McPick 2 for $2.50 - Another McDonald's Trick to Rip You Off.

Well hello friends, thank you for stopping by and reading about the latest and greatest McDonald's trickery to beat you out of your pocket change. 

First of, here is the McDonald's McPick 2 for $2.50 menu that I have taken an actual picture of at the McDonald's location on Judge Ely Blvd in Abilene, TX:

The normal standard fare of slop. But stop, wait a minute. Wasn't the McDouble on the McPick 2 for $2 menu back in January of 2016? Now it is $1.39 ( a dubious 39% increase in eight months!) and even at 2 for $2.50 you are still doling out an extra 25% more (!) for the same wonderful piece of non-meat with a piece of non-cheese slammed in the middle all between your non-bread and doled with condiments that are the only flavor. Yum. 

But that isn't the worst part about this McPick 2 for $2.50 "deal." Look at the price of the McChicken on the base menu. It is $1.19. 

Here it is again, highlighted:

So if you buy 2 via this "deal" then you are actually paying more by 0.11 than by buying each one individually since doing it per the menu board only brings the total to $2.38. 

Only McDonald's comes up with schemes and tricks this flagrant, brass and stupid to fool people that still eat there for some ungodly reason into thinking they are getting a good deal when in reality, they are getting ripped off to no end.

You think eleven cents doesn't matter? Multiply that by millions of customers daily. Eleven cents matters in the world of volume my friends.

Thank you for reading and remember, stay vigilant, as these big box chains will stop at nothing to pad their bottom lines for the 1% that live off of stock profits in America. 

McDonald's has sunk so low that they have resorted to stealing your pocket change and making you believe you are getting a deal as shown here.

We shouldn't be surprised anymore, should we?

 

Albertsons Ends Double Coupons And Has To Remind Customers They Accept Them At All

Fresh off the heels of Albertsons ending double coupons in Texas effective 04/09/2014, a story that we here at Reality Retail & Couponing broke first, here we have the first post-Memorial Day ad from our local Albertsons dated 05/28/2014.

And in the header it states as above "We Accept Manufacturer Coupons At Face Value!" Is this supposed to be something new? Are they reminding us of this as a way to say they are doing us a favor by actually accepting coupons at all !??

To further add insult to injury here, they post this advertisement next to their classic "Crazy 8's" sale. This sale used to be a bastion for couponers getting ready for the summer season with dirt cheap or free condinments such as ketchup, mustard, snack pack pudding, barbeque sauce, baked beans, etc.

Under the old Albertsons double and triple coupon policy you could really have scored a good deal here and wow, I know I did and so did many of you.

Now they've resorted to insulting the couponers in this fashion.

Or maybe they have lost business from the couponers and felt the need to reassure them they are still coupon-friendly. Fact of the matter is that I alone have made about 75% less trips to Albertsons since they killed the doubles in early April of 2014. Hazard to guess I am not alone, as often on many days of the week and early on weekends the parking lot just isn't as full as it used to be.

Is it the lack of double and triple coupons? Is it the across-the-board price increases that many of these Albertsons stores in Texas have put in place since early April? Is it the lie of "better manufacturer coupon deals" that their Facebook page promised and has never delivered on? Or is it a combination of all of the above? My guess is the latter.

So now, with Albertsons flying and boasting about how they accept coupons at all,  this ad will be good for one thing and one thing only - price matching at Wal-Mart or Target.

Albertsons may still accept coupons, but they sure won't be mine.

Harbor Freight Tools Coupons - Where have they gone?

Hello. It's been quite some time since I've posted out here, busy with the holidays and post holidays trying to catch up. For those in the know and follow such things, we can't help but notice the massive roll back in coupons and advertisement being issued by Harbor Freight Tools. To the point of being non-existent.

Maybe we took it for granted. All of the years that I have been here in Texas (since 2008), there is one thing you used to able to most certainly count on in your Sunday paper - a Harbor Freight Tools insert.

Apparently those days are gone with the wind.

Back toward the last quarter of last year, Harbor Freight Tools went on an advertising spree. There were inserts every Sunday in the paper, various mailings as well as coupons in various magazines ranging from local electric companies, to car, truck and hunting magazines. As an added bonus, they even sent out an flyer in those monthly advertisements that get mailed to your house full of Life Insurance, DirectTV, fast food coupons, checks, As Seen on TV, etc. These were good times for those looking to catch a real bargain for tools and things for the home, or for those who endeavor in such things, to sell on eBay (more on that later.)

