Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[ottawamom]

Honestly even with the corrected price it still worked out to “free” when you factor in the miles so I can’t see how it’s not a good deal.
Guess what I had for lunch?

What did you have with it. We will need to start a recipe section for how to dress up your pasta package. Sauce, butter and parmesan cheese?

 

[Disney Addicted]

I went out out this morning to the Oshawa store. They didn't have the advertised Nestle Carnation hot chocolate ($11.99 x 2 = 60 miles), nor did the Whitby store when phoned. They also didn't have the beef pies (no air miles attached, I just like them), so my grocery list changed. Even though I was using the calculator on my phone I managed to spend a bit over the $100 I meant to stop at.

Sobey's: Spent $109.25 pre-tax and received 496 miles. 4/$5 of the dry pasta, 8 packages of the Barilla ready pasta, 2 dishwasher tabs, 2 chicken strips, extra bonus miles on ketchup and chicken through the app.

Foodland: Spent $13.98 on two hams and received 75 air miles

Total 571 miles and $123.23. I used on of the Sobey's $150 gift cards to pay for these.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Hey, did everyone remember to ask the Cashier to scan the contest coupon along with your Air Miles card?

 

[Disney Addicted]

So those of you who received the ShellGoPlus in the mail. Did you see the "A surprise offer on your Air Miles anniversary"? I wonder that will be. Then I wondered just when IS my AM anniversary? I could not figure it out on the website so I started a chat. I'm told my anniversary is June 22, 1995.

 

[kerreyn]

Back from my saddest Blue Friday shop in history. Spent $130.42 and earned 361 air miles.

On Sunday I'll be going to Sobey's and paying for my food bank pasta order = $180.00, and will earn 1800 air miles. Then I'll stop at Safeway (don't want to look piggish at Sobey's), and pick up pasta for my own use, maybe 10 pkg, so that's another $25 and 250 air miles. So in a perfect world, my Sunday total *should* be $205.00 and 2050 air miles.

Edited to fix my very poor math!

 

[tinkerone]

I don't know where I got the idea that Foodland had the pasta offer but that's what was in my head when I drove to the store. Wrong! However they did have a dry pasta offer, 20 AM when you purchased 4 dry pasta products. The best part was they didn't have the small bags in stock, the ones on offer, so they priced the large bags at the 4 for $5 deal. Four large bags of pasta is plenty for us, that will last a year. Also bought 8 bags of chips for another 100 AM's. Use those on Sunday nights when my brother and his wife come to play cards. $29.86 spend and 121 AM's earned. Not bad.

 

[hdrolfe]

Well that was sad... $116 got me 320 AM. My loaded offers didn't work, there was no pasta, no chicken noodle soup, no medium freezer bags (only large), so I bought 8 bags of chips and 5 packs of hot dogs. I guess the boy will be happy. Back to FreshCo and Food Basics for me though, that was expensive for what I got!

 

[juniorbugman]

On Sunday I'll be going to Sobey's and paying for my food bank pasta order = $180.00, and will earn 1800 air miles. Then I'll stop at Safeway (don't want to look piggish at Sobey's), and pick up pasta for my own use, maybe 10 pkg, so that's another $25 and 500 air miles. So in a perfect world, my Sunday total *should* be $205.00 and 2300 air miles.

I got a rain check for 10 packages and it says total 250 air miles. Isn't it buy 2 get 50 airmiles so if you buy 10 wouldn't that be 250 air miles not 500 air miles?

 

[kerreyn]

I got a rain check for 10 packages and it says total 250 air miles. Isn't it buy 2 get 50 airmiles so if you buy 10 wouldn't that be 250 air miles not 500 air miles?

Yep - my math sucks. I fixed it.

 

[Nagle]

The really good deals are on the Blue Friday items. I'm just reviewing the flyer I brought home from Sobeys Barrhaven (there are 3 different flyers in this city). The online flyer is accurate for the Sobeys store (link on first page). I don't know if I would consider any of the regular AM offerings for the week as a "good" deal. If you happen to need some of the items anyway then why not earn some AM as well.

