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2/16/08

New Shopping Experience

I was so excited to be able to check out a new grocery store today. During baseball season my husband works a second job as an umpire in a town 35 miles from our hometown. I often go with him on Saturdays and Sundays. He had a meeting to prepare for this season today and I went with him so I could check out Hen House Market.


I arrived at 8:15am. I was well rested and ready for the day. I had all the time I wanted, no need to be in a hurry. I was skeptical about what I would find. The outside of the store is plain and a bit dated. I noticed a sign "double coupons"...everyday. YIPPPEEEEE!

As I entered the store it was like entering a totally different world. I've never been to a store such as this. Everything sparkled, everything looked new and clean, everything stocked to the brim. Even the lighting was different than grocery stores I've been in. The set up of the store is like no other I've ever seen. I grabbed their current sale flyer by the door. Prices stated with member card. So I went to the service desk and filled out the short form to receive my card.

Then off to shop. There was no choice in what direction to go. You had to start with Starbucks. hehe Yes I splurged and bought me a small White Chocolate Mocha to enjoy as I shopped.

Then it was to produce and bread. I skipped the deli. There was produce I've never heard of. Produce I've heard of but never cooked with. I finally found the Wholly Guacamole I had coupons for. $2.99ea minus $1 coupon. They had LIVING herbs also. How cool.

At the bread department I found Roma Italian Sandwich bread for $1.29 a loaf and Wonder Wheat Bread for $1.86 a loaf. Bought 2 Italian and 1 wheat.

Then came the meat department. It's Lent time and ALL the stores are having huge seafood sales. I did buy a big package of chicken legs that were reasonably priced at $3.64 for 2.62 pounds.

Heres the rest of what I bought:

6 roll Viva Paper Towels $3.36 ($6.68)
4 Betty Crocker Corn Muffin Mix .37 each
2 Campbells Beef Gravy .48 each ($1.09ea)
1 Carnation Evaported Milk .88 ($1.09ea)
2 Betty Crocker Pouch Garlic Potatoes $1.15ea used 2 .40 coupons that doubled!
2 Lil Debbie Peanut Butter Bars $1.59ea
1 Kc Masterpiece BBQ Sauce $1.50ea
1 Betty Crocker Mini Deserts $2.85ea used .50 coupon that doubled!
1 Lipton Instant Tea $2.99ea
1 Kraft Miracle Whip Quart $1.38ea ($3.29ea) Never seen it this cheap!
2 Kraft American slices $1.18ea ($2.19ea) Never seen it this cheap!
1 Mama Lup Flour Tortillas $1.95ea ($2.29ea)
2 Pillsbury Ready to Bake Valentine Cookies .50ea (2.99ea)

They also had a liquor deparment like none I've ever seen. They offer free wine chilling machines too. TOO COOL!

My total coupon savings was $3.60. My card savings was $12. I paid $35.40 for my order. My total savings for the order was 32%. Not that great, but not bad.

I was very impressed with this store and I'm glad I decided to check it out. The main thing is I now know how the store is laid out, how their coupon policy works and what to expect. I need to find out where I can get one of the coupon books pictured also. If you know someone selling them let me know. I will be able to frequent the store more this summer when I go twice a month with my husband!

4 comments:

  1. I find Hen House to be too expensive to shop at for all my groceries, but they have pretty good ad specials. The one I go to (only occasionally these days) has half-price meats every day. They are near their sale date, but not past it, so I just bring what I buy home and freese it if I can't use it immediately. Since Hen House seems to have better quality meats than some of the other stores, this is a great bargain!

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  2. annie I found the same thing. I couldnt do ALL my shopping there, but no Cherry Picker is loyal to one store. That's the only way you can get the best prices, is to cherry pick two or three stores.

    Which one has the 1/2 price meats?

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  3. I agree that you can't shop just one store to get the best prices; just saying that it's too high to be my primary store.

    The one in Lee's Summit is the one with the half price meats. It's usually not in the main meat cases, but off to the side in the case with prepackaged ham and such. They bring it out on big sheet pans and just set the whole pan in the case.

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  4. Annie "just saying that it's too high to be my primary store" I totally agree with you on that! In comparison to what I'm used to, it seemed they had more on sale than my regular stores in my small community. Probably because they have more competition (it was the Lee Summit store I went to also)

    I missed the half price meat! I will keep a closer watch for it when I'm there.

    Thanks for answering my question, I had a feeling it was the Lee Summit store you were talking about. Hubby umpires at Legacy ball fields.

    Did you get much snow this am? We got quite a bit, but within two hours it had all melted with temps rising up to 42. Thank goodness. Now it's muddy though.

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