I have a Harbor Freight Tools store local to me here in Texas. I often save them due to their generous expiration dates, for use when I need something. The 20% and 25% off any single item coupons work very well also and I have used them in the store more times than I can remember. I like the store, the people and the deals. I'd rather buy a shop vac there for $25-30 as opposed to getting ripped off in stores like Wal Mart, Home Depot or Lowes' paying almost double for a product that does the same thing.

However, at the end of December 2013 and is still ongoing as of mid-March 2014 at least in my area, there have been no Harbor Freight Tools flyers and inserts in my Sunday paper as well as none mailed to my address via the monthly flyers mentioned above. Nothing, done. Finito. Even the one-page flyer they print still in the SmartSource coupon flyer has been dramatically reduced to the same 12 (it used to be upwards of 20) items over and over again.

I went in the stores recently and asked a clerk why they no longer advertise like they used to. Of course being the clueless $8.00 an hour clerk that it was, he stated it was "probably to get you to buy one of these things" and picked up their $30 a year Inside Track club membership card.

Really? I've seen those advertisements for Harbor Freight Tools that those "Inside Track Club" members receive and it is a joke. The prices are all incrimientally higher that the normal advertisements that we used to get via mail and the newspapers on Sunday. Various forum posts on the internet if you Google it, will be full of regretful stories about how they purchased this under the guise of receiving better deals - when in fact the deals were actually worse.

I've never purchased one and I never will.

People sell these on eBay and apparently make good money doing so. A pre-2014 count if you do a search for Harbor Freight coupons would have netted anywhere between 3,000-4,000 hits. Now? You are lucky to find 1,000 hits and the range goes from a low of 900 upwards of 1,200 on any given day. That's a 75% reduction in listings, leading us to assume this trend is nationwide. Was this the reason for the cutback? eBay sales? For the record, Harbor Freight Coupons are NOT manufacturer's coupons so they do not have to adhere to the ridiculous eBay coupon policy instituted in September of 2013 as these are STORE coupons. Massive difference.

Also for the record I have seen people bidding anywhere from $50-$200+ for coupons for such things as rolling tool cabinets, motorcycle lifts, winches, saws, greenhouses, solar panels etc. If you do this and do not read the listing that 99% of the time clearly indicates it is a coupon you are purchasing, and really think that someone is going to send you a 2 ton motorcycle lift or greenhouse for $29.54 or whatever that low bid you have is going is with free shipping you are in serious need of mental help.

This is what happens, the eBay sellers mails you the coupon you actually won for this outrageous amount, then the usually-low feedback buyer gets it and is furious thinking they won a portable greenhouse that's 10x10 feet or something for $12.33 shipped for free. Even when the listing clearly states you are bidding on the coupon. Ebay will not protect the seller under normal circumstances, let alone this kind, so the buyer usually gets the coupon , their money back and a wonderful chance to leave a negative feedback for the seller. Even though the seller clearly did nothing wrong and it was the moronic buyer that actually believed they were getting a rolling toll card that weighs 75 pounds for $47.46 shipped for free. Cmon people. Use your brain and read. Obama and the government may be giving you everything you need to live as it is, but at some point, you have to take personal responsibility for being an idiot. It's these situations that makes it hard to sell on eBay overall, let alone under these circumstances dealing with clowns. I know so many sellers that have left due to situations just like the ones mentioned, and it is indeed a shame. eCrater took the Harbor Freight coupons with them also when they instituted their cowardly "Ban All Coupon Sales" mantra in August of last year. That took another 500-1,000 Harbor Freight Coupons off the market.

If there was ever a website that was so afraid of success in being an eBay competitor, it would be eCrater. People are dying for an eBay alternative and they just haven't stepped up to the plate in any way, shape or form. In fact, when they have an opportunity to cash in on an eBay misstep or bad policy, they usually run as far away from taking advantage of it as they can.

So what this has meant to me personally is a dramatic reduction in my trips to Harbor Freight Tools be it either online or in the store. It's a little out of my way so to go there requires a special trip that used to result in good savings. Now, who knows what you are going to get there. I have been spending more time in Home Depot and Lowes as of late, at least there you know you are going to get a little better quality item and bent over as opposed to having the savings ripped out of your hands by a company that is apparently nickel-and-diming its' way into irrelevance.

Welcome to the first post of Reality Retail & Couponing 2014. There's many more stories just like the ones above, so stay tuned.

Thank you for reading.