Went to Vons today to do my normal weekly grocery shopping and remembered this deal. Picked one up and checked out with that before my groceries. 2x$10 coupons spit out. Asked the cashier to split the grocery order once we reach $25 on the first order. Coupon doesn't work. Manger has the cashier do a 2x$5 discount (which doesn't require an override card). The rest of the groceries go thru as a second order. This time the coupon scans just fine.
So, 20 off of my normal grocery shopping isn't too bad (minus the 6.95 purchase fee which is kinda crazy since the variables have a 5.95 fee). My theory on the first one is that the first grouping of groceries contained milk and when that was subtracted from the total, it went below the 25 threshold.