Wal-Mart bans extreme coupon clipper from Every WalMart in USA For Life

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/308315

A Boise, Idaho woman claims she has been banned for life from the conglomerate retail chain, WalMart. It wasn't just one store that barred her from shopping there, but every store in the United States. The reason it happened was an argument over coupons.

April Cuevas, who has taken up the appropriately-titled hobby of "extreme couponing" in order to save money, stated that she was informed WalMart's policy known as "Ad Match" had undergone changes the previous week. As such, she took it upon herself to discuss these matters with one of the store managers and see if she could get a better grasp on the concept.

She also decided to video record it all on her iPhone - from which an argument transpired.
According to a statement to Fox 12 Idaho, Cuevas said "the action wasn't welcomed by the WalMart manager..." who told her she had to "...pay full price the groceries or leave." Cuevas complied with the order, but after that strange happenings began to take place.

It's right up there with voting for a Republican presidential or member of Congress candidate.

Now that's Patriotic! If only enough people could do so and put a big dent in their profit margins.

batch of corn on the cob. while i don't shop there in general, the last thing you'd think someone would get there is quality produce.

Their produce is often higher quality (fresher) than you find in competing grocery chains and even in the boutique places like Whole Paycheck.

It might be the one area where it's actually cheaper for Walmart to buy local than from China, taking advantage of migrant (often undocumented) workers willing to work for subpar wages.

Still doesn't even begin to make up for their anti-union, anti-American manufacturing stance.

I was more thinking of the savings on freight costs--it's cheaper to haul a truckload of corn 50 miles than 500--and distribution center costs because if you put 18 skids of corn on a truck then drop two skids at each of nine warehouses, it cuts the warehouse's share out entirely.

where you can actually interact with the farmer that grew the food.

that not all families have.

Farmer's Markets in California can take EBT cards and the produce isn't any more expensive than at a grocery store AND it's fresher and doesn't taste like cardboard. :shrug:

http://www.ecologycenter.org/ebt/

assuming everyone lives where farmer's markets are available.
assuming everyone has transportation to get to them (and can afford time and transportation to get to multiple types of stores for multiple needs).
assuming everyone can get to them during the hours they operate.

but apparently not. My original response was to offer up ONE possible alternative to going to Mao Mart.

with very little choice and very little money that we're anti-American.:eyes:

Wal-Mart and they always take my coupons.

went to Publix, Kroger and Wal-Mart - with the same list. The savings at Wal-Mart were considerable.

There are 4 grocers in my city - Walmart, Sweet Bay, Albertsons, Publix. There is also a 5th store that sell overstocks and generics, and they are the cheapest, but the quality of the food is very poor, often stale, sometimes on the verge (or past) expiration, so I won't shop there anymore.

Overall (not on every item), I save about 15% by shopping for food at Walmart.

The last study I read showed that they do have lower prices - until they drive out their competition. Then they raise their prices and in turn they subsidize the new ones that are artificially lowering prices to eliminate the competition.

I don't fault the people for shopping there, we all do what we need to in order to survive, and I find derisive comments about their employees and greeters offensive - they're victims of the economy just as much as anyone else. The business practices though are pretty dreadful and unethical.

Yes, all of us folks on low incomes are un-American! :sarcasm:

Fuck that noise.

Rural people are un-American, poor people are un-American, people with the misfortune to live in food deserts are un-American.
Seems there are hardly any real Americans at all.

that was a huge ass grocery store. Full service.

The nearby competitors can't compare.

of less than 80,000. I have never seen a piece of meat in any of those that I would eat.

Makes wonderful burgers and meat loaf!!

I don't mess with the greasy stuff.

So, they're checking ID at WalMart now?

There must be something more to this story.....

You know those key fob things where you get extra discounts. Most Extreme Shoppers rely on those cards to get the super discounts they want. They probably just deactivated it.

They don't even have floor clerks to answer questions. As for those creepy cards, nope, never.

I'd guess that it's up to a borderline senile door greeter to turn you away once banned.

probably 2 times in the last decade I've been to wal-mart

Once because they had the individual packets of clear caulk that I looked everywhere and couldn't find (a friend had giving me one earlier that year and I loved it).

Another time because my cell phone car charger got busted and I needed a new one at 6 in the morning before I took started a drive that took about 10 hours. This was down at the beach and my options were limited.

senile door greeter :-)

because I sued them after I was assaulted by a security guard and they settled out of court. One of the terms of the settlement was a lifetime ban. Supposedly there is a picture of me in every security office complete with composites of what I would look with various hairstyles and facial hair variations. Their bimbo lawyer could barely keep a straight face as she took mugshots of me with a bright pink cellphone.

