Coupons 101: Walgreens Register Rewards explained...

Well, I can tell you now, that I am no longer shopping at walgreens... I think their program for register rewards should be used whenever I feel like it and should be used as 'walgreen currency' CVS's program doesn't care about expiration dates or how many items you have, I love CVS.

I went to walgreens today to use my rewards that I got a month ago and b/c it was expired, I couldn't use it!! If it was CVS I could have! What a joke.

I don't see this mentioned but my experience last week with Walgreens has convinced me that I am done with their Register Rewards. In the past you could use these rebates like cash on future purchases. Apparently it has gotten more complicated and I was told the following: You can only use multiple Reward certificates if you are buying that many items, e.g. you have 3 $2 reward certificates, you must buy 3 items. Also you cannot use a manufacturer's coupon in conjunction with a Register Reward. So say last week you got a $2 register reward, and this week you want to purchase Windex (hypothetical) and want to use your $1 coupon and then use the register rewards - it doesn't work! The manager pointed out to me that the Register Rewards states "Manufacturer's Coupon" on the top and therefore you cannot use 2 "Manufacturer's coupons." This is all well and good but if you have a $5 register rewards I expect to be able to buy something else with a coupon that is on sale, and not have to pay for something at top dollar just to spend the $5! I find it is deceptive and will probably stay away from Walgreens just because of the new policies.

Susan,

No, there's no card with the Walgreens program, and like ECB at CVS, it's before coupons... 

Do you need a member/loyalty card to get and use Register Rewards? Also, if the register reward is "spend $X, get $Y register rewards" is $X before or after coupons?

I use the CVS ECB program, so I'm just trying to see how RRs compare.

Thanks!
Susan

Um, yeah... that's not true. I'd contact Walgreens either through their Web site or 800 number if you can find it...

According to the manager on my trip to Walgreens today, if you use a register rewards coupon on a purchase where you are getting items that will normally give you a rewards coupon, the new coupon will NOT print out. I've not had this happen before until today but he says that they were informed of this 6 months ago and evidently I had just received the previous coupons in error.

He was then going to get me a form that I could use to send in the receipt and this form to corporate to have them review it to see if they decide I should have received the coupon. However, the link on their corporate site has evidently disappeared and he's unable to get me that form now too.

I'm not too enthused with Walgreens right now.

If you work there, it comes in very handy. Believe me when I say that there's a Walgreens coming to a place near you in the relatively short future. Of coures, recent economic woes will affect the rate of expansion. I can tell you that NC, and the Triangle area in particular, are seen as areas for great growth potential for Wag.

I have done this a couple times now, it seemed like the expiration dates were very short, like maybe 1 week. The CVS ones were more like a month as I recall. Does anyone know if it is a standard amount of time like 1 week and 1 month? I guess they make it a week so you'll come back often, but if you really don't have time to go that often, it's hardly worth the effort.