Tom Thumb Ridiculousness

I'm a girl who loves finding creative ways to save my family money. In order to get a good deal, I'm willing to sacrifice a good amount of time clipping & organizing coupons, scouring store ads, and driving around town to shop at more than one store to save a buck or two. Today when I was looking through the newspaper inserts I found one of the most confusing ads I've ever seen: the Tom Thumb ad.

There was a great coupon on the front page that caught my eye immediately - about $8 for 4 12-packs of coke (limit one with reward card, only good today). $2 a 12-pack is a good price so I decided to take a trip to Tom Thumb this afternoon - but since I was making a special trip I looked for any other good deals I should pick up while I was in there. It took me longer than I care to admit to work my way through the ad, read all the fine print on the various deals, and realize how ridiculous it truly was...

There was what appeared to be an awesome coupon on the back of the flyer for $10 off a $50 purchase. But when I read the fine print I saw that you had to have $50 after store coupons and manufacturer's coupons, it is only good through Tuesday, there are a ton of exceptions of things that you can't use to add up to the $50 total, and I can't use it with the coke deal (or any other special deal in the paper)... all of which made it not a very good deal at all. The next thing I was excited about was a coupon on the front page of the flyer for a free pizza (normally $5.99) from the deli with a $25 purchase. This $25 needed to be after store coupons, but not manufacturer's coupons (YAY!)... but it was only good for today (OK) and at the very end of the fine print it says that you can't use this coupon in conjunction with ANY other special store offer (like the coke coupon or the $10 off $50 - BOO). Also through the paper there were specials only good from 8am to 8pm today, deals for all day today, deals for the week, deals for 8 days, and a variety of deals only effective until Tuesday night. There were coupons to cut out to get some deals, they showed coupons you could only get online and add to your shoppers card to get a deal, and a few deals you could get by simply using your Reward Card. OH MY GOODNESS HOW RIDICULOUS!

After trying for too long to find a way to do my weekly shopping at Tom Thumb with what initially appeared to be some great deals, I finally just gave up and decided to just run in for the Cokes - I'll stick with the good ole Kroger for groceries this week... a place where there isn't so much fine print and restrictions to save money.

While I was standing in line at Tom Thumb waiting for my turn to check out (holding my Reward Card and my special coupon I clipped out of the paper) I felt validated when I saw evidence of OTHER people being confused too - even a SERVICE MANAGER of the Tom Thumb...

The man in front of me had a total of $32 of groceries (including the awesome Coke deal). The Service Manager checking him out very kindly asked him if he wanted a free pizza because he qualified for it since he spent more than $25 today. My brain shouted "WHAT?!? You CAN do the pizza deal and the coke deal together? How did I miss that since I read the fine print 85 times trying to understand it?!?" in my head, but I restrained myself to calmly stand and wait patiently to see how it would play out.

He answered her question with, "Sure." She said, "Pepperoni or cheese?" He said, "Pepperoni." She ran over to grab him a pizza and rang it up along with a "free pizza with a $25 purchase" coupon. The computer took the $.99 deduction off because he is a Reward Card holder, but it left $5 for the pizza on his total despite the coupon - but I was the only one to notice the problem. The manager was smiling because she thought she helped him and he was smiling because he thought he'd just gotten a free deli pizza when she said, "Okay, that brings your total to $37." They were still smiling at each other as he reached in his wallet to pay her.

WHAT?!? A free pizza shouldn't add $5 to your total! But they were STILL too busy smiling at each other thinking about what a great deal they accomplished together to notice. I thought about saying something because it wasn't right, but I faltered because I didn't want to spoil all their smiles. In retrospect I probably should have said something to help clear up the confusion and save the guy his $5 for a pizza he didn't even want originally... but I was too stunned at the fact no one noticed the total was $5 higher to speak.

So I walked out the door with my 4 12-packs and clear validation that the Tom Thumb circular really was WAY too complicated this week since at least one other customer - as well as an intelligent member of the management team of Tom Thumb - were also clearly confused by all that fine print. Good deals are awesome and can definitely get me in your store - but a deal shouldn't be so confusing that no one (even people who work for your company) can't figure them out easily. Hopefully next week we'll have better luck with the Tom Thumb circular... otherwise I may have to send an email to Mr. Thumb on behalf of confused consumers in DFW.