Ironically I had never so much as stepped foot in the store in question, let alone stole anything.

and there is another altercation, you can be charged with trespassing.

They wipe out store shelves of certain products and make the stores less likely to provide the deals, knowing that some people will get hundreds of the same item and get them free.

She did it for awhile and they changed the rules because of her. Just get over it lady and find a new hobby.

Don't follow the red herring

Seems like your post is a "red herring".

It's not clear that the video recording was the reason for the ban. I'd like to know more about what happened during the argument that could be construed as a crime.

Did she refuse to leave the store immediately when asked to do so? That would be trespassing.

Did she threaten someone with violence? Did she get in someone's way so as to prevent the person from moving (i.e. false imprisonment). Did she strike someone?

The story doesn't say exactly WHY she was banned.

it was company rules when I worked there (1990's). If you were to see anyone taking a pic/video, you were supposed to report it to management immediately. If customer didn't stop when asked, they would be told to leave and quite possibly be banned from that store.

I imagine many people feel they have the wisdom to tell others to "get over it." Me... I'm not so clever-- so I feel people should concern themselves with what they want to.

I guess if she ruined it for you, stop shopping at Wal-Mart...? :shrug:

Sorry!

I can understand doing your saving and combining coupons to get low prices on food so you can feed your family, but some of these people get a little crazy with filling their rooms of their house, who needs 100 jars of mustard and 100 boxes of cereal? Donate some of that to a food bank. Some of them have collected so much stuff they fill their kids rooms with it.

of cereal before you can eat it all - I understand the thrill of getting hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for free, but donate it to a food bank or shelter there is just no way one family can go through all that food before it goes bad.

I'm all for cutting coupons and saving a buck, but those crazy extreme coupon nazis ruin it for the regular shopper.

Hey, all I wanted was that jug of laundry detergent....I had one coupon for it. Guess what? Some lady came in an hour earlier, wiped out the shelf and asked for more in the back.

I honestly think that most of these extreme couponers have a serious problem.

markets etc. I do not blame anyone for making money in this economy.

I have to be up as soon as the grocery store door opens to get my one freaking bottle of detergent? Then get up for work?

I call bullshit. They are hoarders and should be limited to a certain amount of one product with a coupon or coupons.

only with coupons, but simply a limit, on products they have a limited supply of. Some other stores will limit the number of coupons you can use on a single item (usually 4 identical coupons per transaction). If you feel strongly about it you should talk to your grocer about it. Generally, grocery stores love coupons (not the cashiers, but management) as they get paid for the coupon ammount + 8 cents per coupon processing fee. They actually make money on the coupons. If they double or tripple that is another story.

I will speak to the manager.

All these people do is teach the store what they are doing wrong.

if she was as broke as she claims, how come she still hand an iPhone?

for it. I'm not saying this situation is right, but I carry an old flip phone because the big guys are too expensive to keep running. :hi:

Maybe the same way I own a laptop and a an MP3 player... people can be generous at Christmas sometimes?-- at least the people I know.

cost per month in fees?

a small fortune.

-previous model.

I'm surprised at the frequency of these comments occurring on this board.

This seems to be a reiteration of the right wing 'welfare queen' judgmental crap we should not indulge in.

Sometimes I'm guilty of it too,it is offensive and have to remind myself to be better than that.

I got caught up in the stupidity.

mia culpa.

Cheers! :)

She's gone and "bought" over $500.00 worth of products before and ended up having the store owe her a couple of bucks when it was all said and done. One of the stores she was a regular at had a shift manager try to ban her, but she went to the manager who not only punished the shift manager but gave her extra coupons and a gift card as an apology.

My other sister and two of my nieces are getting into Extreme Couponing now because of the show.

TlalocW

Watch and see. As soon as this new fad becomes more widespread and affecting the bottom line for retailers, they're just going to dump coupons totally.

First they need to limit what can be used for coupons. I watched that show and when a woman shows up and buys 77 bottles of French's mustard because she can get it for 10 cents a bottle - hell who needs that much mustard in their lifetime. Stores need to put limits on how many coupons can be used per item and many stores are switching that policy for fear of getting hit with extreme couponing.

However.....

I think stores could make exceptions to the rule. As I watched the show, I saw this woman that used EVERY SINGLE FREE SPACE in her house to store stuff. I mean even under the kids beds and in their closets there was food and other products stored. I was angry that this woman had such extreme greed - buy what your family can use and don't go extreme. But when I looked at her house I wondered - wouldn't that be a wonderful thing if that was a homeless shelter or food bank that had done that extreme couponing. It would be a big help to those in need. So my 2nd suggestion is that the stores allow extreme couponing for non-profit organizations that focus on providing food or other services for the poor. If they did that the stores could feasibly write off the loss as a tax donation deduction.

