Price matching in London

[sunny3]

My sister lately was talking to me about price matching in another city at a different store I don't shop at.

Anyway, I'm wondering if people here have success with price matching in London and if so, where? I don't have a car and it's hard for me to get around. I also often end up not getting what is on sale because there's none left by the time i go even up to 4 days before the sale ends. I'm thinking this is something I'd like to get into but I don't know the ins and outs.

I'm sure the product has to be identical brand, size... and there must be a flyer showing the price. The other challenge is that I rarely get any flyers so I'd have to price match using a printed from a computer version, which I'm not sure is allowed. I could also ask people who shop elsewhere to bring me a flyer. In another city, my sister was able to also not only price match, but not be restricted to a minimum like the add had said. She also said it's nice to use a flyer like eg: food basics and go to her superstore doing price match to not only get the same product but in the price of produce, get larger and more fresh ones. She could have gotten tiny cantaloupes for .99 but using price match, got ones almost double the size for .99 because they were not named "jumbo", just regular cantaloupes at another store. I thought that was so smart.

[greencanuck]

Being car-free, disabled and living in London, I also face some of the challenges that you had just mentioned. For many reasons, I try to be efficient when I go out.
All of the following are my own experiences/opinions.
The steps that I am writing seem lengthy, but actually go fast and make things much easier in stores.

OBTAINING FLYERS:
The first step would be contacting the flyer distribution companies so that they would be delivered to your door.
In London:
Londoner: http://www.thelondoner.ca/
Starmail: http://www.starmail.ca/


EVALUATING FLYERS:
Once the flyers come to you ( Thursday) in my area, you want to carefully look at them.
It helps to be relaxed and prepared.
Evaluate where you are likely to travel to and what items you most want.
Knowing the average price for the items you want and to better recognize how good a special is, helps.

There ongoing threads in Smart Canucks that evaluates what are the best grocery deals ( by store) and how to combine grocery deal with coupons. These wonderful people are doing half your work for you !

I sit down with a large marker and take each flyer and circle any item that may be of interest ( do not cover any details) and mark a star at the page corner for any page of circled items. If there are items I really want to get then I circle the store name on the front page.

WHEN TO SHOP:
Of course, you need shop when you best can for your lifestyle.
Your odds of getting the deals and having a hassle-free trip increase, if you can adapt to certain realities.
When in doubt, when it is not busy ask the store staff when is the best time to shop for specials in general or when re-stocking will occur.

-The stores have the fresh stock at opening on Friday morning. Anytime after that, things are picked over and restocking is somewhat hap-hazard.
-The weekends and nights are frequently insanely busy and crowded, so although they try to have stock, everyone is stressed and large quantities are flying off the shelves.
-Stores try to restock on Monday/ Tuesday for sale items
-Thursday is generally a quiet day for the last day of sale items and they have often been re-stocked again.


SHOPPING LIST
When I make a shopping list, I create seperate categories by food type ( where it is in food stores)

Categories include: Fresh, Frozen, Dry, Cans, Hygiene, Dairy, etc
I take the circled flyer items and write them in the categories with the price and the store abbreviation beside each item. ( ie pears $1/lb (NF), Michelinas 365g 99 cents (PC),etc )


SHOPPING POLICIES:
It is helpful to know in advance the pricematching and coupon policies of each store.
In London, I use No Frills, Fresh Co and Walmart for pricematching.
Generally speaking, it must be the exact precise same item ( size, flavour, brand, etc) in a current flyer, is a "bricks and mortar" store ( ie not online) and is within their trading area ( ie local to your section of the city)
Some stores have specific things they do not price-match, or have quantity limits.
At least get the policy verbally before you start your first shop, but in writing is handy when you really seriously pricematch and coupon.

(There are many other policies and ways to price- match outside of what I have mentioned ( ie electronics, etc) but I am focusing on food /hygiene shopping at your local stores)

Examples:
-No Frills will not price match any quantity deals (ie cobs of corn 12 for $2, cans of soup 3 for $1, etc)
-No Frills will price match receipts for identical items for up to a week after you purchased them. ( Bought celery for 59 cents at Food Basics on Thursday, show receipt at No Frills up to a week later and get the same deal.
- Fresh Co has a quantity limit of two for any price-matched item ( ie 2 cans soup, 2 heads lettuce)
- Fresh Co has started requiring the exact price same item, including for fresh food that it should have a company name on it.



ACTUAL SHOPPING:
- Grab your detailed shopping list, marked flyers, organized coupons, cloth bags, cart / backpack/ bike panniers and go to your first store that price matches.
- Take a shopping cart and lay each flyer in a seperate part of the store shopping cart.
- Do a quick review of your shopping list and coupons.
- Start in each section and buy the items on the list and using your store abbreviations, set that store's price matches on that store's flyers.
- mark each item lightly with a pencil stroke , so you can re-read it, if necessary.
- If you are confused about whether the item you want to purchase is exactly the same as the flyer, refer to the photo and wording.
- look to see if your coupons would apply to any unadvertised deals in each section, or could be combined with your price-match


