Thursday, October 28, 2010

Walgreens

The Plan was to buy Colgate at $3.29 - $1.00 MQ = $2.49 + .20 Jello; get $3.50 RR.
Then buy Fullbar at $1.99 and two Balance bars at $1.59 - $1.59 BOGO MQ = $3.58. Pay with $3.50 RR; get $1.99 RR and $1.59 RR. (4-day sale Oct. 27-30)
Buy More Colgate and something, and so on.

So I go to Cosmetics to check out and the cashier asks had I heard about the new coupon rules?
Um, no, sure haven't.
Apparently it goes something like this: Because the MQ says "1 per purchase", their Manager says that means you can only buy 1 per visit. Because - get this - the Distict Manager told them that the Manufacturers told them if they kept taking so many coupons they weren't going to pay them for them anymore.

I said, I think your Manager misunderstood something in the telling.
Oh, no! There was a big district meeting about it, he got an email, it said they couldn't take more than one coupon per visit.
I said that's stupid, how would they (being the manufacturers) know if I did 10 transactions, or 10 different people did transactions?
Because they can check the cash register tape and know if back-to-back transactions were done, and look at the cameras and see it. They know.

So I break out my cellphone and dial up 1-800-walgreens and tell the chick my story and she's like, Here's your case number, someone will call you within 2 days. Thanks, lady, that don't help me right now.

I was irritated and the cashier kept saying it's not us, we just have to do what we're told, I can't afford to lose my job right now. I said I know that, but you were told wrong.

So the Store Team Lead came up and I said ok, what if I walk outside and back in, is that a different visit?
Oh, yea, you can do that, that'd be fine.
Whaaaa?
Why didn't she just say that to start with??? Heck, I thought they were saying like once a day or something.

I also thought they were talking about doing back-to-back RR deals using coupons, but no, they literally meant they will only take (1) MQ per visit.
If there's a 2/$3.00 deal, and you have (2) $1.00 coupons, no goood. 
She said a lady had come in wanting the 4/$5 or whatever the price was deal (in-ad q) on the Campbell's soup, and had (4) coupons. They had to make her buy them one at a time, walking out of the store and back in each time!!
That's fine for the in-ad coupons, but we all know a large majority of Walgreens prices are like $1.79, or 2/$3.00.  If they are making you buy them separate in order to be able to use 2 coupons on 2 items, they are ripping you off besides inconveniencing the hell out of you.

The cashier said she was a couponer, too, and she hated it, too, but she had to do what they said. I said well I'm fixing to by God get it fixed for you. That ain't right.

I bought the Colgate and Royal Gelatin, used the $1.00 Colgate q, but in the rigamaroar, forgot to use the in-ad q for the jello, so over paid .49 for that.
Got $3.50 RR.

Bought Fullbar for $1.99, the Balance Bars rang up $1.59 and $1.41. She kept trying to enter the coupon at $1.69 because that was the coupon limit, so I told her to try $1.59, but it wouldn't take that either. She rolled up the receipt so we could see what the price was, and saw the 2nd one had rang up $1.41, so she tried that and it worked.
Got $1.60 RR for the Balance Bars, but No RR for the Fullbar.
They had no 4-day sale paper, no one had heard of a 4-day sale, so no deal.

Without the $2.00 RR for the FullBar, my Plan didn't work out, and I was in NO mood to try to figure out an alternative.
And even though I would have made $1.00 profit on each of the Colgate, I wasn't even about to turn that much cash into RRs.

So I left.

2 comments:

mollymoo951 said...

Well...that's a good one from Walgreens! I did the RR deal on the Colgate with coupons at the cosmetics counter six times, with no problem. I didn't have to exit the store until I was finished with my shopping. Surely (and I hope) someone in Walgreens mis-understood the "message". Eek!

Melissa said...

I know, right, crazy. I was trying to figure out what it was this store was doing, that would make the Vendors tell them they wouldn't get reimbursed if they kept accepting so many coupons.

Other than accepting coupons for items not bought, I can't think of anything. And anyway it doesn't make sense that you can walk out and right back in and keep doing deals. There's no difference in that and doing multiple transactions.

Oh well.

I was just ooh'ing and aah'ing over your scrapbooking. You sure do make some pretty layouts.
Man, I haven't messed with my scrapbooking since I started this shopping game.
I keep saying I'm going to break it back out and work on it, but I'm easily distracted, then I forget, lol.