You know, I'm down with the buy one get one on hot dogs because I'll probably use two packages of hot dogs before they spoil in the summer but this shit like you pointed out with the mustard is just crazy.

I had a co-worker who was like that when I used to travel frequently for work. She would take EVERY dispoable item out of her hotel room every day. Soap. Shampoo. Conditioner. Coffee. Sugar/sweetener packets. Creamer. She'd take extra TP rolls if they were provided. Not only that, but she asked all of us traveling with her to collect the same from our rooms and give it to her. I didn't do it but a lot of my co workers did. I asked her why she did that and she said that it was FREE! and that it belonged to her so why not take it? Can't imagine the mind set that feels compelled to have literally 1000s of bottels of mini-shampoo and tens of thousands of packets of sweet and lo.

I mean I'll be one to admit I'll keep the stuff they give in the hotel room but to ask your travelling companions for theirs just just downright bad.

But I do keep some in case I run out at home.

so they'll probably just make the rules more specific on these things. I don't understand how these people do it most of the time but I think you have to be the type of person to go yell at the manager to get what you want even if you know you're probably wrong and gaming the system.

I read about one where they had a Buy 1 Get 1 Free coupon from both the store and from the manufacturer...so they used them both and would get the item free. My local store would never accept that crap...you have to buy 1 at the actual price of the item.

For charities in their community. I have no memory of their name but I thought that was an excellent use of all those deals!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9117865

I did that pretty religiously til about Christmas then needed a break because work got crazy - and because I felt weird donating when so many of my students were going hungry. I shifted my focus to supplying my classroom with free meals for anyone who was hungry, and expanded from basic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to a cereal bar and for about 6 glorious weeks after a big sale, we had frozen lean cuisines.

I remember thinking it was a great use of coupons and all those deals. Feeding your students is a good use, also. Thank you for caring for them.

If you compare unit prices, the brand name with the coupon is often still more expensive than another brand or the store brand without a coupon. With few exceptions, there's no difference in the quality, flavor, whatever. The advertisers will have you think otherwise, but in reality it is the same thing. Ibuprofen is ibuprofen whether it is name brand or not and store brand oat rings are just as good as Cheerios but about half the price.

They do here in Springs.

He had enough disposable diapers to last until three babies (who hadn't been born yet) would be potty trained.

http://www.pennyexperiment.com/

Someone posted this before, and I thought it was so awesome.

I think this would be a wonderful thing.

And win-win since the grocery store could claim a taxable donation.

but they buy 77 bottles because with the coupons they have they actually make money on the item so they use the "profit" from that item to pay for those things they can't get for free.

And I've seen a couple people on that show (only watched it a few times) that give their extras to food pantries. Though one woman had a couple hundred packages of diapers and no kids. But she may some day. And from what I remember from when my kids were in diapers--the odds that her kids aren't allergic to those diapers or that they don't fit them well is pretty darn good.

bought so much stuff with coupons that the store "owed her" about $10 or $12....then she bought meat for "free".

Or applying for rebates. They plan on less than 10% of people eligible for rebates to get the rebates. I'm not sure of the figures for coupons, but it is probably much lower.

I don't see anything wrong with people taking advantage of the deals offered by retailers or manufacturers - IF they can use the products. And if the companies do not want people to use them, they can simply stop offering or honoring them.

Barring certain individuals just because they are smart about how to use the deals offered should be illegal.

I love mustard but in my lifetime I doubt I could ever go thru 77 bottles of mustard.

already pressuring the papers to remove the large number of coupons in the Sunday papers.

I asked one once when I saw her loading up a paper machine at 4 in the morning why there never seemed to be a paper *anywhere* in a town of 3k people on Sunday. She said that most machines on Sundays have one paper worth of money when they open them the next morning, since they just pay for one and pull all of them out of the machine. Then she has to pay for the rest of them. So they barely put any in since the extreme couponers will just take them all. She said she's even had people wait for her to fill the machine and drive off before they emptied the machine because she came back five minutes later and every single paper was gone. A machine holds about 30 papers at $2.50 each, and she pays $2.00 for them. So they cost her 60 bucks per machine on Sunday. It never happens any other day.

So eventually their only access to coupons will be what they can print off the internet.

basic stuff like milk, eggs, ground beef, carrots, etc ? If no, how does an extreme couponer get those items?

like our local grocery store has $5 off $50 all the time. I'm sure it just depends on the store and the products, but there are coupons.

