to Big Bill mangling a Stone's tune was "uh oh...this is never going to work." But whether it was just the effects of mind numbing repetition or stealth marketing that I had no defenses against, it worked
. The Priceline spots are now among my favorites and Shatner is up there with my pop icon favorite Tom Jones (who this particular Webmaster happens to believe is the very definition of "cool" after covering the Talking Heads "Burning Down the House." I've been told my mother-in-law threw certain items of clothing at Mr. Jones during a live concert..but that's another story.)So there I was, sitting at my PC and once again seeing the Priceline
commercial (the "Bust a Move" one...ya gotta love it, right?!) and I decided to take the plunge. Moments later I was on the site and walking through the sign-up process to buy groceries online. (In case you haven't checked out the site, Priceline lets you submit an offer for everything from Tide detergent to airline tickets and mortgages.)
First the somewhat annoying side of the process. We all like to know if we are going to
win up front, right? So at Priceline, your natural inclination is to want to try a lowball price for what you want to buy and find out if it will be accepted before handing over the credit card. Nope! It doesn't work that way! You name a price that you will honor, provide a credit card and then they tell you if you "won" or not. If your price wasn't accepted, you can try again later. If it was accepted, your credit
card is charged and your purchase is final.
So, accepting those terms, I jumped in the game. The signup process was quick and easy and in no time I was scanning the online grocery aisles for the goods. As this was an initial test, I selected just a few items
to get a feel for the way things worked. It wasn't long before I had added a 12-pack of Pepsi, a loaf of Nature's Own Wheat Bread and two pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream to my shopping list. (That covers all the major food groups, right?)
Here's how it works...you choose a category of groceries, like Soft Drinks. From there, you choose a brand, state the price you will pay, and choose how many
you want to buy. Submit your offer and in under 60 seconds you find out if it was accepted or not. You are presented with some preselected discounted prices and shown the "chance" of getting your price for each one. (Even the lowest discount wasn't too shabby!) Since I had nothing to lose, I chose the "Fair Chance of getting your price" discount on each item...and was surprised to see it accepted each time!
My first online grocery trip ended up
costing $8.75. That amount was charged to my credit card and all I had to do now was wait for my Priceline card to show up and I would be ready to go! It arrived promptly in the next couple of days as promised, and got buried underneath the ever growing stack of papers on my desk. However, seeing the $8.75 charge on my credit card statement at the end of the month prompted me back to action. (BTW, once you have an accepted price from Priceline on groceries,
it is valid for 90 days.)
The stores in the 40/42 area that work with Priceline currently are Winn-Dixie and Lowes Foods. Having a couple of hours free this Saturday afternoon, I decided it was time to complete my transaction and see if it really worked. With my shopping list of items printed out and my bright green Priceline.com card in hand, I set out to Lowes Foods on Hwy 70 in Clayton. 
As I located each item and added it to my shopping basket I couldn't help but grin! I really was saving money! Here's how it turned out:
