I Used to Love Walgreens

When they discontinued their rebate program earlier this year, Walgreens said they had something just as good if not better planned. I don't know if we're still waiting or if this current Register Rewards program is it. I hope they've got something better planned because this whole register rewards thing is not so good. Sure, it sounds good when they advertise something at a sale price, tell you they'll give you so much in RR, making the final price look really good, sometimes even FREE. However, in real life it doesn't work so well. Actually getting a good deal means you have to find the item in stock or be willing to go back several times during the week. If the item is out of stock, you can still get a raincheck, but that only applies to the sale price. Unless you buy it the week that it's advertised, you won't get the register rewards - kind of negating the whole thing.

When you do find the items in stock and actually get the rewards, you only have 2 weeks to use them. Sometimes I don't shop that often, and I hate having that short window to use the 'cash' I've earned. Except that it's not really like cash. These register rewards are actually manufacturer's coupons. That means, that if you already have coupons for something you buy, you can't use these, too - because you an only have 1 manufacturer's coupon per item. I found that out a couple weeks ago when I separated my items thinking that I could use the RR I earned on the first order to pay for the second one. Nope, didn't work that way. So I walked out of the store with $9 in rewards.

We were out yesterday so stopped at Walgreens to see if we could spend the $9 - since they expire on Wednesday. I figured that if I didn't actually need anything, I could buy something else that gave me register rewards, thereby extending the expiration date by a couple weeks. But the 'FREE' items that were advertised were out of stock. So I grabbed a couple boxes of hair color - $1.99 each with the coupon in the ad - and tried to use two of my $2 RR certificates, only to find out that I could only use one unless I bought something else. ??? Just frustrating.

I ended up grabbing some mints that were marked down to 25¢ so the whole thing would work. And it was good that I found the mints because Cory wanted some and went back in to grab himself some, but overall I am not impressed with this Walgreens Register Rewards program. I liked the rebates, especially after they set it up so that you could enter your receipts and submit your rebates online. All rebates should work that way! I liked putting my rebate dollars on my Walgreens gift card - so I still spent the money I got back at Walgreens, I just didn't have to spend it within a couple weeks.

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