The extreme couponers use a variety of ways to get free stuff. Coupons can be printed off the Internet. And they utilize the buy one get one free and the special offers, and the double coupon feature some stores provide.

It looks like a full-time job to get $2000 in stuff for under $10. Some of those couponers donate the whole shebang to charity, and I think that's cool.

One that I saw fills care packages for soldiers and ships them overseas. That's a good use of time and coupons, too!

Usually it's just a sale price rather than a coupon, but recently a lot of the stores here are printing coupons for say, a free 1# bag of carrots with a $10 minimum purchase, or a loaf of bread or something like that. The big grocery chain here (Safeway) had a healthy eating brochure a while back with a coupon for a dollar off five dollars worth of produce. That's hardly free, but it helps, especially when combined with sales. If there's an identifiable "manufacturer" on a produce item (like bagged salad greens or 5# boxes of clementines) those items will sometimes have manufacturers' coupons, but it's not real common.

Some stores let people who have a coupon that's worth more than the cost of their item apply the difference to the remainder of their bill to cover things like meat and vegetables. That's why on that extreme couponing show on TLC you'll see people buy waaaaaay too much of some totally random item. It's because they've got a dollar off coupon on an eighty cent item or something, and they're going to "buy" a bunch so that the extra twenty cents per item will cover the stuff they'd otherwise have to pay for. But coupon policies are totally regional and that doesn't work everywhere, nobody in my area gives overage (so if I have a dollar coupon and an eighty cent item, I get it for free but no twenty cent credit) or doubles coupons. I still save a lot of money, even though I'm a very choosy healthy eater, but I certainly don't get my groceries for free.

recyclebank.com has deals where you learn about environmental stuff, answer quizzes, and use the points that you earn to print coupons. Earthbound farms participates, you can get free carrots that way.

Smartbalance milk has occasional coupons; matched with a sale it can make for free milk. I use coupons to get milk and cereal for my classroom so kids aren't going hungry. We had free milk through that for a while, smartbalance has really long expiration dates.

Sometimes there are egg coupons you can print. I know there was a ground beef deal a while back too but I didn't bother with it because you had to get american cheese to make it work, and I'm too much of a cheese snob for that.

I wish for them all to go out of business...and soon.

Looking forward to it!

I imagine she must have been a royal PITA for the checkers.

She recorded the conversation with the manager.
When he started getting angry with her, that was when he realized she was recording him.

He's a dick.
I've been to that store.

The story doesn't say exactly why she was banned.

nm

Have been able to save about 10%-20% on the grocery bill though and I'm pretty happy with that.

What the producers of that extreme couponing show don't tell you is that they got the store managers to bend the coupon rules for the women featured in their programs. The vast majority of grocery stores out there limit the number of like coupons one can use per transaction, among other things. You CAN save up to 50 or 60% under some circumstances. However, the 20% or so you are already saving is the norm in most cases. But, unless you can talk the manager into bending the rules for you, you won't ever get a thousand bucks worth of groceries for a twenty five cents. Or, even twenty five bucks, for that matter.

I've used coupons - but not like these extreme shoppers - and you can't get a discount on sales tax. This is what I don't get about that show. How can you buy $500 worth of groceries for 50 cents? 7% sales tax would be $35.

Some (like Kansas) compute the tax based on precoupon cost. Others (Missouri) compute it based on the cost after coupons are applied.
Most states don't tax grocery food items at all - though I see Kansas does. And 5 states don't have any sales tax.

I don't know why people think they do.

I see customers around Walmart all the time with books full of coupons and it drives me nuts. They walk down every fucking aisle and look through their book to find a coupon for a particular item. Then they buy something they don't need because there's a coupon for it 55 cents off.

"walk down every fucking aisle". I also don't use $.55 cents off, unless the product has already been market down, because it's a way for them to get around doubling. I also don't use "such and such cents" off 2, or 3, because it is a way to get you to spend more...on something you probably won't ever use. I am saving quite a bit of money. Hundreds of dollars for pennies? No. But It's a happy day when I get 30 dollars off of a 100 dollar grocery bill. And there is nothing wrong with walking down fucking aisles for that. :) It's about feeding my kid.

I load up on them when I see them and try to keep up with the sales.It's difficult as I can't drive and live in an area w-out mass transit. Fortunately I can walk to a couple of stores.

Dragging a shopping cart behind me can get old especially in the winter .This save me abt 30 %. a month,big help. has an extra added benefit of pulling down store profits. I'm good with that because

it's not swillmart,but they treat their employees like shit also.These greedy sob's closed their old store,moved down the street,changed the name,making old employees reapply @ wage cuts & busted the union...

