No coupon? No problem.

"Is there a coupon offer today?" I asked the sales associate in the contemporary department at Macy's, and we both burst into laughter. Is there ever not a coupon offer? So I fished around in my bag and came up with a couple of expired 15 or 20 percent off cards . I needn't have bothered. Krista, the sales associate, had a stack of them sitting at the counter. Same thing happened to me in shoes. So don't miss out. Basically there is never a reason to pay full price at Macy's - you know, the department store that promised to be less promotional.

Interesting addendum: Krista did have an ulterior motive. She wrote her name on the bottom of my receipt and asked me to go online and say nice things about her. (Does this count?) I've been told by company officials that this employee recognition program is not new, but someone must have recently clued in the front line staff because suddenly they're all begging for accolades. No one seems to have many of them that they'll need to actually work for it.