Walgreen's coupon policy

Another store that has a "newish" coupon policy is Walgreen's.  You can find the policy and print it out here.

As a customer-focused retailer, Walgreens encourages the use of coupons by our customers in our retail stores, in accordance with the following guidelines.

Guidelines:

General 

• All valid coupons should be presented to the cashier at the time of checkout.
• Walgreens does not accept expired coupons.
• Coupons and their face value cannot be exchanged for cash or gift cards.
• Competitor coupons are not accepted at Walgreens.
• Walgreens cannot accept coupons for items not carried in our stores.
• The number of manufacturer coupons, including Register Rewards^TM manufacturer coupons, may not exceed the number of items in the transaction. The total value of the coupons may not exceed the value of the transaction. Sales tax must be paid, if required by state law.
• Any coupon offer not covered in these guidelines will be accepted at the discretion of Walgreens management.

Sale Items 

• Walgreens will accept manufacturer coupons for an item that is on sale.
• In the event that any item's selling price is less than the value of the coupon, Walgreens will only accept the coupon in exchange for the selling price of the item. Coupon redemption can never exceed the selling price of an item and no cash back is ever provided in exchange for any coupons.

Multiple Coupons 

• When purchasing a single item, Walgreens accepts one manufacturer coupon and applicable Walgreens coupon(s) for the purchase of a single item, unless prohibited by either coupon offer.
• The coupon amount must be reduced if it exceeds the value of the item after other discounts or coupons are applied. (For example, a $5.00 coupon for a $4.99 item will result in a $4.99 coupon value).
• When purchasing multiple items, Walgreens accepts multiple identical coupons for multiple qualifying items as long as there is sufficient stock to satisfy other customers, unless a limit is specified. Management reserves the right to limit the quantity of items purchased.

Buy One, Get One Free Coupons 

• When items are featured in a Buy One, Get One Free promotion, up to two coupons can be used against the items being purchased, as long as the net price does not go below zero for the items being purchased.
• Sales tax must be paid for any Buy One, Get One Free coupon offers, if required by applicable state laws.

Internet/Print at Home Coupons 

• Walgreens accepts valid internet/print at home coupons.

Register Rewards^TM coupons 

Earning Register Rewards^TM

• Register Rewards^TM will only print for in-stock merchandise during the promotional period.
• Register Rewards^TM can only be earned for eligible items. No substitutions.
• There is a limit of one Register Rewards^TM (RR) printed per offer per customer per transaction.
• Customers redeeming a Register Rewards^TM against the same offer may not receive another RR.

Redeeming Register Rewards^TM

• Customers redeeming a Register Rewards^TM against the same offer may not receive another RR.
• Refer to Register Rewards^TM coupon for expiration date.
• The RR coupon value cannot exceed the total purchase amount. No cash back and no cash value for RR coupon.
• The number of manufacturer coupons, including RR manufacturer coupons, must not exceed the number of items in the transaction.
• Register Rewards^TM must be forfeited if the qualifying merchandise is returned.
• Register Rewards^TM cannot be used toward the purchase of gift cards and pre-paid cards.
• Register Rewards^TM can be redeemed for eligible items only. Ineligible items include but are not limited to:
• Prescriptions
• Tobacco products
• Alcoholic beverages
• Dairy products
• Lottery tickets
• Money orders/transfers
• Transportation passes
• Special event/entertainment tickets or passes
• Postage stamps
• Gift cards/phone cards/prepaid/Green Dot^TM cards
• Prescription Savings Club" memberships
• Health care services, including immunizations
• Any items prohibited by law

I am going to post a piece I wrote for a recent coupon "class" I taught, and will then try to break down any portions of this policy that may still be confusing to a new couponer.

