Thursday, March 5, 2009

Why you shouldnt shop in Manhattan.

If you are one of the lucky ones to live in the Borough of Brooklyn you'll notice that it's a bit easier on the wallet than it is if you lived in NY.

My local Key Foods is clean, well stocked, and cheap. My local C-town, maybe not as clean, not as well stocked, but does indeed offer the occasional good buy, for example I got some very delicious stonyfield farm organic yogurt there last week 4 for $3.

On the other hand while D'Agostinos, Balducci's, Garden of Eden and others are not only shiningly clean and well stocked the other thing they'll gladly clean out is your wallet. That said, a few tips on getting some good buys at local stores.

Let's start with CVS. CVS offers a great program, ECB, extra cash back, great items, on sale, extra cash back and most specials are usually in conjunction with some coupons from the sunday papers. The CVS locations in Manhattan...they dont offer it, their store circs are 4 pages...that's it. However, go to their web site and check the circs in Brooklyn and it's 20 pages and filled with not just good but GREAT deals.

For example. Tide detergents. 50 ounces, at Duane Reade they run 11.97...usual price at CVS in Brooklyn about $9. On sale this past week in Brooklyn (not Manhattan) $5.97, on top of that I had a dollar off coupon. $5 a bottle, I bought 4 of the Tide total care. There were other items on sale on that page of the circ...Dawn detergent, Crest toothpaste, Puffs. If you bought $20 worth of merchandise on that circ page you got a free 6 pack of Charmin ($5 value). Lucky for me they were all out of the 6 packs so I got a 9 pack worth $7.50. Lesson? Spend the extra $4 round trip and go to brooklyn to shop, even if you live in Manhattan.

Oh Walgreens, I have noticed how cagey Walgreens has become with dealing with circs. Last week Walgreens was running Formula 409 at 2 for $5...bargain. Again, I had $1 off coupons so $1.50 a bottle. I went in to the Union Square store to stock up and was told, no joke, they dont carry Formula 409. Really? You dont carry one of the most popular cleaning solutions in the United States??? What? Same story with the memory formula Walgreens was offering free after rebate. Didn't exist in the store.

Duane Reade. Seriously don't even bother. Nothing is ever on sale there that you cant get on sale cheaper at Rite Aid.

Pathmark. Pathmark in Manhattan is a bit tricky. Honestly, the circ is pretty much the same for the city as it is in the boroughs. The difference is the coupon policy. You are limited to 4 coupons for the same item. You cant use a coupon for a "get one free" (buy one get one free) item so you cant really roll out 2 coupons for 2 boxes of cereal. So there are more restrictions. If you really really want those Pepperidge farm granola cookies that are 2 for 1 on sale for $.80 a bag (using 2 coupons) your choices are suck it up and leave the city or pay a smidge more ($1.30 a bag) at the Cherry St location.

And seriously, do not bother with Duane Reade. Don't do it.

No comments:

Post a Comment