When my wife decided to become a pharmacy technician at a relatively new Walgreens store in Marietta about three years ago, I have to admit that I had never set foot inside a Walgreens. I was introduced to a new set of store policies and savings opportunities that, at first, made my head spin. It was sometimes difficult to understand and therefore, I really didn't shop there much. But when I got serious about couponing and saving money, I realized that there were amazing deals and, with a little patience and planning, I could save a ton of money on things that were costing me a lot, like OTC meds, household products, toiletries and groceries. Also, generally speaking, I've found the Walgreens stores that I've dealt with to be coupon friendly and most cashiers knowledgeable on their policies. I hope you will also take the time to learn the ins and outs of shopping "The Wag" (slang for Walgreens) with this short overview.
No Loyalty Card Program
Walgreens currently doesn't have a loyalty card for general purchases in the store, which has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you are not limited on the number of purchases of an item (although items that generate RR's are limited by the RR policy, which will be discussed later, and management may institute limits on hot items from time to time), but the obvious flipside to that is that it can be difficult for stores to maintain stock on those hot sale items. It's best to get there early in the week or find out what day their replenishment truck comes and shop later in the week on that day. Even shopping on the "truck day", doesn't mean that items will be re-stocked, so you may need to get a raincheck. My store's policy on rainchecks is to give them at the sale price NET of RR's, if the sale has an RR. So if an item is on sale for $3.99 with a $2.00 RR, they would issue the raincheck for $1.99 (3.99-2.00). The other major drawback of no loyalty card is that there's no way to track your purchases from transaction to transaction, so all Walgreens RR deals are based on one single purchase transaction. Again, this becomes difficult if they don't have enough stock to make a qualifying purchase, plus you have to make sure that you have purchased enough to qualify for the RR, since it's a "one-shot deal".
Methods of saving money at Walgreens:
(1) Store Advertised Sales
(2) In-Ad Coupons in the Weekly Circular
(3) In-Store Coupons in the Monthly Savings Book
(4) Manufacturer's Coupons
(5) Rebates
(6) Register Rewards
The Walgreens sales cycle runs Sunday to Saturday. Some stores switch over their sale prices for the coming week on Saturday, however, Register Rewards (RR's) will not print until Sunday. It's best to check with your store to see when they activate the sale prices for the coming week, for those sales that don't have RR's. If you don't get the circulars in your newspaper, the stores usually have a good supply of them near the front entrance to the store.
In-Ad Coupons in the Weekly CircularThese are store coupons that are in the weekly circular. They can be used (also known as stacked) with a manufacturer's coupon to deepen your savings on an applicable product. At my store, you do not have to clip these coupons, the cashier just scans them from the circular, however I usually will still clip them to avoid forgetting to use them when I check out (which has happened more times than I care to admit!). You can also print these coupons from the coupon pages on the Walgreens website.
In-Store Coupons in the Monthly Savings BookThe Monthly Savings Books are usually located near the front door of the store where the circulars are, as well as a few places throughout the store. The books contain an array of store coupons that can be stacked with manufacturer's coupons, as well. Similar to the in-ad coupons, my store does not require these coupons to be removed from the book to redeem, but I usually will remove them so that I don't forget to use them (see above... lol). You can also print these coupons from the coupon pages on the Walgreens website.
Manufacturer's Coupons
Walgreens accepts standard manufacturer's coupons (from newspaper inserts), as well as printable coupons from reputable providers like coupons.com, couponnetwork.com, smartsource.com and redplum.com. For a more complete understanding of Walgreens corporate coupon policy, follow this link: Walgreens Corporate Coupon Policy
RebatesIn the back of the Monthly Savings Book, Walgreens will occasionally have rebate offers that can be filed conveniently online or, more traditionally, by mail. These offers are separate from other manufacturer's rebates offered independently by the manufacturers. For added savings, you can request your rebate payment on a Walgreens Gift Card and earn a 10% bonus! For example, if you filed a $6 rebate for Baby Magic Dustless Baby Powder, you would receive a check, or deposit into your paypal account, or a Visa prepaid card for $6.00. Or get your rebate on a Walgreens Gift Card and you'll receive $6.60.
Register Rewards
Far and away, the most confusing part about shopping Walgreens is navigating the rules for earning and redeeming Register Rewards (RR's), which are just like the CVS ExtraBucks (EB's) or Rite Aid UP Rewards (UPR's) with a few major differences. EB's and UPR's are more like money or a gift certificate, meaning that they can be used to pay for most items in the store (exceptions are prescriptions, tobacco, gift cards, etc.), without too many other rules. Despite the fact that they are earned in the same manner as EB's and UPR's, RR's are considered a manufacturer's coupon, so there are more limitations on how you can redeem them:
(1) You can only use as many coupons as you have items in your order. So if you're buying 5 items and you have 5 manufacturer's coupons, you can't redeem any RR's in that transaction. If you have 5 items and 3 manufacturer's coupons, you can use 2 RR's in that transaction along with your 3 coupons. So it's best to match items with manufacturer's coupons to items without manufacturer's coupons if you have RR's to redeem. You'll hear people refer to filler items, like cheap candy, pencils, maybe a bottle of soda, so that you can use your RR's. It's always best to try to find filler items that you need, so that you're not just wasting the value of the RR on something for the sake of redeeming it.
(2) Store coupons (from the weekly circulars and monthly savings books) don't count toward the "one manufacturer's coupon per item" requirement above.
(3) If you purchase an item that is advertised to print a RR, you can't use a RR from the same company to pay for it. For instance, you buy 4 Pringles and get a $2 RR. If you turn around and buy 4 more Pringles, and use that $2 RR from the previous purchase, it will not generate another RR. The best way to handle this problem without laying out a ton of money is to stagger your transactions like this example: Buy 4 Pringles, get a $2 RR. Buy 1 St. Joseph's Aspirin, use the $2 RR from the previous transaction, get a $2 RR. Buy 4 more Pringles, use the $2 RR from the St. Joseph's transaction, get another $2 RR. And so on.
(4) RR's are offered only 1 per transaction, in other words, if there's a $2 RR on 4 Pringles and you buy 8 in one transaction, you'll only get one $2 RR. You have to split them into separate transactions. Having said that, you can combine different products that earn RR's into one transaction. So if you have 4 Pringles that offer a $2 RR and 1 St. Joseph's Aspirin that offers a $2 RR, you can ring them up together and receive two $2 RR's at checkout.
(5) You can only use RR's (like EB's or UPR's) up to the extent of your purchase total before sales tax. I usually start with my higher dollar RR's and work backwards so that I use up the big ones first. And pay attention to the expiration dates, which are two weeks from the date you earn the RR. If there's nothing that you need to get with them, use them anyway, otherwise you're just throwing money away.
That's pretty much the basics for shopping at Walgreens. It's best to plan your purchase scenario ahead and start out doing small transactions first. Many people get frustrated with them, but once you get the hang of it, it's not bad at all. Happy shopping!
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