Food Lion Is Watching Us

The Columbia Talk team loves a bargain. When we go grocery shopping, we employ every discount strategy available to us. We clip coupons. We hunt sales. We use our frequent shopper cards -- religiously.

A few weeks ago, while checking out at Food Lion, the clerk ask us if we were participating in the store's latest promotion, a chance for free cookware. Being in a hurry, and a little suspicious of promotions, we politely declined.

But then we looked into the deal. For every so many dollars spent we could earn little stickers, like the Green Stamps of old, and eventually have enough for a new frying pan.

Who doesn't like something for "free."

So we went back to the store with our receipt and asked if, ummm, we could get stamps for the past purchase.

The manager studied our receipt for a moment and then asked us to wait while she went into the back office. Several minutes later she emerged and said, well, she had checked her videotape (remember this was a good week earlier) and it was clear that we had declined the offer at the time.

"But if you want the stamps, I can give them to you."

And she did.

Which was decent of her and all, if a little creepy.