El Cheapo Strikes Again

Yesterday there was a deal going on at Meijer where a body could get $5 off a gift card worth $50 or more.

Since our family does most of our grocery shopping at Meijer anyway, i decided to purchase ten gift cards, all worth $50, essentially pre-paying our groceries for the next few weeks at a 10% discount.   

All well and good, except for the fact that the coupon used is only good for one transaction.  So i had to stand at the counter for a number of minutes while the guy at the cash register:

1. Swiped the gift card, 
2. Inputted the amount ($50),
3. Scanned the coupon,
4. Waited for me to swipe my credit card,
5. Waited for me to sign on the electronic keypad and click "done."

A process taking no more than a minute, but rinse and repeat nine more times, and it gets old fast.  The woman waiting in line behind me actually covered her face with her palm and shook her head at around card number six.  I certainly didn't mean to inconvenience anyone.  I mean, how was i to know that she'd be doing her weekly grocery shopping at 11:30 at night?  I thought i'd be alone in the store doing my shady transactions that close to midnight. 

What was equal parts funny and slightly intimidating was that the Asian cash register guy was visibly annoyed at my money-saving tactics.  Each time he swiped the card through the machine, he did it with so much force that i thought he'd rip the device off its stand.  When i asked him if he needed a separate coupon for each transaction and showed him the stack that i had grabbed when i walked in, he said "No, don't do that," roughly pulled them from my hand, and threw them on the unmanned counter behind him.  I don't know what ticked him off so much...  Hadn't i just spent a chunk of money in his store?  What terrible customer service.  Maybe it was my choice of gift card? 

For some reason, i grabbed a wedding card. 

At least i saved a bunch of money on groceries...