Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Shopping Hints - Part 2: Walgreens

I do not profess to be an expert, but I have learned a thing or two about shopping at Walgreens with coupons.  The following is a conglomerate of helpful hints and tips to successfully shop at Walgreens.

Walgreens (Wags) is very different from any other store when it comes to couponing and rewards.  Their rewards are called Register Rewards (RR) and they print out as "Catalina" coupons after a qualifying transaction is completed.  RRs can ONLY be used at Wags.  They are considered a "coupon" and MUST have an item "assigned" to them at check out.  This means If you are purchasing 3 items and already using 3 manufacturers Qs, you still have to purchase a separate item for each of your RRs (if you are purchasing 3 items but are only using 1 Q, you can use up to 2 RRs with that purchase).

The RRs can NOT exceed the "pre-tax" total (subtotal before tax) or you will not be allowed to use them (Ex. if the purchase is 99c and the RR is $1, you will not be allowed to use the RR for this purchase).

A good idea is to use a "filler" item if you need an item to match to your RR.  A filler item is something extra you purchase if you need to have an item that is not "assigned" a Q.  These are usually sale items or clearance items that are very inexpensive (a lot of times right after a holiday, you can find things like pencils, cups, candy, etc. from the holiday that are very cheap).

If you look at the ad for Wags, you will notice that the RR purchases are usually marked as "limit 1".  This means that you can ONLY do the deal once.  If you do more than one of these in a single transaction, the register will only print ONE RR for that deal.

If you use a RR from a specific deal to purchase another of that same deal, the register will NOT print the RR for that purchase because it "knows" you already got that deal.

Some companies have their RRs linked preventing you from doing a deal on another product that they manufacture.  (Ex. You purchase toothpaste and get a RR for that purchase.  You want to do another deal for deodorant by the same manufacturer and use that RR.  Some RRs will not print because the RR is linked to the manufacturer instead of just the product.)

Wags puts out a monthly Coupon booklet that can be found on the ad rack at the front of the store.  These are Walgreens Qs (WQs = Qs that can only be used at Wags and do not count toward your coupon to item ratio) and can be "stacked" with a manufacturers Q (see my article on "Stacking").  There are other booklets put out periodically by Wags that have several WQs in them (Ex. Vitamins and Supplements, Baby, etc.).  Some of the BEST deals come from stacking a WQ with a ManuQ on a deal that gives a RR or uses an in-ad Q.

An in-ad Q is a WQ printed in the weekly ad that must be used to receive that price on the item.  It can ONLY be used on the week that the ad is good for (usually Sunday through Saturday).

Any WQ or in-ad Q does not have to be "surrendered" to the store during the transaction.  You can re-use them and even leave the store with them.  You do not even have to have the WQ with you if you can give the cashier the 4-digit numeric code from the bar code on the WQ.

If this seems confusing to you, it is easier if you start small and work up to stacking with a RR.  Be prepared to make a few mistakes; they even happen to the experienced couponers.  Good luck and happy couponing at Wags!!

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