WAG has a program called Register Rewards (RR). You can obtain their ad in the Des Moines Register, the Gazette, in the store, or at Walgreens.com. Look for items that say they are offering RR in the weekly ad. Sometimes these aren't real obvious, other times the deals are glaring at you, so look carefully. The RR program works like this: buy a widget for $X.00, they will give you back a RR worth $X.00. All RR round up to the next dollar amount, so if the ad says, buy widget for $4.99, get a RR worth $4.99, you will get a $5.00 RR. Let me give you another example of how the program works. Buy a widget for $5.00, get a RR worth $3.00. You have a $1.00 manufacturer's coupon (MQ), so here is how this will look in the store. Buy widget for $5.00 minus $1.00 MQ. Your out of pocket (OOP) is $4.00 plus tax, then they will give you a RR worth $3.00. A RR is a MQ, not a store coupon, and it expires in 2 weeks. This is important to know because WAG has a rule about coupon counts. You cannot have more MQ than the number of items you are buying, so if you plan on using a coupon cut from the paper and that RR they gave you last time, you have to have 2 items you will be purchasing. This can be as simple as a box of Jello or a seasonal pencil. WAG coupons do not count in your coupon count, though, just MQ. They always limit you to one of the same offer per transaction, but you could do 30 transactions within a week because they don't have a card tracking you. You could buy a widget, a gadget, and a whatzit all in one transaction and get their RR deal for each of those items, but if you did the widget deal 2 times in a single transaction, you would only get a RR for one of those deals, so break them down! Another thing that can be a bit confusing about WAG is that say you earned a RR for the widget you bought, and widget is manufactured by Proctor and Gamble. Next week they have RR deals on gadget and whatzit. Gadget is manufactured by P & G also, but Whatzit is manufactured by Unilever. If you use the RR earned from the widget to buy the gadget, it won't print a new RR, but if you use it to buy the whatzit, it will. You have to be careful of the manufacturer of the item you're buying and "flop" back and forth between manufacturer's to always be sure to get your next RR. WAG also has great grocery deals sometimes! In general, however, WAG is overpriced and I don't go there "just to shop." WAG also has some nice clearance sales. You are allowed to stack WAG coupons and a MQ. You can find WAG coupons in the ad, in a little booklet near the front of the store in the ad rack, or sometimes in magazines, calendars, and booklets located throughout the store. Rainchecks on RR items are pretty useless, so go early in the week if possible. They will include only the sale price on a raincheck and not the RR price.

OK, 1st point I need to make.  Walgreen's adjusts any coupon down to the sale price of the item OR adjusts the selling price of the item up to the value of the coupon if the value of the coupon exceeds the selling price.  They do not allow overage, and you must pay all taxes, the coupon cannot cover any portion of the taxes.  The only "loophole" in this rule is that if the item's regular price is above that of the coupon value, and WAG has put out a store coupon that makes the selling price under that of the coupon, if you give the MQ FIRST then the store coupon, it will take off the whole value because the register sees the higher price.  Let me give you an example.  Widget sells for $1.99, regular price, but a WAG store coupon has come out in the paper for the item to be on sale for 89c.  You have a $1.00 MQ.  You will need extra items in your order to absorb this overage, but they ring thru widget, and the register says it costs $1.99.  You give MQ which takes off $1.00.  Then you give store Q which takes off the $1.10 which is really just a WAG sale promotion.  You now have overage at WAG.

Next important point.  If the WAG ad has an item on sale buy one, get one free, the register sees this as you purchasing 2 items even though you are only paying for one item, so you may use 2 MQ's in that transaction AS LONG AS THE VALUE OF THE 2 COUPONS DOESN'T EXCEED THE SELLING PRICE.  For example, gadget is buy one at $2.99, get one free.  You have 2 75c off MQ's.  You may use both, and the register will remove an additional $1.50 from the $2.99 sale price of the 2 items.  Also, if you are purchasing gadget during this buy one, get one free sale, and you have a buy one, get one free MQ, both items will be free.  Why?  Because WAG is having a promotion giving you one item for free, and the manufacturer is offering you a coupon to get the other for free.  They "pay" for each other.  Both free.  This can sometimes be a little hard for a new couponer to wrap their mind around, heck sometimes I have to think this thru to get to the "why," but it is how it works at WAG, and they have reasonably plainly laid it out in the wording of their policy.

The only other thing I need to point out is the list of excluded items to use a RR on.  Even I have forgotten recently.  I was trying to use up an expiring RR when WAG didn't have anything much to roll it over onto, but they did have eggs on sale.  I happily took my eggs to the counter only to be turned down by the cashier...thankfully he caught it.  Duh...can't use RR on dairy items.  It is easy to forget, so just kind of familiarize yourself with this list of exclusions, but don't beat yourself up if you make an accidental mistake...we all do it sometimes!