Last year, as my family was driving to Galesburg for Thanksgiving, we drove thru Mt. Vernon and past a small grocery store called Gary's. My husband teased me that I had never "harrassed" this small town grocery store with my coupons and that I ought to shop with my binder there. Well, I took his advice and began watching the Gary's ads, and leading up to Christmas, they had some fabulous prices. I have since quit following their ads unless I am going to be in or near Mt. Vernon, then I make sure to take a quick look at their ad. However, with Christmas just around the corner again, my mom asked me a couple weeks ago to start watching for Gary's to put their 8 oz. cheese blocks on sale for $1.39 again (like they did last year). Although I never mentioned it on the blog, last week, they had them for $1.09, so we made a trip to Gary's.
Gary's ads usually have their "Best Choice" brand items on sale, so not necessarily anything you can use coupons on, but last year they had cake mixes for 39c, the above mentioned cheese blocks, along with some other nice prices. Another thing I have noticed about Gary's is that they have meat, dairy, etc. marked way down daily for quick sale. I usually find something to buy that is close to expiration that I can freeze.
On my first ever trip to Gary's, I did have a bad experience. EVERYTHING I had gone for was out of stock. I did find some Country Crock mashed potatoes marked down, and I had had some coupons for them, so I picked up as many as I had coupons for. They wouldn't have been free, but not too far from it. Anyway, I got the whole "one per purchase" thing, and the 16ish year old "manager" also wouldn't budge when I tried to explain it, so I left with only 2...one that I bought and one that I threw onto my mom's order. I wrote to the store manager and he apologized profusely and mailed me a $25.00 gift card. Since then, I haven't noticed a stock issue and have had no problems with my coupons. He said he would train his cashiers on the proper use of coupons. Thank you!
So, you may see a Gary's post pop up from time to time, and if you're going that direction, I encorage you to at least check their ad.
