5 Reasons to Visit Giant (aka Stop and Shop) This Week, 03/20-03/26 (OK, a lot more than 5, but tradition, people!)

Looking over the Giant ad this morning, I'm starting to think that there might be an increasing preference for grocery chains in these "Buy x number, get $" and "Buy $$, get $" Catalina and instant-savings deals - to deeply discounted loss leaders. Makes sense to me - customers could get all excited with the big savings number, then spend a huge amount on full price (or nearly full price) stuff, or only have a few coupons that apply, just to get an OK net discount. I don't think it's worth getting excited about these deals until you're bringing the 'net' cost of the items down to suitably low prices.

News: Giant is reinstituting its "Buy 6 milks, Get the 7th FREE!" program that it did last fall, due to popular demand. This brings the cost of a gallon of regular milk down to $3 since Giant gallons of milk cost $3.49 - better than most, but not as good as Wegman's or Sam's prices.
Five (and a few more) reasons to visit Giant this week:

1. $0.99/lb. (half-price) turkey breast
   
2. $3.99/lb. priced whole seedless watermelon (these are usually above $7, especially this time of year), or 2 lb. packages of strawberries ($2/lb.)
   
3. Healthy Choice meals are 5/$10 and you get a $3 Catalina coupon. 5 meals for 'net' $7 = $1.40 each.* If you can print the $1/2 coupons here and here, you should get them for $0.90/each. (Thanks, Frugal in Virginia!)
   
4. $2 Extra Large Canteloupe Melons
   
5. $2.99/lb. 80% lean ground beef. Check out Mommy Making Money's 'Cook Once, Eat 10 Times' ground beef edition tutorial for tips on how to maximize your ground beef savings and sanity by cooking ahead.
   
6. BOGO Hillshire Farm smoked sausage. Use the $0.65/2 coupon from the 03/08 Red Plum, which doubles, to bring the half-price effect of a buy one, get one deal even lower, by $1.30!
   
7. There's a meal deal on the back page - Buy one bag of Tyson Chicken Strips or Filets for $6.99, and get a free Giant fries, White House apple juice, and Edy's ice cream. Use the $1/off any Tyson breaded bagged chicken (03/08 SS insert) to make this meal deal $5.99. (Unfortunately we found no evidence of any White House or Edy's coupons.)
   
8. $1.50 Blue Diamond Almonds (4/$10 on sale) when you use this printable Internet coupon for $0.50 off any Blue Diamond Almonds, which will double. There was also a $0.75/2 coupon in the 01/18 SS which would double, making them $1.75/each.
   
9. Lloyd's BBQ is BOGO, and currently priced at $6.69 each. If you use two of the $0.75/1 coupon (yes, you can use two!) from the 01/25 SS insert, the coupons will double, so you can get $3.00 off two...so $3.69 for two, or $1.85/each! That's a huge discount from $6.69 each!

*Edit: Healthy Choice coupons and Pepsi coupons, ergo deals, were expired - though I couldn't tell at the time early this morning because I was drafting the deals on a Linux-based computer. So sorry for any confusion!

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