As a single mom I think I notice some things more than a lot of people do about how crooked the entire system has become.
I went grocery shopping last night.
First I went to Cub's.
I bought a package of pork chops. The two chops on top looked really nice. I get them home thinking I will make the kids a nice dinner.
I open the package and the four chops under the top two were nothing but fat and bone.
I bought a 10 lb bag of spuds figuring I would make mashed potatoes. I started peeling the spuds and they had nothing but rotten spots. I figure I will be lucky to get 5 lbs of spuds that are usable from the 10 lb bag.
After dinner I looked at my receipt. I had about three dollars worth of coupons. 25 cents for this. 50 cents for that. I am looking at my receipt and wonder what went on on. Come to find out the check out guy added the amount of coupons to my total instead of subtracting the coupons.
I figure I lost around $14.00 just between the worthless pork chops, rotten spuds and being cheated on my coupons.
I figure I spent another $4.00 for gas driving back and forth to the store again.
Now I have $18.00 I lost.
I took the receipt back to the store along with all the rotten spots I cut out of the spuds and told them about the pork chops.
The woman at customer service treated me like I was some kind of crook for asking for my $6.00 back from the coupons. She only wanted to give me $3.00 back. I had to insist on talking to the manager to explain that $3.00 was added to my bill when $3.00 should have been taken off. After wasting almost half an hour trying to explain why I was entitled to $6.00 back instead of just $3.00 the manager finally understood.
When I showed him all the rotten spots I had to cut out of a few spuds he said, "Look here we don't grow the things we sell them. I'm not refunding you any money for the potatoes."
I then explained about the pork chops. I told him I thought they must set all the bad stuff aside and stick a couple in each package when they wrap it. He assured me Cub's would never do such a thing.
By this time over an hour went by.
The manager said if I wasn't happy with the pork chops I should have returned them for replacement or refund.
At this point I told him I wanted to purchase three more packages of pork chops and I wanted him to pick out the packages. He went and got me three packages of pork chops. They were supposed to be center cut loin chops.
I thanked him for bringing the packages. I started unwrapping the packages.
He asked me what I was doing.
I asked him if all the chops were supposed to look like the top two. He assured me they were all the same and told me there was no need for me to unwrap them.
I unwrapped them anyways.
Each package of chops was the same as the first. Two good chops on top. Four bad ones underneath.
I told him I wanted to talk to the manager of the meat department.
He called the meat department manager.
I asked him if the bad chops were what he considered center cut loin chops. He said they were more like pork steak. I asked him why there were pork steaks mixed in with pork chops that are more than $2.00 a lb more than pork steak. He said he is told to package the meat this way. I asked him who told him to package meat this way. He wouldn't answer me.
I didn't believe what happened next.
I told the manager just to give me my six dollars back from the coupons.
He asked me what I was going to do with the three packs of chops.
I told him to take them home for his family.
He said that I couldn't come into the store and just tear open three packages of pork chops and leave them. I told him they weren't pork chops they were pork steaks.
Go figure. If every Cub's store does this with pork chops this is plain old robbery.
If I got cheated out of my coupons, bought rotten spuds and purchased pork chops but got pork steaks how many other people does this happen to?
After I got done shopping at Cub's I went to Super Valu. I had 9 coupons to use there. 3 of the coupons were never deducted.
Then when I looked at the receipt better I saw that 6 of the 8 sale items I purchased I got charged the regular price. I asked the manager to get these items off the shelf and run them through the scanner again. Same thing. Regular price. This was on the 5th day of the sale. Every single one of these items they sold people paid more than they thought they were paying because the manager told me that no one else complained or the proper sale prices would have been in the system.
I have talked to some of my friends and they all tell me they have had similar problems.
Shoplifters get arrested. What happens to these stores that cheat the customers? Apparently nothing.
This isn't a big issue when compared to people getting killed in Gaza. It is an issue to me. I work long hours and make $12.35 an hour. Not even a living wage. I can barely cover the bills. On top of that I get cheated buying groceries. We are all being cheated.
Rita
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