Bad Deal Gone Good

As couponers, we are all too aware of a good deal gone bad - your perfectly strategized shopping plan ruined by products out of stock or a cashier refusing coupons. Don't you just hate it when things don't go according to plan? It can almost ruin a day, can't it? This week, I had to take back a deal I use to think was horrible and determine that under current circumstances it was a great deal indeed!

A little over a year ago, Wal-Mart (WM) built a new Super Store. We had a WM, but it was a standard WM with limited groceries, no tire center, optical shop or any of the other services found inside Super WM. I have never been a big WM shopper but my friends who frequent there were excited for the one stop shopping the new Super store would provide. They also built it across from Costco so my friends and family who live in the rural areas nearby were excited to get their two main stops next door to one another. But then it arrived.....

My friends were disappointed with the limited amount of products available and prices. They found that some of the items they specifically went to WM for were no longer available or the variety they bought wasn't available any longer. WM use to be the place you went for almost everything but now its just not the same and its left us disappointed. The one thing I did always go to WM for was their photo studio. They had fantastic package prices and the packages had all the photos I needed so I didn't have to buy extra sheets. Guess What? The new and wonderful Super WM does not have a photo studio!

I took my youngest son to Sears a couple of weeks ago for photos, paid three times as much and got a third of the photos I use to get at WM. I was so disappointed! Now onto the point of my story.

My oldest son brought home the order form for school photos last week. The last couple of years I looked at this order form and thought no way am I paying that much for a package of photos. This year, I was so excited to get this form and see the package prices. The most expensive package is $30 which is what I spent at Sears a couple of weeks and it has all the photos I need in it AND I don't have to make an appointment and use a precious hour or two out of our busy week or sit through the upsell script. All I had to do was send a check to school with my son! Its my best deal of the week!