Thursday 13 October 2011

Houston....we have a glitch

Now we all love a confession in blog land, something we never knew each other did. Well my little confession and indeed my guilty pleasure is what I call "glitching".  The reason I am mentioning this is that Tuesday was a fantastic "glitching" day for me. So what the hell am I talking about?

Well in basic terms it is when a shop has a glitch in its till system which allows fantastic bargains to be had, many a time it is when two discount offers can be applied to the same product, or a basic pricing error. Being a supporter of independent shops I find a great sense of satisfaction in getting one over on the 'Big Bully Boys' on the high street and I am not alone, there are many more just like me!

My first real taste of glitching was when Finley was a baby and he was desperate to chew on everything. I was recommended 'Sophie The Giraffe' as being the leader in the teething toy market:


 She has a cult following with the trendy yummy mummy's in my area, nothing at all to do with the crazy price tag of £13 for one rubber giraffe. Well to be honest Sophie could stay on safari at Jojo Maman Bebe for that price but this is where glitching saved the day. While perusing Amazon I spotted a twin set of Sophie the giraffe - usual price £22 but not this day, oh no, the twin pack was priced at 1p.
I quickly put my order in and low and behold amazon honoured the price and I received my twin pack (complete with free shipping) for the princely price of a penny!

Supermarkets are a glitchers paradise thanks to their mass of multi buy discounts and BOGOF offers. Every so often a big glitch offer comes along that needs to be exploited and it doesn't take long for word to spread about a huge deal. On Tuesday it was the humble chocolate orange.

Tesco had this on offer as 3 for £5 they also failed to notice that there was also an offer on them of buy one get one free.  One clever glitcher spotted this and realised that both the offers worked together if bought in multiples of 6. So instead of paying £2.75 each, 6 were going through the till at just over £1.80 - therefore being a little over 30p a chocolate orange!

Well I couldn't resist this one so I went into my local tesco and picked up 6 and went through the self scan (just in case they didn't go through and I looked like a complete arse with 6 chocolate oranges).....

....well it worked, a little too well....

Yes, I am now the proud owner of 18 chocolate oranges. After telling hubby about the glitch and my 6 purchases he came home from work with 12 more!  That's the Christmas stocking fillers taken care of.

Now I wasn't the only person to end up with more than I expected. The web went crazy with this offer and people were going out buying 60 or more of them and clearing the shelves. One lady reported that her son was barred from the store for a week and was matched out after buying 24 and then going back for more.  Quickly pictures were put up online of mountains of glitched choc oranges, my favourite being:


Yes this person did buy 176 of them!

Rumour was that tesco sent memo round and some stores removed their stocks and other restricted people to 3 only.  But thanks to self scan, plenty of bargain hunters hit tesco's profits hard thanks to the self scan and sheer determination to get one over on the supermarket giant (and to get cheap Christmas chocolate).

Yesterday there was also a great glitch to be had in my local boots store. Men's Dove deodorants were reduced to 50p each. Boots also had an offer on men's toiletries  - 3 for 2 on all items..

Well my 50p deo's went through at 3 for 2 also,  so that's £1 for 3 sprays and a hubby smelling sweet for the next couple of months.

On the same section they had Mark Hill shampoo reduced to £1 (also 3 for 2) so £2 for three large shampoos.  Ted Baker shower gel £1 an item and then botanics skin care reduced to 50p an item, all in the 3 for 2 offer!

Im not loyal to a skin or hair care brand if I can get them for less than 50p a pop! 

So if you want to take up glitching then this is the best time to get on board especially with all the Christmas offers, and its ideal for saving some serious cash on stocking fillers.  The best website I have found for finding offers is money saving expert forum, check it out daily and you are bound to find a great bargain or a tempting glitch. Its also great if you like a good online deal.

On main rule I follow for glitching is not to get greedy, leave some on the shelf for another person to bag. We all love a good bargain.

Big Love

 

34 comments:

  1. No way! That chocolate orange thing is hilarious! Mine's in the post, right? ;-)

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  2. Wow, great bargins!! well done on the chocolate oranges, I love them so much I could eat them all to myself!!

    Thanks for the tip off, will be checking out this site :)

    Bee happy x
    Have a delicious day!

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  3. Fabulous post, Scarlett. Yup, I'm a big fan of Martin's website. Wish I'd known about the choc oranges, I love em.

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  4. Well done for sorting your stocking fillers out at such a bargain price.
    Imagine the Scrooges at Tesco HQ telling the stores to remove stock...och, this must have made such a big dent in their overall profit, eh?...I THINK NOT!
    It's nice to see the little guy getting one over on these fecks for once, huzzah for glitching! x

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  5. I love a good deal and yes glitching sounds like the best kind! Love the orange chocolates you got for a sweet price.

