What is a Mega Event?
A mega event is a promotion that Kroger does several times a year. Unlike typical 10 for $10 sales, you MUST purchase the quantity of items specified in that particular promo in order to receive the mega sale discount. For example, “Buy 5 participating items, Get $5 off instantly”. You must purchase in increments of 5 in order to receive the additional $1.00 off per item. You can mix and match these items and receive the discount as long as you purchase in multiples of 5 in the same transaction.
Here’s what the ad will look like. When you see this, start to get really excited because you’re about to save a LOT of money! 🙂 The ad will outline the price BEFORE mega sale discount, and also after. I always just pay attention to the bottom number.
Decoding Those Mega Tags
Here is an example of a mega event sale tag. Notice there is a “sale price” of $2.49, and then a 2nd price of $1.49 if you purchase 5 participating items.
The mega discount will come off immediately at checkout when the item is scanned (after you’ve scanned your Kroger Plus Card). You will see a participating mega item marked on the receipt with a <+ symbol.
Not all participating mega sale items will be advertised in the sale ad. There are always tons more items that will just be identified by in-store signage, so be on the lookout for those mega sale tags!
Tips on Keeping Track of Items While Shopping
Since it’s very important to keep track of how many mega items you are purchasing so that you don’t miss out on the extra discount, you’ll need a system. There are many ways to keep track of your mega items, but I’ll give you a few tips. What the picture above shows is my current method. As soon as I walk in the store, I take a few of my reusable shopping bags, open them up and place them inside my cart. I then place all my mega sale items in the bags as I shop.
Once your bag contains 10 items, you close it up! No more hiding in the last aisle at Kroger counting 50 items!
If I don’t plan on getting too crazy, I will reserve one bag for non-mega sale items. Or you can throw non-megas in the bottom of your cart. (great idea Carrie!)
Or, if you’re really diligent about keeping track of items that enter your cart, you can do the old fashioned tally system on your shopping list. Do what works for you…just make sure you keep track! You do NOT want to get through checkout just to realize you counted wrong. If this DOES happen, you have a couple of options.
What if I Miscount My Items?
Scenario #1: You’re counting mega sale items as you put them on the belt at checkout and only count 48 items. If you know what other 2 items you want to grab, just have the cashier ring up 2 extra of that item and go get them off the shelf AFTER you checkout.
Scenario #2: You don’t catch the mistake until after you checkout, maybe even after you get home. Just go pick up any extra mega sale items that you need and take them along with your receipt to the customer service desk and they will make it right.
LIMITS
The majority of mega events do NOT have limits to how many items you can purchase in the same transaction.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions on how a mega sale works at Kroger. Feel free to leave a comment if there’s something I didn’t think of or if you have additional questions!
Oh, and one more thing…
Here’s what your face is going to look like as you marvel at your receipt when you get into your car! 🙂
2014 UPDATE: Check out my new video that walks you through the process!
Can you use one coupon and it applies to multiple items or just 1 item?
Can’t thank you enough for taking the time to make this video, I am very excited now to go and save as you did, please consider making more vids, you are a natural. It motivates us to save.
First time I have totally understood Mega Sale. Woo Hoo. Love the bag trick also. Thanks for all your help.
This was a life saver! I “attended” my first Mega sale last week, and had no idea how complicated it was! In addition to the Buy 6’s, there were 10 for $10’s, 4 for $5’s, etc. I didn’t know the rules (not even that you can mix products in the Buy 6’s) and I left the store in a near panic! At home, I watched your How-to video, got all my ducks in a row with lists, print and digital coupons, rebate info and sale prices. The next day, I returned to Kroger and conquered! ALL thanks to you, and the many hours you obviously put in to this site.
this is a great site now i can start couponing i have learned alot thank you i was never great at it no matter how many times my friends explained it to me it was like she was leaving out a whole bunch but by George i think i understand know
Whenever i’m going shopping especially mega event shopping i have 2 to 3 carts. one is designated for non coupon items, one is for generic coupon and one is for mega event. kids love it b/c it gives each their own cart and my wife pushes one while i put the items in the respective carts. wife used to hate shopping with me when i first started couponing but now loves it
Some libraries will let you print things for like a dime a page.
How can you get the land of butter bags?
wow! i never thought that you can get different items in the ‘must buy 5/10’ (participating items of course). i’m so dumb. but not anymore, thank you.
Thank you. I never thought of putting the items in a separate bag.
I did the shopping list tally last month and 2 items didn’t ring up as sale items even though they had the <+ on the receipt. Kroger customer service was great however. I'm going to try the shopping bag method this time. Great tip!
I never thought of the bag trick! Last mega sale I had about 10 rewards, and fell two items short of the last one! Devastating! I am going to try the bag trick, and am also going to go to customer service if I fall short again. I should have. I beat myself up over that one for days! Thanks for all of your hard work to save us some dough!
hey i can not afford a printer and all that ink