Just realized my local Hannaford double-coupon day is a trap if you don't check dates

I was chatting with this older lady at the Manchester Hannaford last week while we were both digging through the clearance bread rack. She mentioned she never bothers with double-coupon Tuesdays anymore because the store jacks up the base prices on stuff like cereal and pasta sauce by like 30 cents a box beforehand. I never actually checked, but she was right. I looked at my receipt from two weeks ago and the Miracle Whip I bought on double-coupon day was actually cheaper the following Thursday with no coupon at all. Now I keep a little notebook where I jot down the normal shelf price of my regular items, so I can tell if the deal is real or just noise. Has anyone else caught their store doing this with specific items?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_nguyen10d ago

Hard to get worked up about 30 cents on a jar of mayo. Feels like the kind of thing where you're spending more mental energy tracking prices than you're actually saving. Double coupon days are mostly for people who buy 12 boxes of granola bars at once anyway. The real trap is thinking a grocery store is going to let you outsmart their pricing model for long. They set the rules, we just play the game.

karen_nelson409d agoMost Upvoted

Actually I read a study a while back that said stores ALREADY plan for coupon deals. They mark stuff up before big coupon events so they still make their money. The 30 cent mayo is basically a loss leader to get you in the door and then you buy everything else at full price. That's where they get you.