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For Release June 1, 2009
Grocery Shoppers Are Learning How to Save Money With Bigger Better BOGOs
A new book teaches a strategy for taking a grocery BOGO, making it an even bigger money-saver and turning it into a brilliant investment
June 1, 2009, Boca Raton, FL - Can shoppers really save 60%, 70% or more on many of their favorite groceries? “No problem” says Martin Sloane, author of a new book “BOGO! Buy 1 – Get 1 Free! Save $100 Or More Every Month On Your Favorite Groceries.” Sloane, who for 25 years wrote a nationally syndicated supermarket advice column, says supermarket BOGO sales have become one of the most popular consumer promotions. “BOGOs are a great way to save 50%, but smart shoppers can do even better.”
One of the strategies for making BOGO sales bigger and better is matching manufacturer coupons with the BOGO sale items. For example, each week, Publix, a leading chain in the southeast, offers shoppers dozens of “Buy 1 – Get 1 Free!” items. Every Thursday in the wee hours, Publix updates the money-saving “Buy 1 – Get 1 FREE” pages on its website. On Thursday morning, Sloane is at his computer at www.publix.com. checking his coupon file for matching coupons.
Sloane’s BOGO Book shows how to build an inventory of many hundreds of valuable grocery coupons. However, if there is no coupon in the file to match a BOGO item, Sloane goes to the brand’s website. Almost every brand has a website and they often include money-saving print-at-home coupons.
Sloane recently added manufacturer coupons to a BOGO sale on Uncle Ben’s Country Inn Rice. “I paid $1.49 the regular price, for the first package. The second was free. I then gave the cashier Uncle Ben’s coupons, each good for $1-off on the purchase of two. I paid just 49-cents for each two box purchase!”
When Sloane bought the Uncle Ben’s, he handed the cashier 10 of the $1 coupons and purchased 20 boxes. “The BOGO Book explains my strategy for matching BOGO sale items with an almost unlimited supply of coupons using eBay auctions and careful timing.” Sloane says stocking up on a great buy like the Uncle Ben’s is a wonderful low risk grocery investment. “I don’t think Warren Buffett could do any better.”
Sloane offers these BOGO Tips: Find out if there is an item limit and visit the store more than once if necessary. Unless you are told otherwise, give the cashier two coupons for each pair of BOGO items. If the store runs out of a BOGO item be sure to ask for a rain check that does not expire for several weeks. This gives you more time to find matching coupons. And, if your supermarket matches other store sale prices, search for BOGOs in those store’s advertisements or circulars.
“Grocery manufacturers are offering consumers more coupons and supermarkets are offering more BOGOs,” says Sloane, “and smart shoppers are putting 2 and 2 together and walking out of the store with fantastic buys.” Bigger Better BOGOs are a part of Sloane’s shopping system “The Great Grocery Game.” The system is described in the BOGO Book’s eight chapters which include more than 90 shopping experiences reported by the readers of Sloane’s newspaper column. Chapter 8, Multiple Promotions, Extraordinary Savings can be read on the author’s website: www.martinsloane.com.
Boca Raton, FL - It is easy to feel poetic about sunny tropical isles, but a recently announced poetry competition asks poets to put their experiences in the supermarket aisles into verse. This poetry competition for supermarket shoppers is the creation of Martin Sloane, who for many years wrote a nationally syndicated supermarket advice column. “When I started writing my advice column, letters from readers discribed their strong emotions about experiences at the supermarket,” said Sloane. “I thought it would be interesting to ask them to express their feelings in verse.” When the first competition was announced, skeptics were doubtful it would produce poetry worth publishing. They were wrong. Martin sponsored this unusual competition for 24 years, and received thousands of entries each year. Popular subjects included shopping with children, shopping with spouses, saving money, difficulties selecting nutritious food and dieting. “I learned that my readers were not only smart shoppers who loved to save money on their groceries, many of then were talented poets,” says Sloane The rules of the 25th Annual Supermarket Poetry Competition are: Poems can be about any experience related to grocery shopping: Feeding your family, supermarket shopping or stretching the grocery budget. Poems must be original and should be a maximum of 300 words. All poems must be submitted using the E-mail form found on the “Supermarket Poetry” page on the website martinsloane.com. Deadline for entries has been extended to 12 midnight, Monday, July 5, 2010. The winners will be announced in September. Several poems from past winners of the competition can also be found on the website. Martin Sloane will publish the first-, second-, and third-prize winners on this website. The first-place poem earns the poet $100. The second-place winner receives $50, and the third, fourth and fifth-place winners will each receive Martin’s new book BOGO! Buy 1 – Get 1 – Free!Save $100 Or More Every Month On Your Favorite Groceries! Sloane says, even if you are not a winner, you will enjoy the fun of this creative experience. "It is a great way to vent in rhyme!"
