How to Shop Whole Foods the Smart, Savvy Way

Written by Patch Community Editor Nicole Foulke

Do you like Whole Foods? 

Have you ever wondered how the ladies from the TLC channel’s ‘Extreme Couponing’ got started?

In an effort to combine the two, at the Jenkintown Whole Foods’s ‘Extreme Couponing and Value Tour’ on Tuesday evening, customers were treated to a coupon and savings workshop and tour where they learned that their shopping trips to Whole Foods can be lighter on their wallets.

Dana Mensah, the store’s market team leader and a burgeoning couponer herself, taught guests that with a bit of strategy, they could use store sales, coupons, and purchasing items by the case to save around $50 a week at the store. 

“I didn’t believe any of this until a co-worker said ‘I have a coupon for that,’” said Mensah, who now saves and shows others how to do the same at Whole Foods.

That is not a savings, of, say $500 in one shopping trip on the Gatorade and Doritos often seen in more bulk-oriented couponing trips, but it can still manage to save a family an extra $2,600 or so a year in nutritious, interesting food.  

You don’t have to go crazy, you don’t have to be like the women on ‘Extreme Couponing.’  You can still save,” said Mensah.

Finally, said Mensah, if one’s coupons expire there are organizations that send them to military families overseas who are allowed to use them for up to six months after the expiration date.  Get in touch with them.   

Here are Mensah’s tips:

-Whole Foods has a policy where they match the price of items also sold at Trader Joe’s.  To participate, visit the customer service booth to inform them of the Trader Joe’s price.

-Look out for Whole Foods’s weekend sales, signified by Hot Weekend Deal dots in the store, from Friday through Sunday.

-Whole Foods allows coupon-stacking, where a customer can use both a Whole Foods coupon and another coupon on the same item.

-Look for their one-day sales.  According to Mensah, a lot of these sales involve produce that can be frozen and turned into shakes.  “Buying, stocking up, and freezing are great,” she said.

-Their Great Price orange signs indicate that Whole Foods had compared the price of a food item to the price at other stores, and found their items to be a better price.

-The 365 brand and the Nature’s Rancher brand are their cheaper, private label brands.

-In the meat section customers can find family meat packs, which are three pounds of meat or more.  There is a 50-cent savings per pound on those packs. 

-There are different sale cycles, from one-day sales to one-week sales, to four-week sales.  A week-long sale cycle beings on a Wednesday and runs through Tuesday.

-Whole Food stores have a large bulk foods section with beans, nuts, grains, fruit, and more.  “Bulk is one of the best places to shop, for your health and your wallet,” said Mensah.

-During a sale at Whole Foods, the only time a customer needs to buy two of something is when a sign indicates that the special is ‘buy one, get one free.’

-The Jenkintown Whole Foods has a Sweet 16 deal with packaged food bars such as Luna Bars, where the customer saves 10% when she buys 16 bars.  This can apply over bars that are on sale, as well.

-Look at the ends of the aisle where items on sale are featured.

-Whole Foods has a vitamin card that is marked off at cash registers when a customer buys vitamins.  After 10 are bought the eleventh is free if it is under $10; if the price is over $10, then that amount will be taken off of the price.

-If a customer orders a case of an item from Whole Foods, she will likely save 10% from that case.  If the item is on sale, most times the customer will have 10% taken off of the sale price.

-The Jenkintown store has free Wi-Fi and a free telephone-charging station.

-The Jenkintown store has a free coupon box to customers can share and take coupons.  It is organized alphabetically.

-Whole Foods’s The Whole Deal coupon book, full of coupons, is published every other month and is available online and in stores.  A good number of the Whole Deal coupon items are also on sale at the store.  

-Whole Foods’s Hot Deals sale flyer has some of that week’s biggest discounts and can be found in stores. 

-According to Mensah, natural foods are popular now and the Sunday paper often has coupons for such foods.

For tips on searching for coupons, Mensah has the following suggestions:

-Look at www.redplum.com for coupons.  Red plum coupons might also appear in one’s mailbox.

- According to Mensah, http://www.mambosprouts.com/ makes Whole Foods’s coupons and often posts manufacturer’s coupons on their site for items found in Whole Foods.

-The blog http://coupondivas.com/ can be helpful.  Try searching for Whole Foods coupons.

-The Website http://www.organicdeals.com/ has good links to coupons.

-Mensah searches online for coupons every week.

-Contact favorite manufacturers for coupons and sign up for their email lists for coupons, and ‘like’ their Facebook pages.  “Sometimes that unlocks a magical little world with coupons,” said Mensah.