Kroger has recently changed their digital coupon policy.
Previously, Kroger allowed stacking of certain digital or eCoupons and a paper coupon. A couple of months ago Kroger added all of the eCoupons available from Cellfire, Shortcuts and P&G eSaver mixed in with the Kroger eCoupons. This created a lot of confusion since there is no way to tell which eCoupons are Kroger coupons and which are provided by other sites.
Kroger has now added to the Digital Coupon Rules stating that eCoupons and paper coupons can no longer be stacked.
The Wording from Kroger:
Can I use paper coupons as well as digital coupons on the same item?
Limit of one coupon per item. Digital coupons and paper coupons may not be combined on the purchase of a single item.
Remember that eCoupons do not double. Most of the time your best bet is to use a paper coupon that will double for the most savings. Before you shop at Kroger this week, make sure to look over the full list of Kroger deals!
Renae from Madame Deals is the Deal Seeking Mom Store Expert for Kroger. At Madame Deals, she teaches others how to make dollars out of change with store deals, recipes, money saving tips, ideas on stockpiling and fun family activities.
Julie
Does Kroger double coupons all the time? or just on certain days? Is there an amount limit?
Renae @ Madame Deals
Hi Julie,
Most Kroger stores do double coupons every day. Each region has different double coupon rules. For example, I am in the mid-atlantic region and Kroger doubles coupons to $0.50 with no limit. Some other regions double up to $0.75 or $0.99. Find out more about the Kroger coupon policy here https://dealseekingmom.com/kroger/
You can always ask your store about their policy too to find out what value they will double coupons up to!
Cindy
So in other words, DO NOT add any ecoupons any longer unless you intend on souly using them…because if you get to the register and try to use your stack of paper coupons and the cashier notices the digital ones (that you can’t even keep track of) automatically coming off, you will be screwed out of using your paper coupons! Wow, sounds to me like I will be avoiding any digital coupons at all :(
Carrie
The computer will flag them if it’s a duplicate coupon. The manufacture is suppose to send a lsit of good coupons (the numbers on the bottom of the clipped coupon). When using the electronic coupons, some will be flagged with the same code, so if the computer will read it as a seperate coupon. Unfortantatley, those are the coupons that will get read first.
steph
so does that mean you have to use the digital coupons before paper? I shop at a krogers that doubles coupon to a dollar. so manufacturer coupons will give me more off than a digital even though they are the same. or can i tell them i want to use the paper and not the digital?
Heather A
When I was in Kroger this week, my internet printable $5/5 off Kraft cheese caused a stink…the cashier said they got an email about using internet coupons, and they ended up calling corporate to validate using them. I hope they aren’t considering ditching printables either…anyone else have a similar experience? I’m hoping that he was just referring to the digitals. I save way more with the other types anyway!
Wendy
I’ve had the same problems concerning internet printable coupons. I emailed corporate and was told it was the sole discretion of the store manager to do what they wanted. I then told them it was my sole discretion to shop somewhere else.
Heather A
Now that’s funny ;) So I guess I need to be “making friends” with all the managers or apply for a job there…imo, if there are multiple managers on duty, denying and approving internet q’s upon how they “feel”, means to me their policy is not to have a policy. Jane Doe may reap benefits, when I am denied. Sounds like a plan to me!!!!
kristin
HAHAHAHAHA – Good for you!
Jilana Bond
I had a problem with a printable last weekend. It was for a greek organic yogurt. The lady told me in front of everyone in line that I was using a fake coupon. she wanted to know where I got from and when I told her I could not remember she basically called me a theif. I ask her why she didn’t have a problem w/my other printed coupons she said she had never seen a coupon before for this item so I must have made it myself LOL. Really….I have 6 kids and I have time to make my own coupons now and work full time. I aks her so you have seen every coupon out there huh. The lady in line behind me said just scan the dam coupon and see if it works and the ladys said oh it will work we will just loose the money. So I had two of them for equaling $2 and my total was over $60. I just simply said either you loose the $2 or you have tons of fun putting all this food back. She scanned it, it worked and she slammed it down on the counter. You with think I just took $2 out of her pocket. I will never ever go to that krogers again and I plan I getting in touch with them and telling them they should send the employees to Publix as secret shoppers to see how you’re supposed to treat you customers.
Renae
Avoid female cashiers like the PLAGUE when using coupons. Especially if they look over 30. I don’t know why, but women cashiers are complete and total b****es about coupons. Always go in a line that has a younger (under 40) male cashier. Always.
