A Tale of "10 FOR 10"

Ric and I drink a lot of soda. (Yes, we know it's not the best thing for us.) We're always watching the sales at our local supermarkets to get the best deals, usually the best thing we can find is a 10 for $10 sale.

A couple of weeks ago, I went into Stop and Shop on a Saturday afternoon to pick up some groceries, and some soda. The only thing I drink is Diet Mountain Dew (hereafter known as DMD.) At least it's diet! Regular Mountain Dew - unless it's from a fountain - is just too sweet!

I walk into the aisle and see that there is no DMD on the shelves, which is sometimes the case - I guess it's popular! The Pepsi guy was actually in the aisle restocking, and he had a full pallet of DMD - BUT he was walking away with the pallet leaving the shelf empty! (eeeek!)

I stopped him and asked if there was more DMD in the store somewhere (sometimes they put it on the end caps, etc.) and he said "no." Then I asked if I could have a few bottles of the ones he was carting away and he said "no" again! Hmmmm....

I went home a little MIFFED and WITHOUT my DMD. Later that night, Ric had to run out, so he stopped by another Stop and Shop to see if they had any, and their shelves were empty too! WHAT? We were starting to think that it was a conspiracy!

Well...I decided that being told "no" by the Pepsi guy was unacceptable. Wouldn't you WANT your product to be sold? So I started to poke around the Pepsi website to see if I could find a place to send a (tasteful) email and complain. It was funny, I poked around for a while and couldn't find any way to let them know my displeasure. So instead, I went to the Stop and Shop website. I was able to leave a comment there - I felt much better!

Less than 48 hours later, I got a phone call - the caller ID said "Stop and Shop." It was the general manager for th Stop and Shop in Warwick that I usually go to. He told me that he got my email and was very upset that this had happened in his store. He said that he had called his Pepsi people to see what the deal was, AND to tell them that they were going to pay for 10 bottles of DMD so that he could give them to me. He wanted me to ask for him the next time I was in the store so he could load up my cart.

I really didn't think that was necessary, I just wanted someone to know what had happened, but he insisted.

Now here's the funny part, when I went to the store the next time, I did ask for him, BUT there was STILL no DMD on the shelves! (Uh Oh....) He was SO embarassed! I kind of felt bad for him because he had just finished telling me that he had asked the Pepsi guys to make sure that the shelves were stocked! (He even checked in the back room.)

Anyway...I was back in Stop and Shop today. As I was getting ready to check out, I saw that the manager was at the front and said hello again. (He made me promise to find him the next time I was there!)

He loaded me up with 10 bottles of DMD - and he also said that I shouldn't feel funny about taking the free soda because Pepsi is a billion dollar company and Stop and Shop is a million dollar company. (He even bagged my groceries too!)

Thanks so much to Steve Russo, the manager at the Warwick Avenue Stop and Shop - he's earned my loyalty because of this whole experience!

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On a related note, I've started playing The Grocery Game! There was a news story on it last week, so I thought I try it out. Just so you know, I spent $30 for $50 worth of groceries ($60 if you count the free DMD!) I'll be tracking my savings for a few weeks and let you know how it goes! Anything to save $$ on groceries! (If you do take a look at the website and decide to sign up, make sure you put my email address - marni@thelevetts.com - in as your referral!)