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  6. Damn those are some mighty fine glitching deals, buddy loves orange chocolates.
    I usually go on that site for coupons and free samples.
    I need to bring you along to carry all mi chocolates.

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  7. I love a good glitch! Did you get any of the electrical bargains which were on sale in Tesco recently? hotukdeals.com is also a good site.

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  8. I reckon those people with 176 are going to be pretty sick of them and wish they hadn't bought so many although very hard to resist a bargain that good!

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  9. Wow, I can't believe I've never heard of this phenomenon before. I bought 3 chocolate oranges for £5 from Tesco only a few days ago!:( I'll definitely be checking out these money saving sites from now on. Just for sheer feelgood value

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  10. Damn..thats a lot of chocolate! What a great saving! I wonder if they will last until xmas?? Have a good one, Tamara x

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  11. I'd never heard of glitching before :-) Every day a school day :-)

    Jem xXx

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  12. Wow, you really cleaned up, huh? Great shopping girl! Love

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  13. heh heh heh, brilliant! That many choclate oranges wouldnt last that long here! I'm going to look out for potential glitches now my local supermarket has a self-checkout now, thanks for the heads up! x

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  14. YEAH for you guys!!! Glitching I love it MAJOR SCORE! I love those chocolate oranges I would have cleared the shelf!!!

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  15. Mmmm chocolate oranges! I love the pictures made from them too. I've never heard of calling it glitching but seems like a good term!

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  16. The orange man laying on the floor had me LOL!! Thanks!

    Carol

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  17. Talk about glitch jack pot.I would have gone crazy over the orange chocolates.We sell them where I work at the outlet store and they are not cheap thats for sure.

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  18. "Gosh I wish I could find myself some deals like these!!" I wonder if Canada has Glitches! LOL
    Hmmm
    Dammit now I want a chocolate orange!

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  19. Brilliant! I think I'd have gone bonkers with those- love the chocolate orange...now think of all the christmas stockings that will be filled with those this year. Hilarious. :)

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  20. Wow, you have done really well..what bargains! All those yummy chocolate oranges! I hadn't heard of glitching before, thanks so much for sharing :)

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  21. Oh yum, I love those chocolates! I bought one of those Sophies for AU$27 or something crazy because my friends told me that I would be able to stop giving my daughter Panadol when she was teething (the giraffe was THAT good). Well little miss didn't like it or the squeaking it makes. Hmmm. Luckily my SIL was about to be sucked into getting one so I gave it to her (apparently her daughter loves it). Lol. In return I got two bags of Haighs freckles (this is famous chocolate in Australia that SIL works for). Great bargains! Sherry :)

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  22. I like the sound of glitching especially if it involves Terry's Chocolate Oranges - I love those.

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  23. Hmm excellent bargains there! Cant believe someone bought 170 of them, I like your method better of being reasonable/unselfish about it! Jealous of the Botanics stuff, may need to hit my local Boots more often... :)

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  24. Scarlett, I think you are now ready for 'Extreme Couponing'. All you need is another house to store all your bargains. I love watching that show, such dedication to bargain pursuit.
    Have a brilliant weekend queen glitcher.

    Lucy x

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  25. No way! those are the bestest bargains ever! I can't stand Chocolate Oranges but at that price I could almost force myself to like them. xxx

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  26. Wow I love a bargain too and they really were bargains!! Well done!

    I get the weekly email from "Martin" but didnt realise it was worth checking the website as it changes daily!
    -x-

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  27. Wow what a fab offer! I must admit I do love a good bargain myself xxx

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  28. How do I not know about glitching?
    What a great way to get some bargains, and stick it to the Big Guys!!
    That photo of Chocolate Orange Man is priceless!

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  29. My best glitch was about two years ago when M&S applied multiple offers on one of those portable DVD players that you use in cars - ended up absolutely zero - delivered!!!! I didn't expect to get it but within a week of ordering it it duly arrived together with the invoice for - zero pounds!! xxx

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  30. O,how totally fabulous about the choclate orange!! My G adores them,I hope we get lucky with some glitching!! I can't think of any glitches I have enjoyed,but I'm sure I've had a few!
    XXX

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  31. That's fantastic Scarlett! I'll keep my eyes peeled for glitches! Those chocolate oranges would gone by the 1st November in my house! Em xx

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  32. WHAT!!! i've never heard of this glitch but I THANK YOU sooo much for sharing it, i trully dont know and now i'll make sure i keep my eyes for these glitches, you're soooo awesome, scarlett, those choc oranges are soo mouth watering, i would bagged alot like you if i knew about this!

    xx susan

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  33. You're funny! Loved seeing all your chocolate :)

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  34. The chocolate story AWESOME !

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