{"id":2365,"date":"2011-09-12T06:02:03","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T13:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/?p=2365"},"modified":"2011-09-06T11:53:52","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T18:53:52","slug":"old-store-new-store-learning-the-ropes-at-a-new-supermarket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/old-store-new-store-learning-the-ropes-at-a-new-supermarket\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Store, New Store: Learning the Ropes at a New Supermarket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Six weeks ago I visited my grocery store \u2014 yes, <em>my<\/em> grocery store \u2014 for my weekly shopping excursion. You know what I mean by &#8216;my&#8217; store: the supermarket I shop regularly and loyally and, in this case, for 16 years (800+ visits). The store I know like the back of my hand and where I know the checkers and stockers because, after all these years, we are &#8216;store friends.&#8217; This trip to my grocery store, however, was different because there were huge yellow signs with black lettering in the windows which read,<strong> \u201cThis store closing August 30.\u201d<\/strong> What? I was flabbergasted. Stunned, actually. My store was closing!<\/p>\n<p>This situation represented an enormous change in my shopping habits. My store was the place where I knew how to make wise purchases every week. Now that I needed to find a new grocery store, how would I parlay all that experience into frugal shopping at a different store? Adding to the\u00a0difficulty, my store was less than a quarter mile from home, providing convenience which was as big a draw as the store itself. The goal then, was to find another nearby grocery store that I could grow to depend upon like I did upon my store.<\/p>\n<p>There is another grocery store less than a mile from home which I\u2019d never shopped. It opened a year ago but it never crossed my mind to check out the &#8220;new guy.&#8221; The fact remained, however, that I needed to find a new place to buy groceries, so I decided to scope it out.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than walk in and start shopping cold, I did some preparation for this new retail experience:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Store ad:<\/strong> I checked out the store\u2019s ad which arrives in our mail weekly. Although it\u2019s a less comprehensive advertisement than my store\u2019s, they offer a \u201c$10 off when you spend $75\u201d coupon right in their weekly newspaper ad. Score!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ask around:<\/strong> I inquired among friends and family, both in person and on Facebook, as to where they shopped and what they thought of the new store. I received useful feedback about pricing and the overall feel of the store.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Website:<\/strong>\u00a0I visited their website to learn more. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that their parent store is a chain I regularly shopped in another state. I also discovered that they were indeed a full-service store which included a deli, butcher shop and pharmacy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Loyalty card:<\/strong> Unlike my old store, the new store does not offer a loyalty card which provides discounted pricing and to which you can load coupons. They do, however, offer a gasoline discount card based on your purchases.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Coupon redemption policies:<\/strong> I\u2019m an avid couponer so I asked at the courtesy desk about their coupon policies to learn about any differences from those of old store, such as limits or restrictions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That information helped me shop new store for the first time with greater confidence. Upon shopping there, I discovered a couple more things:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The layout of the new store is completely different from the old store, so I need to organize my shopping list to fit new store\u2019s layout.<\/li>\n<li>Their produce and meat departments are <em>massive<\/em> compared to theold store! The produce is more &#8216;natural&#8217; and less bagged and their meat selection and pricing is great! Those factors have helped me become considerably more loyal much sooner than I expected.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Yes, it is challenging to change stores, especially when it\u2019s not your choice to do so. With a little planning and preparation, however, you can make a smooth transition and maybe even discover some serendipitous benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six weeks ago I visited my grocery store \u2014 yes, my grocery store \u2014 for my weekly shopping excursion. You know what I mean by &#8216;my&#8217; store: the supermarket I shop regularly and loyally and, in this case, for 16 years (800+ visits). The store I know like the back of my hand and where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[515],"tags":[9,510,74,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}