A few weeks ago I posted here about the changes to coupon policies that many stores have made since TLC’s Extreme Couponers started. Rite Aid is the latest major retailer to issue a change to their coupon policy. You can view the full policy here.
Here are a few of the major changes I see:
?Buy One Get One Free coupons cannot be used in conjunction with a Buy One Get One Free promotion ~ In the past you could use a buy one get one free coupon with a buy one get one free promotion and get two items for free. I am really concerned about this change because I can see other retailers like CVS and Walgreens making similar changes in the near future.
?Rite Aid accepts Buy One, Get One Free coupons, however only one coupon can be used for each pair of items purchased. A customer can use one “cents off” coupon in conjunction with the item they are purchasing on a Buy One Get One Free promotion (or with a Buy One Get One Free coupon), although the value of the cents off coupon cannot
exceed the selling price of the item ~ In the past you could use two “cents off” coupons with a BOGO free promotion (one for each item being “purchased”) which helped to lower your out of pocket expenses. This is another change that I can see other retailers making in the future.
?In the event that any item’s selling price is less than the value of the coupon, Rite Aid will 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 allowed ~ This means no overage.
?When making a return for a product that had a coupon attached, Rite Aid cannot refund cash for the value of the coupon and cannot return the coupon that was used ~ I’d like more clarification on this one. I understand that they cannot refund cash for coupons, but many retailers will give you store credit or credit on a gift card. They receive reimbursement for the coupons used, so they should provide some sort of reimbursement to the customer.
What are your thoughts on these changes? Do you think other stores will implement similar changes? Do you blame Extreme Couponing for all these changes?
Wow! This is happening at Kroger now as well…the no overage part anyway. The other day I was at Kroger and instead of the coupon doubling, it only increased up to the price of the item. Yes, I do think that others will follow suit and yes, I do blame it on Extreme Couponing! The statistics that were discussed on the show was that there are over a billion dollars in coupons printed each week yet only 1% are redeemed. I believe that the showing the manufacturers AND the stores who that 1% is (mostly) and let’s face it…we are the customers that they do not want. They want the average coupon person that uses the coupon, decides they like the product and continues to purchase it at retail…that’s not us. 🙁