Special Ordering: for Extreme Couponers

Special Ordering Grocery Items to get Cuckoo Coupon Deals

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So this is a little too time consuming and extreme for me, but I wanted to post about this in case there are some real go-getters out there!

Why Special Order:

You Know a Sale Will be Cuckoo: when a sale is “cuckoo” people rush to the stores and buy up all they can get.  There’s not much you can do about other people clearing the shelves, post-EC days we need to be aware that there are people out there with no common courtesy who are clearing the shelves. Don’t be part of that problem!

It’s okay to buy 3 items if they are the last three on the shelf.  That’s not clearing the shelf.  It’s not okay to fill your cart and take hundreds of items and clear the shelf when the management was prepared for many people to be able to get in on the deal.   If you want that much, you should be special ordering so regular customers and couponers can stock up as well. This is what many people’s secret on Extreme Couponing was – their stores were prepared for their transactions because they had items ready for them.

So you know a deal is great and you want to get a lot, you can special order the items to make sure you get yours.

How to Special Order:

• Look at the sale the day it comes out.  Do you need store coupons or doublers to get the deal? If so, you may not be able to double that many coupons or your store may limit in-store coupons anyways.  Let’s say you can only purchase 3 in one transaction. You shouldn’t special order for that item and do 30 transactions or you’ll have one crabby cashier!
• After determining the deal would work well with one or very few transactions, make sure you can get the right amount of coupons you’ll need for the deal.  Some people even dumpster dive for coupons!  However you get coupons (I get them by ordering 5 copies of the Sunday paper) make sure to be ethical and never steal inserts out of people’s papers.
• Go to the store and talk to the freight manager.  Find out who is in charge of orders and get a great relationship with them.  It’s easiest for you to use the same person each time.  Make sure the manager knows that you are ordering the items for the current sale and ask if they will get there in time.
• Ask what day and time they will arrive.
• Phone the store before you go in to make sure your order has arrived.    Sometimes they won’t know and you’ll just have to go in.

CCD Readers: Which stores near you allow special ordering?

This is part of the ABC’s of Couponing guide