Lisa
Agreed!
Emily
My Kroger (Central OH) won’t accept printables over either $1 or $3 in value, I can’t quite remember. I just usually take all my high value ones to Meijer.
starr
My Kroger wouldn’t take my Kraft coupon either. I bought cheese there last week and it had a sticker on it that told to go online and print the coupon. I did so and returned this week to use the coupon, but they wouldn’t take it and the manager wouldn’t give me a reason. I emailed corporate but haven’t gotten a reply yet. I told them if they aren’t going to accept the coupons they need to remove the stickers and post the policy on the door. I’m not a happy shopper when I spend an hour in a store and then can’t use half of the coupons I expected to and then have to pay more than I expected or go elsewhere to get the items with a coupon.
Vanessa
I also saw the peelie sticker on the packs when I was stocking up this past week. I had four of the $5 off Kraft coupons so this was a stock up trip for me. My cashier saw the peelie & thought it was an actual coupon at first until she read it and read off how it says to go the website to get your $5 off coupon. I then said that I had already been to the website and have my $5 coupons to use on my cheese purchases. She was a cheese lover as well she says and scanned all my items happily (my Krogers is very coupon friendly thank goodness~ I’ve given them 98% of my business since Walmart peeved me off months ago). When the Kraft coupons didn’t scan after a couple of tries she waited for a moment and then started to manually enter them. I handed her back the peelie from the Kraft package that she peeled off & originally handed to me and I told her to keep it with the Kraft coupons so the manager could see the details and see that the coupons are valid. I also told her that they weren’t scanning at Walmart either, that they are valid coupons from the Kraft website (just as that peelie stated) but for some reason are not scanning correctly by the systems. She manually entered my 4 coupons with no problem, kept the Kraft peelie with my coupons and I was good to go! :o)
Kristy
BOOOO!!! I loved being able to use both!! I might just have to switch grocery stores now!
Laura
I was able to use both earlier this week at Fry’s (which is Kroger brand too but not sure if they have different policies?)
Emmy
We are fortunate to have a Meijer near by (in addition to Kroger) and I have been going there a lot more frequently. Meijer will match the price for Kroger’s sale (you need to show the cashier the ad) and double coupns up to $1.00. For our family it’s a win win.
Bethany
Wow, Emmy, where do you live? Our Meijer only doubles to .50. At least with combining Mealbox coupons with paper ones, we still get some pretty good deals.
Jennifer
But Meijer will only double up to 4 of the same coupon in one transaction. So if I’m trying to stockpile 10 of something, I have to go 3 times if I have coupons that I want to double. : (
Karen
You should feel fortunate. My Meijer will only double 2 like coupons.
Emily
Your Meijer price matches? I wonder, do you know if this is a chain policy, or just your particular stores?
michelle
i don’t know if it is a chain policy or not but i live in the springfield, oh area and their meijer will not price match grocery items. i tried to purchase baby formula and they said no b/c that is considered grocery and they don’t match prices on grocery.
Emmy
I can only assume it’s a store policy. I live in Gahanna, Oh and my local store matches. I called the store to varify and I have done it several times with no problems. I have my ad ready with the items and date circled, and I keep all the matching items together. This helps the cashier and i always make sure to thank them for their assistance. They will only double 2 of the same coupon. If I am not price matching and want to purchase more than 2, I use the self check-out. I have not done any price matching via self check-out.
Bethany
I definitely do not like that news! I sent them a kindly worded email asking them to revisit that decision. That will not help my grocery budget any. :(
Bethany
I should say I *tried* to send them an email – while I was posting here, the message to Kroger crashed. Now the feedback form is not working right. Think they’re getting a bunch of emails right now? ;)
Lisa
I have never been able to contact Kroger. I think it’s a web site problem.
Shelley
Why do they care??? Don’t they get reimbursed from the manufacturer?
monica
Seriously!
Carrie
Only face value. Manuafacture’s can also req to see transactions to see if store are using coupons correctly. There have been stores that manufactures have banned from using coupons due to not following manufacture procedures on how to accept particular coupons.
Denise
I live in Southern Indiana and just this evening I was able to use an ‘on package coupon’ and a digital coupon, of which I didn’t remember I had until I looked at the receipt.
kristin
Interesting… I stacked just a few days ago and it worked fine. (Oregon)
Eva
I wonder if this is one of those things that is left to the management to allow it if they want to or not? I have 2 Krogers near me that I use and they are soooo nice along with the management.