If you are going to be in Barrhaven, I would stop in at Rexall just down the road from Sobeys and take advantage of their spend $50 get 100AM this weekend. There are quite a few good deals in their flyer. Also check out the back page of the Metro flyer and see if you need anything offered there. Metro is about 5 min away from Sobeys.

Sorry I don't have more exciting news. Other than Blue Friday and Rexall its a AM drought out there.

Thank you.
Unfortunately I was in Ottawa Wednesday and going back Sunday. Too bad Friday was a non starter.

 

[bababear_50]

JMHO (Just My Honest Opinion)
Hmmmmm,,,so you know a week in advance that you've offered a product with half decent airmiles attached and then you have no product come the *1* day sale,,,a bit of bait and switch is my opinion.
10th Line/Thomas Street Mississauga Sobeys Manager will not honour the raincheck they gave me at 7 am this morning for the Pasta,,I just spoke with her and she said their head office says NO to giving rain checks on Blue Fridays. She also said they clearly state they can limit quantities and that their flyer states this (I was unable to find that info),,,.......Ok move along......................................Mel

At another Sobeys I was able to get 26 bags of Ready Pasta for 650 airmiles and that's it.

I went back to my regular Sobeys after work and picked up some
Lysol
Chicken
Smart ones dinners
Soup Liptons
and a few other things
spend 111.14
Total airmiles= 446

My total for today
1096 airmiles,,,half of what I was hoping for.

Hugs
Mel

 

[marchingstar]

my local safeway was out of the pasta too. but on top of the rain check option, they had a great solution (to me, anyways!). they had one bag of the pasta at customer service that could be scanned now, so the cost counts towards the spend 100/get 100 coupon. next time they’re in stock, i’ll drop them in the food bank bin!

spent 116$ (no tax!), earned 711 miles.

 

[kitntrip]

That was the worst blue Friday I've had in a long time! No cookies, no ready to cook pasta (got a rain cheque), barely any other pasta for the other pasta airmile promotion, no hot chocolate, etc. Seriously dismal!

 

[dancin Disney style]

So a couple of you have mentioned things along the lines of...the store knows the sale is coming they should order in the items. My DD is a grocery store manager, as I’ve mentioned before. It’s not as simple as order in items ahead of time. Yes, they order it but there are a bunch of automated systems in place that actually make the stock orders and the program can add or delete items. What the system orders, what the store orders/wants and what the store gets are all different things. Then there is product availability which is not controlled by the grocery Corp. An item can be ordered but it might not show up for several reasons. Then there are the distribution and transportation problems that have been an issue for the last year. The short explanation is that there are not enough trucks to get the stuff out to the stores so often the orders just don’t arrive at all or they come days late.

My Sobeys shop took a large detour...and I think that happened the last time too. I too was also planning to get many packages of pasta. Maybe 4 to take home and the rest for the food bank. Of course there were none. I did get two rain checks for it. They had them pre printed at customer service and they are $2 each and also says buy 2 get 50 AM. I might go back later and get another one....I have to go out anyway. Somehow I ended up spending $153 and earned 407 Miles. I had gift cards from the STB Urban Fresh promo which was a nice double dip.

Can’t remember all that I bought...
Smart Ones X 2 offers
Prime Chicken X 2
Maple Lodge X 1
Classico sauce X 1
the rest was just the regular groceries which was mainly fruit/veg and dairy.
I had a few loaded offers too.

 

[marchingstar]

So a couple of you have mentioned things along the lines of...the store knows the sale is coming they should order in the items. My DD is a grocery store manager, as I’ve mentioned before. It’s not as simple as order in items ahead of time. Yes, they order it but there are a bunch of automated systems in place that actually make the stock orders and the program can add or delete items. What the system orders, what the store orders/wants and what the store gets are all different things. Then there is product availability which is not controlled by the grocery Corp. An item can be ordered but it might not show up for several reasons. Then there are the distribution and transportation problems that have been an issue for the last year. The short explanation is that there are not enough trucks to get the stuff out to the stores so often the orders just don’t arrive at all or they come days late.

