up dinner, or shops every couple of days for a few meals, that's one thing. But if you're like me and you shop for a full week's worth of food for four people at once (which you do when the stores are a 60-mile round trip), it's a little tougher. Our cart runneth over, sometimes literally. It takes six or eight trips from the car to the house to bring everything in, and that's carrying a big load of bags in each hand. Keeping track of the exact prices of that many items would require an eidetic memory.

I always check everything in every store. Hell one time a single candy bar was rung of for 20+ dollars. And many times something is on sale on the shelf and doesn't ring up. Target by me is pretty bad about this.

Despite me not checking receipts, something like that I would notice. As I shop, I keep a running total in my head, each item rounded up to the nearest 50 cents. $3 item. Grab a $6.75 item - that's $10. Grab a $1.12 item - that's $11.50. The rounding makes it fast to add, any math errors are going to result in me going over budget, not under, and the extra rounding helps account for the taxes. Normally, with the size of the trips we make, our running total is within five dollars of the actual final total.

[dbt1949]

I use the home delivery service. So it's pretty easy to see if there is something wrong.

[ImLawBoy]

I think one big factor is how many groceries you buy at once. If you are the type that goes by the store on the way home to pick up dinner, or shops every couple of days for a few meals, that's one thing. But if you're like me and you shop for a full week's worth of food for four people at once (which you do when the stores are a 60-mile round trip), it's a little tougher. Our cart runneth over, sometimes literally. It takes six or eight trips from the car to the house to bring everything in, and that's carrying a big load of bags in each hand. Keeping track of the exact prices of that many items would require an eidetic memory

That's why I was saying I tend to remember a few key items that I'm buying specifically because of the price, but beyond that I'm with you. It's somewhat frequent that something doesn't ring up right at the register and the cashier will ask me if I know the price, but I have to admit that I really don't have a clue. I do one major shopping trip per week for a family of five - there's no way for me to remember the listed price of everything I'm putting in my cart.

[Isgrimnur]

Grab a $1.12 item - that's $11.50.

That's quite the round-up.

[Blackhawk]

Grab a $1.12 item - that's $11.50.

That's quite the round-up.

It was a running total.

$3 item. Grab a $6.75 item - that's $10. Grab a $1.12 item - that's $11.50.

$3 + $7 + $1.50 = $11.50.

[Zaxxon]

I've gotten worse with this over the years, to my eternal shame. I used to track every item as the cashier scanned it and routinely caught (usually minor) mistakes.

Now we mostly do grocery pickup, where you see your receipt after you've left the store (it comes via text as the walk-out person heads back to the store), there is no cashier or customer-service desk, and coupons are no longer physical but instead require 10 minutes spent staring and mindlessly tapping on the phone to pre-emptively apply. Those factors, combined with less consternation over a specific grocery budget, and here I am.

It's something I've recently started to make an effort to get better at (along with related things, like more closely scrutinizing other receipts/bills).

[Isgrimnur]

Grab a $1.12 item - that's $11.50.

That's quite the round-up.

It was a running total.

$3 item. Grab a $6.75 item - that's $10. Grab a $1.12 item - that's $11.50.

$3 + $7 + $1.50 = $11.50.

Ah. My mistake.

[pr0ner]

The price of such vigilance is that you sometimes catch an undercharge.

I've bought things that wound up costing less than the advertised price because it was on sale for Harris Teeter VIC types but there was no sale tag on the product in the aisle. I don't say anything, but I do enjoy the pleasant surprise.

[LawBeefaroni]

The price of such vigilance is that you sometimes catch an undercharge.

I keep waiting for this unicorn. If it's not an inconvenience, I'll even correct it to spend the extra??? I've yet to spot it.

Have had two in the past few months. One was a miscount and I let them know. Another was just the a wrong price. The cashier said not to worry about it (a whiskey rang up as the the wrong kind). It was about a $10 difference.

[Skinypupy]

I'm not allowed to go grocery shopping because I always somehow manage to buy the wrong things. Grocery shopping is solely Mrs. Skinypupy's province, at her personal insistence.

Judging by the grocery bills each month, I'm guessing she doesn't review them much.