There are good shopping trips, and then...

I had a Kroger high yesterday morning. It was a great trip: I got:

2 Welch's Grape Juice 100%
1 Gatorade 32 oz
1 Wishbone Dressing
5 Kraft shredded cheeses
1 Dixie Ultra plates
2 Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
4 Dan-o-nino yogurts
2 bags of Tyson frozen chicken
8 Quaker Rice cakes
1 L'Oreal hair detangler
2 Motrin PM's

And I paid $8.xx out of pocket, and got $7 in Catalinas back to use on my next order.

Better yet, the check-out clerk was nice, all my coupons scanned without beeping, there was no line, AND I got to go without kiddos! The trip couldn't have been better!

Let's contrast that to tonight when I went to the FOREST HILL TARGET.

I had coupons for about 10 different things. (Merona shirts for D, C9 apparel for me, Red Baron Pizza-by-the-slice, Granola bars, Nexcare tattoo bandaids, etc.). The only things I came to the register with was 8 Sobe (I DID find 4 of my favorite flavor~ Orange Tangerine!), and 2 Stride Gum. I had b1g1 Target AND Manufacturers coupons for both items, which would have made everything free.

I knew I was in trouble when after successfully scanning all my coupons the total was .54 cents (tax), and the check-out girl said, "Hold on, I have to go check these with the manager" and she walked off with all my coupons. Oh boy. This is the SAME store where the manager stole my coupons last week (see below post). I had done nothing wrong, but when cashiers start acting as if I have, it always makes me nervous. She came back with the grumpy manager who said I could only use ONE Target coupon per transaction, AND they weren't going to give me free products, so I couldn't use both the Target and Manufacturers coupons at one time on the Gum (That is NOT correct, I've done it before numerous times at other Targets, but whatever.). I was determined to remain pleasant, I put 4 Sobe's back, let her run my 2 transactions separately, gathered up all the coupons I wouldn't be using, and I went on my way. Feeling like a criminal.

I did ask her why some Targets will allow this and some (they) won't, and her reply was that "We strictly enforce Target coupon rules here.". Mental note and lesson learned: don't go back to the Forest Hill Target with coupons.

The bigger lesson, though, is this: How should we react when the cashier is blatantly wrong, or we have been "wronged" with our deserved savings, or someone is unpleasant behind us in line, or ...or...or.....I'm sure you guys could come up with other similar scenarios. I came away reminded that in ALL things the savings doesn't matter~ but my witness for the Lord does. So, I ate $2.34 cents at Target last night, but I hope my attitude toward the grumpy manager and suspicious cashier was worth much more.

But today I'm going back to Kroger.