The Macy's Coupon That Wasn't

I walked into Macy’s this week with great expectations, holding my newspaper coupon for 20% off all regular and sale merchandise. However, one sixth of the coupon described the discount, and the other five sixths described a long list of exclusions, including Specials, Everyday Values, designer wear (although outwear was excluded from the designer exclusion :rolleyes:).

When all was said and done I couldn’t find anything I wanted to buy that wasn’t excluded.

20% off a selection of regular, sale, & clearance purchases storewide including fine & bridge jewelry. Cannot be used on Specials.

Excludes: specials, Everyday Values (EDV), super buys; bridge & designer intimate apparel, shoes, handbags & sportswear; cashmere, cosmetics/fragrances, fashion jewelry, furs, watches, premium tops & bottoms for him (D 567/571), swim for her, electrics, electronics, furniture, mattresses, rugs/floor coverings, Sterling flatware; Holiday Lane Dept., trim, cards & wrap; regular priced china, crystal & silver. Also excludes: All-Clad, American Rag, Baccarat, Barbara Barry, BCBGMAXAZRIA, Burton, Calvin Klein, Coach, DKNY, DKNYC, Dooney & Bourke, Ed Hardy, Emporio Armam, Ghurka, Henckels, Logo Boss Impulse, INC, Joseph Abboud, Juicy, kate spade, Kenneth Cole, Lacoste, Lalique, Lladro, Levi’s/Dockers, Louis Vuitton, Lucky, Martha Stewart Furniture, Material London, Michael Kors, Natori, Nautica, The North lace, Oval Room, Perry Ellis, Polo/Ralph Lauren, St. John, T Tahari, Lasso Elba, Thomas Pink, Tommy Bahama, Tommy Hilfiger, Tumi, )8 Shop, UGG, Vera Wang, Waterford, William Yeoward, Wusthof (designer exclusions don’t apply to outerwear depts.) Not valid on previous purchases, special orders, services, gift registry kiosks, gift cards, macys.com, macysweddlngchannel.com, payment on credit accounts, alcoholic beverages, bridal salons, LAO Schwarz, eSpot, J&R Express, maternity, Signoria Firenze, Stride Rite, Ticketmaster, Vision Express, wigs, restaurants, wine. Cannot be combined with any savings pass/coupon, extra dlscountor credit offer, except opening a new Macy’s account. Macy’s employees not eligible.

Been there done that. It comes down to nothing that people will want is on that coupon, but they hope you’ll buy everything at full price when you get there. Like Best Buy advertising 30% of regular prices. Note: Does not include electronics, software, DVD’s, cd’s or appliances.

Sheets. It’s the most wonderful time of the year … to buy sheets. And towels.

They make a mockery of the word “all”.

All the big stores do it.

Macy’s ads have become a running joke in my family.

The person who unfolds the newspaper announces (with surprise! and delight!), “Macy’s is having a sale!”

[sub]Which pretty much means that it’s a day that ends with “y”[/sub]

So all that’s left is what, the candy?

Damn… can’t even get a discount on an employee. I hate having to pay full price for them, but sometimes you just can’t wait for an Internet order.

I’m working at Macy’s the winter. It’s gotten so crazy that I don’t even know what items the coupons work on or not. We have a new one out that says “Hardly any exclusions!” I have yet to find an item that it applies to.
It’s worse than any other place I’ve ever worked at, because they throw in the “designer brand” exclusion. I’d say about 2/3rds of the brands are considered “designer brands.”

Although when I worked at JCPenney we did have a month long coupon only good on items not already on sale. If you’ve ever been in JCPenneys, you’ll know that most of the items are on sale. I couldn’t find a single item in my department (mens) that wasn’t on sale. Got yelled at by a lot of customers for that one.

Hobby Lobby is an arts and crafts store that also sells “decor”. The furniture is 30% off EVERY WEEK. I don’t know who they think they’re fooling…

You got to love Macy’s. The only time I go there is just to enter the mall.

The same thing happened when a Kohls opened not far from here: we were sent a $10 off coupon good on all non-sale items. When we went to check it out, we couldn’t find anything in the store that wasn’t “on sale.” Not one thing!

Hmm, I’ve just had the opposite experience. Yesterday I opened a Macy’s account just to get the 20%, plus they had 15% off anyway, or was it an extra 20%? I got either 35 or 40% off everything that was included, on top of existing sales. I got four pairs of jeans, two pairs of nicer pants, a sweater/tunic thing, a knit top, and a nice sweater, all for $193, down from $275. I didn’t check what was or wasn’t part of the deal – I just brought everthing and had her add it up. Some of the jeans were DKNY. I got 20% off everything today, also (the 20% was good for two days). This included the Benefit stuff I bought today (and stuff from the various cosmetics counters are almost always excluded).

I’m with tesseract. While the coupons can be overly restrictive, I’ve bought a lot of stuff at Macy’s – including various designer clothes, the up-scale Macy’s store-brand clothes, Liz Claiborne purses, Samsonite luggage – at very deep discounts by using coupons and 10-25% off promotions.

Last year Kohl’s had at least three ads still signed around their stores at once all the time. The employees and customers were all frustrated because nothing rang up as what the customer expected. The employees ended up being told to just ring it up for whatever the customer said it was on sale for and not call the supervisor for a price check or approval. A dishonest customers dream come true. The Lake Delton store was an overall disaster that I could tell was a management problem. This year I’d say they had a new manager.

Ha. It’s kind of like how my local fabric store is having a 40% Off Everything In The Store (that isn’t on sale already) Sale!

Conveniently enough, almost everything in the store is already on sale, but only at a 10% markdown… as far as I can tell, the only things that are actually eligible for the 40% Off Everything In The Store price are polyester lining, buttons and thread. Nice.

Yep. I was in yesterday. I didn’t read the exclusions on the coupon, but just handed it over to the cashier. I walked out with a wallet, a necklace, three pairs of earrings and the softest socks I’ve ever felt, for less than 100 dollars. They did take the extra 20% off the post-sale price (i.e., the $50 wallet was 30% off, then they took the 20% off that amount, so it was $28), but I’m not complaining!

Hah. Around here, whenever anyone complains about the quality of reporting in the LA Times, we say, “But at least they get one thing right – whenever they report that the Macy’s is having a sale, they’re right!”

This coupon seems more valuable for its face value (which is what, 1/20th of a penny? - also in the fine print).