Serendipities: Free beef plus cash at Kroger

I had a coupon sitting around for $2 off a package of ground beef (for buying Fowler's Two-Alarm Chili, which I love and also send to my parents up north), so I took it to Kroger's today. (It's getting to be chili weather again.) As part of an advertised sale, they had one package marked down from $4.43 to $2.91. I thought, "Great! I'll pay 91 cents for one and a half pounds of coarse-ground chili meat."

I always check the receipt before I leave though, because I almost always find one pricing mistake. I only bought seven items, but sure enough: Kroger charged me $4.43, not $2.91, for the beef. The cashier even thought the $2 coupon (which she'd spent five minutes puzzling over before ringing it up 60 seconds previously) was the store discount (which totals, um, $1.52).

One nice thing about Kroger is that not only do they strive to be the price leader, but when they make such a mistake, they refund the full price charged and give you the item. So in the end, Kroger paid me $6.43 to take home a $4.43 package of beef for free. That's like earning $11 -- which was more than the bill for all my groceries, even including the overcharged beef.

It really is the little things that give pleasure -- at least, until certain indictments become convictions (one can only hope).