Saving More Grocery Money with Rain Checks

How can you buy a grocery item that is on sale today, but two weeks later, at today’s advertised sale price … by getting a rain check on the item?

You may have experience the frustration of rushing to a grocery store or supermarket expecting to pick up some advertised items at can’t-be-beat prices only to find the shelves empty and the items out-o-stock. But you can turn that frustration into an advantage in saving money on your grocery bills.

A rain check basically is an I.O.U. issued by a store that allows you to buy an out-of-stock item at the sale price, days or even weeks after the sale is over.

If a store runs out of an advertised sale item, and unless the advertisement says quantities are limited, the store probably will offer you some form of compensation.

Not only is it good customer service for the store to try to keep you happy, but The Federal Trade Commission’s “Unavailability Rule” dictates it. The FTC put the “Unavailability Rule” in place to protect consumers from "bait and switch" practices. For a better explanation of the “Unavailability Rule, go here: Unavailable Rule

A store will sometime substitute a comparable item for the advertised item, or offer you a rain check for the item so that you can buy the item within a limited time, usually within a coupon of weeks, and at the same advertised price.

The benefit of the rain check is that it allows you to buy more of the item at the sale price even after the sale is over. If your pantry, refrigerator, or freezer space is limited, you can reserve the sale price with a rain check until space opens up before using the rain check to buy more of the item.

You can stock up on rain checks by returning to the store a few times knowing that the item is still out-of-stock and ask for additional rain check to be used later. Multiple rain checks also allows you to manage you grocery budget better because you can spread out the cost of buying a stockpile of the item over several days or weeks. You save money with rain checks on perishables because you don’t have to buy more than you can use before the item goes bad and has to be thrown out.

Depending on the particular store, the process for getting a rain check could be as simple as asking the cashier for one at the check-out or more of a hassle as standing in line at the customer service station. But any minor inconvenience is well worth the amount of money that you'll save on your grocery bill with rain checks.