My first MARTIN’S trip…..

I went to MARTIN’S this morning, and blame it on the pregnancy hormones (they get blamed for everything else).  I was actually a little teary eyed driving over to Short Pump.  I guess it is because when I was a “young” Ukrop’s pharmacist and working full-time (up until Natalie was born) the Short Pump store was “my store”.

One of the reasons I was heading over there besides the fact that I figured I need to check it out, was because Natalie started complaining about her ear hurting last night.  This is very uncharacteristic for her.  The short version of the story is that we ended up at KidMed again last night.  It was really busy in there last night and we didn’t get out of there until after 9:30.  The doctor offered to give her a dose of antibiotic tonight so that we could get it started.  I thought that was a brilliant idea and it saved us another stop.  I knew about MARTIN’S free antibiotic program (up to a 14 day supply).  When I got home I checked the list on their website and sure enough the amoxicillin that Natalie was prescribed was on the list.  They also have a $4 for 30 day supplies and $10 for 90 day supplies of generic maintenance medications.  Check out the above link if you are interested. 

So what did I think of MARTIN’S?  Obviously I was “negative scanning” and I found something right off – all of the shopping carts are outside the door.  Sure they are nice and shiny right now because they are new – but what are they going to be like after a few months or years?  I also think about in the winter how cold they will feel to little tushies that get to sit in them. 

I did see a price scanner at the end of an aisle and took advantage of it to verify a price for the yogurt I was buying.

The store was clean and bright, but I felt like it was crowded.  Not people wise, but the aisle felt smaller and the merchandise seemed to be very close to each other.  That is why I was happy to see the price scanner because there were several different types of yogurt with several different prices and I could discern which one I had picked up.  I don’t care for all of the “shelf-talkers” they have on each aisle.  They have lots of these sitting perpendicular with the shelf as opposed to flat against it.  I felt like it was visually overwhelming and added to my feeling of being crowded. 

It was nice to know that they double coupons everyday, but I am still upset about them only doubling one like coupon per customer per day.

I did also verify by buying 2 pounds of strawberries that were buy one get one free and it does look like you have to get both, as opposed to being able to buy one at “half price”. 

I don’t care for their receipt lay-out.  It is one of the things that drives me crazy about Kroger also.  It doesn’t group your items together by departments such as produce, bakery, dairy, etc. 

I know that I will have to learn to accept these things.  I tried to justify and say that I hadn’t shopped in the Short Pump store on a regular basis in quite awhile so I just wasn’t familiar with the way it was laid out.  I am not counting them out.  I probably will continue to do my primary shopping there for years to come.  I will just have to learn to accept the changes.

So how did I do on my first MARTIN’S shopping trip?  Here is the picture:

 

I am doing a spreadsheet so that I can point you to where the coupons I used came from.

Quantity purchased	Item	Sale Price	Coupon Source	Coupon Amount	Doubled	Final Price
1	Newman’s Own Pasta Sauce	$2	3/21 RP	$0.50	$0.50	$1
2	Dole Mandarin Oranges (8oz)	$0.89 each	ebay purchase	$0.50/2	$0.50/2	$0.39 each
1	La Choy Soy Sauce	$1.25				$1.25
2	ScotchBrite Sponges	$1.22 each	scotchbrite*	$1		$0.22 each
1	Scottie Tissues	$1	scotties	$1		FREE
2	Barilla Piccolini Pasta	$1 each	ebay purchase	$1/2		$0.50 each
2	Barilla Whole Grain Pasta	$1 each	ebay purchase	$1/2		$0.50 each
1	Honey	$1.89				$1.89
2	Strawberries (1 lb each)	$3.99 (b1g1f)				$1.99 each (must buy 2)
1	GIANT London Broil (1.21 lb)	$2.99/lb				$3.62
1	Birdseye Frozen Vegetables	$2	3/21 SS	$0.50	$0.50	$1
3	Dannon Dan-o-nino Yogurt	$1.85 each	3/28 SS	$1		$0.85 each
1	Amoxicillin (with a rx)					FREE

* I found the link to this coupon on Money Saving Mom

Shelf Price (before sales, coupons, or tax and not including antibiotic): $39.77

Final Price (after sales, coupons, before tax): $19.52

Total Savings (not including antibiotic): $20.25 (49%)

So, overall I guess not a bad first MARTIN’S trip with a savings of almost 50% and a free antibiotic.