Hopefully the over load of emails about their decisions will change their minds!
Mary
I wonder how they will know you are stacking? Are the computer systems going to be sophisticated enough to beep if you try to use a paper when the e-q already redeemed? I agree w/ the poster who said I just won’t add anymore e-Qs. Much better to get the double on paper.
Although I am not surprised about this decision. A few months ago I called C.S and asked if I could stack and they said no(even though the system let you do it). Hmmmmmm, this will be interesting!
Lisa
I not had any of my E coupons come off recently, even when I don’t have paper coupons. What do I do? Contacting Kroger (via web site) just doesn’t get a response.
Katie
Where is it supposed to show that the uploaded coupons to my card were taken off? I would like to see them show separately discounts w/plus card due to sale in store and discount due to uploaded coupons on my plus card.
Renae @ How to Have it All
Hi Katie-
On your receipt underneath the item you bought you should the ecoupon listed. For example:
Ragu $1.75
eCpn Ragu -$1
The ecoupons are not listed at the bottom of the receipt with the other coupons. They are through out the receipt underneath the product.
Hope that helps!
Carrie
Mine never worked. It’s not Kroger that is suppose to reinburse you. One time I contacted the website that does the e-coupons and the reinbursed me at my next purchase. The next time I did it, I didn’t get reinbursed. I saw where I was suppose to because the dollar amt shows up as a coupon, but it never came off.
Carrie
The systems used to let you stack them. But now they have updated their systems, so it depends on the store if they are running on the old system or new system.
Karen
I just switched my business from Tom Thumb (Randalls) to Kroger because of the better internet couponing policy.. I could not work out a deal with Tom Thumb corporate and their couponing policy – stores would be able to go against corporate stated policy.. (really!? what’s the point of having a corporate policy then?))
I’m so tired of feeling like a criminal for using my legitimately acquired coupons at a store!
Sheli
There is something very important we are all over looking here. If you don’t scan your Kroger Plus Card then you don’t get the extra club savings. You’ll be paying full price minus your paper coupons not the plus card price minus your coupons. There is a club price then you add your eCoupons & then add your mfg coupon, that’s how my store does it. & if you don’t scan your card you don’t get the Mega Deal discounts when they come along either. We need to all complain. Because if this is the new policy, obviously, they want me to shop somewhere else.
jennifer
You’re right – this is an important thing to keep in mind.
In the past, if Kroger is running a B1G1 sale with Kroger Card – and I have a B1G1 MQ, they wouldn’t accept both. However, if have my complete order scanned, redeem my B1G1 MQ, then scan the Kroger card last – I get to use both the store’s B1G1 and the MQ B1G1.
You may have just identified a way around this.
Scan All Items
Redeem MQ
Then Scan Kroger Card at the end. Hopefully this would get around the e-coupon/MQ stacking issue until Kroger’s system is sophisticated enough to identify it all.
Terreece Clarke
That sucks. Well I think I’ll be hanging out at Giant Eagle more often, their fuel perks are hard to beat & they don’t have stacking issues – yet.
Kris
When does this policy go into effect? I used a paper coupon w/ a e-coupon last night with no problem at all! I actually had 2 of the same e-coupons loaded to my card, but only one came off even though I bought 3 of the items. Oh well, there have been times that I have only bought one item and 2 e-coupons have come off. Not sure how they are going to keep track of this!
DANYELLE
It has always stated on Kroger website that you cannot stack the e-coupons with other ones, but I have never had a problem. The ecoupons dont even show up until the end, so unless they upgrade their computers to catch it I doubt they will have a problem. Just the other day I gave a coupon by mistake for an item that I didn’t even buy and they took it off. I usually have so many anyway that they don’t even look at them. I am goin today so I’ll let you know how it goes =)
Deborah
looks like I will be taking my business elsewhere….. the ecoupns are pretty much the ONLY reason why I shop there. They will be losing a lot of business from many of us :(
Renae @ Madame Deals
Some stores have already changed to the new system where the register will beep when and eCoupon and paper coupon are used together. Other stores have not. So, stacking may work at some stores for awhile.
I agree that the biggest problem with eCoupons is not being able to choose what type of coupon you want to use- eCoupon or paper coupon. It can be frustrating. It seems that the new system will allow a paper coupon to take priority. Plus, it is hard to remember what eCoupons are loaded on the card!
