[As always, keep in mind that store policies can vary from street to street and city to city. Please verify your store’s policies before assuming that it matches these suggestions.]
This is probably the hardest lesson for me to teach and I was thinking about leaving it until the very last but I decided to tackle it head-on and get it over with!!!
Since Walgreens can be complicated, please read the Walgreens portion of the Online Coupon Workshop first if you are not familiar with the Walgreens coupon policy or Register Rewards. (Please note that the Walgreens lesson from the Online Coupon Workshop is based on a typical Walgreens store. Some Walgreens managers are catching on to the coupon chic customer and are allowing more savings by working the policies in our favor. Find your closest coupon-friendly Walgreens and shop there!)
Just like CVS, there are three ways to save at Walgreens in any given week. 1) Items will be on sale at rock bottom prices. 2) Items will be on a BOGO (Buy One, Get One) sale. 3) Items will be sold with a RR (Register Rewards) incentive.
This is not new but… if you spot items at rock-bottom prices, you buy them even if you do not have the coupons. Coupons are just icing on the cake in that situation.
You heard this from me yesterday: When items are on BOGO, purchase them only if you have coupons or are desperate need of those products. Why? Because BOGOs always roll around and most of the time there are coupons to match. If you do not have the coupons and can wait, wait for the next rotation to extend your savings.
RRs can often get you items for cheap or even free but just like with ECBs at CVS, watch your price book and be careful not to get lured in by the RRs if the bottom-line price after discounts is still too high.
UGH… can you hear me gritting my teeth? I will be honest that with our local Walgreens stores having such a wide mix of policies, this is hard to explain. So, to simplify your life, I am going to tell you to use any Walgreens that allows you to use multiple RRs per transaction. If you do not know what your area Walgreens will allow, call and ask.
Now, another thing you need to know about your area Walgreens store is if they count WAGS (Walgreens store coupons) towards your total coupon count. My Walgreens does not count WAGs. That is excellent for couponers since Walgreens requires that our item count match our manufacturer’s coupon count. In simpler terms, at my favorite store, if you have four Manufacturer’s coupons, you must have four or more items. (Remember: A RR is a Manufacturer’s coupon!) If I have a coupon for every item in my cart but want to use a RR, I have to add a filler item.
Can you remember Rule #1? Always do your homework at home. Try to plan out your transactions before you get to the check out and PLEASE, for the sake of the cashier and the other customers, use the cosmetics counter to check out when you have multiple transactions. Don’t see the cashier there? Ask the cashier at the front to page her or if it is okay for you to check out in the front line. It is the polite thing to do!
So, grab your weekly sales ad and let’s go shopping at Walgreens! For the sake of this lesson, I will consider that the imaginary Walgreens we are shopping at allows multiple RRs but also counts WAGs as a coupon.
Do you have any special tricks that you use at Walgreens? Please share them with us in the comments. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
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