Seems to me utilization of shopping for 'loss leaders' ONLY @ swillmart could do some real damage to their bottom line.

The Bi-Lo chain here in the Southeast doubles up to $0.55 or $0.60, depending on the individual store. I save mine for Bi-Lo. Also, those "cents off 2" will work on "buy-one-get-one free". I'll use them for B1G1 sales on things I actually use. People also don't realize that one can also "stack" store coupons with the manufacturer's coupons. I am ALWAYS on the lookout for store coupon booklets, tear pads, etc.

I am so jealous.

accept all other store coupons.

One can do well, but never will I be able to buy $500 worth of groceries for $1.

And I have one of those coupon books that I only peruse through if I see a great price. I usuallly have a list ready, with all coupons clipped to that list.

Pamida usually has a good deal about every month or so where they will double the value of the coupon up to $3.00. That with my 5% military discount and occasionally finding items on clearance at a much reduced price, we do save money. I actually feel good when I buy name brand cereal that's on sale (5 boxes for $10.00) at the local grocery store and with the coupons we have, manage to purchase them for about $1.25 a box.

What I've learned to to buy only what one needs and uses, buy only when the item is already on sale, and be willing to purchase in quantity.

I'd completely forgotten about that place. Last time I saw one was about 1980 in Rock Springs, Wyoming. One of those happy little memory jolts. :hi:

You can save a LOT of money by using coupons, utilizing sales, and buying in quantity only those things that you actually use. I do this with Snapple iced tea all the time. At regular price where I live a 12 bottle case of Snapple is $13.99. Every grocery store in the area does periodic HUGE sales on these cases - I'm talking $5.99 or $6.99 per case usually with a limit of 3 or 4 per customer. Each of the grocery stores in the area tends to do these Snapple sales at different times, so I keep an eye on when they go on sale at each store and buy the 3 or 4 case limit every time one of the stores has them on sale as many days as I can while they're on sale. Because of doing this I almost NEVER pay anything close to the regular $13.99 price per case, and I practically live on Snapple all year round. I have 13 cases of Snapple right now which will likely last me until the next store does the sale again. I'd have to be insane to buy all the Snapple I consume paying the regular price all the time by not paying attention to the sales and taking full advantage of them.

Stores LOVE coupons because they make a barking TON of money off of them for two reasons... most people that buy the item with the coupon would not buy it at all without it, and the customer almost always buys other items in the store for no other reason than the fact that they are in the store buying the item they have the coupon for. Stores do sales for certain items for the same exact reasons. Coupons and sales are LORES to get people to spend money they would not spend otherwise... and so much is spent because of these lores that stores would have to close their doors without them.

They get reimbursed for the amount plus 8 cents for handling.

I don't buy things I don't need. I don't cut out a coupon unless it's for something I use.

Those people don't plan ahead, and they are certainly shopping at the wrong store if they think they're going to save big bucks using coupons. For one thing, Walmart doesn't double coupons like most grocery chains do. That's where the savings are. Some chains, including Target have store coupons, too. You can use those concurrently with a manufacturer's coupon. Sometimes I WILL get things I don't need--IF it winds up being free, and is something I can put into a box for the next food bank drive. If I don't use it, I don't buy it, as I can barely afford to buy anything that isn't on sale and doesn't have a coupon.

There are plenty of web sites out there that match the coupons that are available with every store's sale papers, such as Coupon Mom and Southern Savers. That way, you can go through your coupon folder and pull the coupons ahead of time.

I look at coupons as free money. Fifty-five cents here, thirty cents there (sixty if your store doubles coupons). It adds up. Must be nice to be able to pay full price for everything.

God knows when I was pulling $8 per hour, I didn't shop at the WalMart across the street & now I'm DEAD from starvation.

Will someone save the children!!!

I love that movie!

Turnabout is fair play.

and not extreme couponing per se.

Still, worldwide status as Wally-world person nongrata is extreme.

Such as not allowing overages or setting limited on number coupons.

:shrug:

The "extreme coupon" shows are not realistic. The store managers are bending the rules for the TV show shoppers.

I should have know that it wasn't real reality tv. :silly: :silly: :silly:

Confusing story:

"We are aware there was an incident that occurred at a store based on a coupon we should have accepted," Lorenzo Lopez, a spokeperson for Walmart, told ABCNews. "We certainly understand her frustration. After gathering all information, we think both sides could have handled it differently. We have apologized to Ms. Cuevas and we have invited her back to the store. She has returned to the store since the incident."

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/mother-temporarily-banned-walmart/story?id=13966540