Christy
I used both types of coupons just this week. They took them both, but I guess I won’t be loading anymore e-coupons. My Kroger still takes printed coupons, but they will no longer take printed coupons for FREE items because someone made fake free coupons for Doritoes and ruined it for everyone.
debbi
I am in TX and my Kroger recently has started scrutinizing my internet printables. If they refuse to stack, then I will stop loading e coupons to my card. I love Kroger and shop there often, but I have definitely noticed a change.
Ruth Ann
I noticed that an e-coupon and paper coupon stacked for me last Saturday at my Kroger (Texas). Normally I wouldn’t have even seen it, but the paper coupon only doubled and didn’t triple (e-coupon+paper coupon doubled=price of the item). Not sure if there were any beeps as I used the UScan and, in my area, the cashier in charge of the UScan has to scan all of your coupons for you.
James
This is such a mess! Some of the e-coupons are great, especially the ones for store brand items that would not normally have a paper coupon out there anyway. I have had lots of issues with my coupons in the past with certain cashiers (go to the young men who still might be in high school) but I cannot imagine the fiasco when e-coupons cancel out paper ones at the register. How do we stand up and fight against this messed up policy? What e-mail can I send complaints to?
Ruthann
This is very upsetting! Kroger will be hearing from me.
Melissa
Such a shame. Kroger used to get the bulk of my business, but over the last year has becoming incredibly coupon unfriendly (TX). One evening I went through self checkout several times for a Huggies promotion they had when there were tons of $3 coupons out and the manager actually stopped me in the aisle and told me he would not honor any more coupon from me that evening (not just Huggies…any coupons). I walked out and haven’t been back to that store since. Doesn’t surprise me. The only power we have is to take our business elsewhere.
Molly
I shopped at Fry’s last night, and the system stacked my EQ’s automatically. We’re really lucky here in AZ…our Fry’s rounds MQ’s to $1, and accepts competitor coupons. We can only do 3 per transaction, but I’ve never had an issue with splitting transactions if I’m stocking up. It reminds me a lot of how Publix works, actually. Maybe the other Kroger stores should come out here and see how it’s done, and how Fry’s is *always* busy because they’re so customer (and coupon) friendly! :)
anh
I went to Kroger last night for last minutes weekly deal to get some cheese and campell’s soups. They did not accept my internet printable coupons. I don’t think I will shop at Kroger anymore.
Darlene
I totally understand how they may need to change things and have another policy…but I cannot seem to find THAT policy so I know what is going on. I asked the store if they could scan there policy for me…and they didnt have one…and I asked where can I get it. I shouldnt have to go sit in the floor and copy it. I just need to know the rules so I can figure out my shopping stradegy. The eq’s was why I started almost shopping exclusively Kroger. But if I have trouble and cant get the facts and no one seems to know what they are doing but wont take the coupons and cant give me a reason…then its back to square one. I will still shop there if I can get it straight…just not going to play games at the checkout…and feel like Im causing them a lot of trouble because I really do understand how annoying it can be…I just want to play fair and be prepared at the checklout! Where can I get my stores policy???
Renae @ Madame Deals
Hi Darlene,
Have you tried going to this link https://www.softcoin.com/Sites/Kroger_ECoupons/Page/FAQPage
At the bottom it talks about Digital Coupon Rules.
Darlene
I’ve been having major issues with my local Kroger store as well. The ecoupons aren’t always coming off and they don’t post the size, etc. that you need to buy in order to receive the ecoupon. Its FRUSTRATING! Now I have to return a ham for $20 and keep scanning until I locate the correct ham to get the $4 off! I also have to return shampoo and conditioner because of the cashiers confusion she never entered in my savings of $3.44. I just had to complain to customer service last week of false advertising. It looks like they need to start training all of their employees better. Especially when you do approach customer service and they tell you that they can’t help you because they don’t know what ecoupons are.
carrie dugan
My kroger already gives me a hard time over coupons like if i have a buy 2 get something off and one of the items is b1g1 then it wont scan, the only reason i go to kroger is because of doubling plus ecoupons because their prices are more expensive than walmart. SO since they changed their policy then going to their stores is a waste of time. Walmarts policy took a step forward and kroger just went 3 steps back! who the heck makes fake coupons anyways? also almost every major brand has been issuing big coupons on their facebook pages now as an incentive. so what am i suppose to do with those? Maybe i will move so i have more shopping choices, why cant everyone be WALGREENS~ stacking coupons on sale items, money back.. they are leading the coupon charge~