Q & A Time: Regional Deals and Coupons

I recently received this question from Christina in regards to the Publix Deals that I posted for this past week:

"Please help me understand what is going on with the milk price. I would LOVE to buy milk for $2.28 (as indicated) without having to go to Sam's!! I went to Publix today and their sale price is $3.19 for milk 1-gallon."

Thanks for the great question, Christina! I figured this would be a great opportunity for me to address regional deals and coupons, as I get quite a few questions about this.

As far as Publix is concerned -- here's the scoop on that. I have access to the Publix deals ahead of time because of coupon forums. Unfortunately, the moderators of the coupon forums who post the ad ahead of time are from Georgia. I don't have access to a weekly ad before Thursday when it is posted online. For some reason, my house does not receive the new weekly ad preview ahead of time. (I get them for Harvey's, Winn Dixie, and Food Lion, though! Weird!).

When it comes to Publix, Florida gets the short end of the stick for the most part. Our stores do not double coupons, the prices are quite a bit higher (this is also why you might notice a slight difference in prices), the in-store coupon booklets are rare, and some of the deals are not listed in our ads (especially the "Essentials" sales, like the milk last week).

I try to keep the weekly deals as accurate as I can, but in order for me to work on them ahead of time before the local ad is available, I'm using the Georgia ad. When the Jacksonville ad comes out, I usually try to go in and switch a few noticeably different prices or deals...but sometimes I forget! (Forgive me).

So if you're scrolling through my Publix deals and see something that doesn't match up with your local ad, it's probably a regional deal.

This also happens with coupons quite often. I try to let you know when a coupon is regional, but sometimes I don't know whether or not it is. And sometimes I simply forget to let you know. If you're not finding a coupon in your insert, it's probably regional. This happens to me a lot of the times, too. And again...Florida usually gets the short end of the stick, for some reason. I know it's frustrating, and I apologize in advance. I do the best I can on the match-ups, but I am human. ;)

This is why I normally preface the Publix, Target, CVS, and Walgreens deals with "Prices and deals may vary slightly from store to store. Be sure to check your local ad to verify."

One final thought. I try to keep this blog as closely associated with the local prices and deals as I can (Jacksonville and most of Florida). But my Sitemeter indicates that I have readers from all over the United States (and many in Georgia), so that is why I post the regional deals, rather than just getting rid of them all together.

Feel free to leave comments on my posts, as many of you do, to let me know when you catch something that doesn't seem right. That helps bring the regional deal to my attention so that I can make a note of it on the blog post for everybody else.

Thanks for asking about the milk, Christina! I'm going to go change it right now! And to the rest of you, keep leaving comments and asking questions. I'm here to help.

What About You: Was this post informative for you? Are there any other questions you would like me to answer in a Q & A post?