My Sobeys shop took a large detour...and I think that happened the last time too. I too was also planning to get many packages of pasta. Maybe 4 to take home and the rest for the food bank. Of course there were none. I did get two rain checks for it. They had them pre printed at customer service and they are $2 each and also says buy 2 get 50 AM. I might go back later and get another one....I have to go out anyway. Somehow I ended up spending $153 and earned 407 Miles. I had gift cards from the STB Urban Fresh promo which was a nice double dip.

Can’t remember all that I bought...
Smart Ones X 2 offers
Prime Chicken X 2
Maple Lodge X 1
Classico sauce X 1
the rest was just the regular groceries which was mainly fruit/veg and dairy.
I had a few loaded offers too.

i really appreciate your explanations! my store was out of product when i shopped around noon, but they had a clear plan for proactively managing the problem. the store can’t make pasta materialize, but it’s reassuring to see them do something to honour the flyer offers.

also, i wish i had thought to grab a raincheck or two! what a smart idea

 

[juniorbugman]

The Cashier at Customer Service at the store in North Ajax told me that they had ordered cases of the pasta and nothing came in so I don't really blame them. They gave me my rain check no problem so I can go back another day for the pasta and still earn the points. I wasn't planning on it counting for the spend $100 get 100 because I wasn't going to spend that much. Just went in for the pasta deal. I remember another Blue Friday and there was a deal on Raisin bread and they didn't have any of that - the Manager told me she was going to talk to the bread delivery person and ask them why they had only delivered less than a dozen loaves so she is being proactive and trying to figure out the reasons for the shortage.

 

[osully]

Well we all saw that coming!

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Went to Sobeys this morning in Hamilton and no pasta...only wanted 2 to try...none on the shelf...and when the department manager checked he said none are expected to be delivered...not sure if someone cleaned the out earlier than 10:30 am or if they didn't have any today at all. There was a sign at the pasta that indicated there was an error in the flyer and the price was 2 for $5. Didn't think to ask about a raincheck because I thought the AM was a one day deal. oh well..

 

[dancin Disney style]

i really appreciate your explanations! my store was out of product when i shopped around noon, but they had a clear plan for proactively managing the problem. the store can’t make pasta materialize, but it’s reassuring to see them do something to honour the flyer offers.

also, i wish i had thought to grab a raincheck or two! what a smart idea

I left out the part that it’s corporate that orders the items that are in the flyer. If all goes as it should they get that order several days in advance. The problem with that is corporate has very different ideas about the quantities. My DD just got what she says it 5X the amount of fresh salmon that they could actually sell. This type of thing happens a lot. The store does have the ability to adjust an order but the automated system can override it.

 

[Donald - my hero]

wow, there's no way i can tag, respond, quote everyone who has reported back today .. there have been 3 pages of posts since i went to bed last night! I constantly check in when i out of the house and respond if i feel someone needs immediate help but dang, busy beavers today!! I had an extremely successful day in the Toronto today but NOTHING Airmiles related worked out AT ALL!! I went to 3 Rexalls to get me some free cake and a gift card from the pharmacist and they all had tables set up but no cake and only would give me the gift card if i transferred my scripts, uhm NOT happening and that isn't what the flyer says i need to do, finally bought a drink so i could get my card swiped to enter the contest. The Urban Fresh was a bust and Metro is our regular shop on Sunday so just grabbed a flyer.

HOWEVER, bought hubby a $70 towel at the Bay and ended up paying $17 for it because it was on sale 40% off plus another 15% if i used my HBC credit card AND i had $20 worth of gift cards thru my HBC points. Stopped at Bath & Body Works and picked up 3 christmas hand soaps, 5 bath bombs and they were all 75% off so pay $15 for those. Stopped in the Carlton that's closing and got a Dumbo ornament & stuffed Piglet for my DIS friend who loves both of them since it was 80% off that cost $9.

Home now and too tired to head to Sobeys and only end up frustrated so once again, no Blue Friday for the Duck!