La Fiesta Shopping Haul: 73 Cents Per Item!

Here's my shopping haul from my first-ever trip to La Fiesta Supermarkets today.


I spent $10.20 on 14 items, so my price worked out to an average of 73 cents each!  Here's how the math worked out:



What I bought:

• Gulf Pacific brown rice -- on sale for 49 cents per pound, with 20 cents off coupons available in store.  So my price was just 29 cents per bag!  That coupon apparently lasts through July 26, so if your family eats a lot of rice, it might be worth a trip just to stock up on that one item.  *stockpile price*
• Planters creamy peanut butter -- priced at $1.69 per 18oz. jar.  I bought five and used five of the $1 off coupons from the 6/24 Smartsource insert, which dropped my price to just 69 cents each.  If you want to get some super-cheap peanut butter too, you have to shop fast -- that sale ends on July 17th.
• Libby's canned pineapple chunks -- 8oz. cans on sale for 70 cents each, with 20 cents off coupons available in-store.
• Talk of the Town wheat bread -- priced at $1.09 per loaf.
• Russet potatoes -- 5-lb. bag on sale for $1.50.
• Campbell's reduced-fat cream of chicken soup -- priced at $1.79 per can.

I was super-pleased by the sale prices I found at La Fiesta, but not so impressed with the store as a whole.  I saw a couple of expired sale signs in the sections -- like the Libby's pineapple, which still had a 3 for 99 cent sale sign up.

I also saw reduced Silk soy milk cartons marked down and left propped up on the outer rim of the milk section, when they are supposed to be refrigerated.  

But my big amusement came at checkout, when my cashier very closely looked over all my Planters coupons, and pulled my peanut butter out of the bag to check that the price, size, and quantity I'd bought matched up the coupons I gave her.  

Then she disregarded the store sign that states ID will be necessary to pay with any credit cards, even though I had my ID out and asked her if she needed it!

I have no problems with conscientious cashiers wanting to make sure that everything is going right with their transactions -- after all, it's often their butt on the line if they take a fraudulent or improperly used coupon.  

But I think that level of detail needs to extend to other store policies as well -- otherwise, it really does come across like you're more suspicious of couponers than other customers.

So my final verdict on the La Fiesta supermarket chain?  I won't go out of my way to become a regular shopper there due to the distance from my house and those lapses of attention to detail.  

But for a stockpile deal that your family will really use, it's probably worth the occasional trip and a little bit of aggravation!

Check out more La Fiesta deals here.

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