CASHING OUT:
-Some stores have a particular till number or employee that is pre-authorized to do price matching. It is faster to go there, but you can also mention it as soon as you get to the cashier, so they page the right person
- I do price matching flyers /items first to get it out of the way.
- I take each store flyer and the items related to that store in slightly separated piles on the conveyor belt.
-The cashier can easily compare what circled items go with that flyer.
- when done with about 3 stores of pricematching, I let them know we are done and the rest of the shopping is regular items from their store.
- make sure you keep the flyers, so you can shop again at that store or other stores that sales week.
- Because I am organized I get absolutely no hassle at all and the employees mention that they love dealing with me for price-matching.( After months of dealing with my efficient system, they are less stringent on checking all my shopping details)
- some stores ( No Frills) have to hand-mark their copy of the receipt after you are done. After dozens of items, it is hard for store staff to recall the stores they had to price- match to mark it correctly. They just ask and I "come to the rescue", quickly referring to my detailed shopping list ( "Which store was the 79 cent celery?" I look at my detailed list, under FRESH and see "celery 79 cents ( FC)" and say "Fresh Co")


Developing this system has made it easier for my car-free lifestyle, keeping my costs down and created a good relationship with the cashiers who regularly price-match for me.
I estimate that by price-matching that I save at least an additional 20% on my food bill beyond the usual policy of shopping mainly items on sale. It also saves LOTS of time and effort of running around to lots of stores, when you do not have a car.

[sunny3]

Thank you very much for the tips. Yes, medically unable to drive, have a disability and don't get out much. I'm most likely to only get to one store. I usually shop at no frills on southdale. I used to shop on thurs but now on tues. I've had equally bad luck regularly not getting a sale item, although today i was really upset they didn't even have any mushrooms. I can only go when my personal support worker takes me. I guess I have a little homework to do before trying price matching. I may also try with one thing here and there instead of several items until I feel confident about how it works. I'm most likely to try it at freshco or no frills in the south end and usually using flyers.

[julyprincess]

Greencanuck, what a detailed and helpful response! Thanks for the great tips!! I have recently started price matching at RCSS cuz it's close to my home and love it. But my personal preference is No Frills only because other day-to-day items that I can't use coupons or price match such as fruits and veggies are so much cheaper than RCSS .

In London, I use No Frills, Fresh Co and Walmart for pricematching.
Generally speaking, it must be the exact precise same item ( size, flavour, brand, etc) in a current flyer,

I didn't realize it had to be the exact precise item. I never had a problem at No Frills showing them a flyer of something on sale and the cashier put it through even if the flavour was not correct. Size and Brand, I understand, but they can't possibly put all flavours on the flyer, so I would be surprised if a cashier did not allow me to price match because I picked All-dressed instead of regular.

[greencanuck]

Greencanuck, what a detailed and helpful response! Thanks for the great tips!!
I didn't realize it had to be the exact precise item. I never had a problem at No Frills showing them a flyer of something on sale and the cashier put it through even if the flavour was not correct. Size and Brand, I understand, but they can't possibly put all flavours on the flyer, so I would be surprised if a cashier did not allow me to price match because I picked All-dressed instead of regular.

Thanks.
I do strive to be helpful.

As you can see by my postings, I just joined here.

As for price-matching and how picky individual stores or cashiers may be about the exact precise same item- that does vary.
The expectation is that the item should be the same as the ad and some people had price-matching disallowed if it was the cashier's perception that it was not the same item, even when the ads stated "various flavours" and similar wording.

[sunny3]

I did my first price match this week and it went well. I really do wish i got proper flyers though. I can go weeks or months without any, never get zellers and walmart in them. This week, i got 2 rona, 2 tsc, and the only grocery ones i got were freshco and superstore. It's seriously frustrating. I will go looking in blue bins on garbage day on monday to get at least grocery flyers so i can price match when i go shopping on tuesday.

[greencanuck]

I did my first price match this week and it went well. I really do wish i got proper flyers though. I can go weeks or months without any, never get zellers and walmart in them. This week, i got 2 rona, 2 tsc, and the only grocery ones i got were freshco and superstore. It's seriously frustrating. I will go looking in blue bins on garbage day on monday to get at least grocery flyers so i can price match when i go shopping on tuesday.

Contact the flyer delivery companies, repeatedly.
Eventually, it get better.

[Corks]

Another option if you are not receiving your flyers from starmail:
If you shop at No Frills just leave your address/postal code with the cashier. Starmail calls them twice weekly to see if anyone is not receiving their flyers. You can also leave your phone number and starmail should get in touch with you.

[Venuila]

I have only just started price matching and have only done it at Walmart so far. Does anyone know if Rexall price matches? And if so, can you price match and use one of their flyer coupons on the same item?

[sunny3]

So far I've done price matching at No Frills and it has been great. I have price matched and used a coupon on the same item. The other day I must have saved over 8$ just on price match not including the coupon and it was just for 3 items. For me, it's saving me more than with coupons because I'm medically unfit to drive and it's really hard to save when you can only go to one place.

[greencanuck]

Soon, I will be posting (in the Bragging section) some more examples of the great deals that I got over the ten days or so in London .
In many cases, I was able to get 50- 75% off the shelf prices of low-cost stores such as No Frills.
I even got about 8-12 items for free.

The main technique was to pricematch desired items with the competitors loss leader, sale items and store clearance then combine with coupons.

Mostly, I combined a bit of reconnaissance (seeing what stores had the best deals, clearance and coupons) and research ( mostly Smart Canucks) with organization ( coupon systems, best shopping times, etc) planning ( ie budget, marking flyers and detailed shopping list ( see above post) and an openness and being willing to learn.

Since I have only been doing this fully for about a month, I will admit that I have still got a lot to learn.
The local store staff and fellow shoppers are starting to notice my new shopping techniques in a really positive way.
All of us having a friendly and co-operative attitude helps.