I’ve never formally written a post on how to play the “Drugstore Game” at Walgreens, so I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to their Register Rewards program.
In many ways, this program is very similar to the CVS ExtraCare program. When you purchase certain items and/or a certain dollar amount of items, a coupon will print out that is good on your next purchase at Walgreens.
Much like CVS, to maximize your savings the key is to combine a Register Rewards producing deal or a great sale price with a manufacturer’s coupon and possibly even a store coupon. This allows you to purchase items at the lowest possible price so you can build your stockpile at a minimal cost.
However, there are some important differences that you need to be aware of to take advantage of the program to its fullest:
- Walgreens does not require the use of a store loyalty card to earn Register Rewards, aka RRs.
- You will only earn RRs once per deal per transaction. In other words, if Excedrin is producing $2 in RRs in a given week, you must purchase each bottle in a separate transaction to earn the Register Rewards. If you purchase 3 bottles in one transaction, you would only receive $2 in RRs.
- RRs cannot be “rolled” on like transactions. Using the Excedrin example again, you could not purchase one bottle of Excedrin and use the RRs received to purchase a second bottle. The Register Rewards will not print out when the second transaction is completed. Instead to roll RRs, you need to alternate it with another deal. So if Pantene was producing $2 in RRs as well that week, you could purchase the Excedrin, use the Excedrin RRs to purchase your Pantene, and then turn around and use the Pantene RRs to purchase the Excedrin again and so on.
- While Register Rewards are essentially cash, the Walgreens registers treat them as manufacturer coupons. The problem with this is that Walgreens only allow you to use as many manufacturer coupons as items on the transaction. This creates a need for “filler items” if you have a coupon for every item you’re purchasing and wish to pay with a Register Reward. Filler items are inexpensive items that you add to an order so you have a non-coupon item that will allow your Register Rewards to be processed.
- There is some debate about the best order to hand over your RRs and coupons at checkout. The method that I’ve found to work best personally is Register Rewards first, Walgreen’s store coupons second, and manufacturer’s coupons last. Feel free to change it up if it’s not working well for you.
Finally, a word to the wise – treat your RRs like cash. They cannot be replaced if lost. Generally Register Rewards expire two weeks from when they are generated, so watch those expiration dates!
Ready to try your hand at shopping Walgreens? Check out the Walgreens Weekly Deals where I lay out the best deals for each week along with the coupons you need to maximize your savings.
Questions? Comments? Leave them all. I’d love to create an FAQs page to help guide readers through the process of learning to shop at Walgreens, so I welcome your input.
Melanie
I’ve recently started shopping at Wags and have found a convenient and useful filler item – ramen noodles! My husband loves them, so I would be buying them at the grocery store anyway. It’s an item that’s always available, is only 29 cents, and in Florida is even tax-free as it’s food.
Laurie
I’m not a huge fan of Wag’s but have learned the system, so it makes it much less frustrating. And gals, I know we all need to vent, but lets try to keep this a helpful/FAQ kind of commentary and place the venting comments on the forum instead. OH, and for heaven sake, please call corporate about your stores to help FIX the problem with education for their employees!
First, Tara is right-on with “the order” of things. You definitely want to hand over RR first!
Secondly, I want to share that (although some have said this is not true) at our store, the IN-AD Q’s (Walgreen’s store Qs) DO COUNT toward the total number of coupons in your transaction.
Third, I have found that milk and cheap or clearance grocery items make excellent fillers… some gals buy the Sunday paper with their RR. That way, you aren’t spending your RR on something over-priced or useless… which completely defeats the point of all our deal-chasing!
Tara, I have 2 questions- you don’t need to worry about the number of coupons vs. items if you are not paying with RR, right? So you could use a store Q and MFR Q on the same item and not need a filler, as long as you were paying cash, right?
Also, I’d like to know if the catalina coupons that print at checkout (which say “MFR Q” but also say “redeemable at Walgreens” on them) can be used ONLY at Walgreens… or since they are MFR Qs can they be used anywhere? No one seems to know the answer to this one… Thanks for your help!
kate
I have had two Wags stores tell me they won’t give me a RR for a second transaction (they will rip it up!) for the same item. Is this really corporate policy? The ad says limit 1 but it doesn’t say per person, per day, or per transaction or anything…
Stephanie
Tara-
Does Wag’s have a coupon/RR policy that can be downloaded (like Walmart has)? It seems this would be very helpful to a majority of the poster’s trying to use Q’s and pay with RR’s or make multiple RR transactions in the same trip.
JArble
i couldn’t get the deal on the hairdryer anywhere…apparently the 3 walgreens near me all got wise and the hairdryer had to be manually entered…it wouldn’t scan even at the register. I also ran into the problem of having more coupons/rr than items…guess i need to learn to count better.
Kim Arnett
Why do you use the RR’s first? I would think you’d want to lower the total with the mf’s coupons first….please explain. Thanks!
Tara Kuczykowski
Laurie, you’re right – no need to worry about the number of coupons if you’re not using RRs. I think using the coupons elsewhere is a YMMV type thing. I have done it with Kroger Catalina coupons. I used them at CVS. They were a little unsure on accepting them, but I pointed out the manufacturer’s coupon wording.
Kate, I don’t think that’s corporate policy. I’d definitely email and get that clarified.
Kim, I use the RRs first because that sometimes will eliminate the too many coupons problem. Cashiers are more likely to push through a manufacturer’s coupon because they know you’ve purchase the item and it should scan.
Lolo
For all of you who are having a problem using a MQ because you are getting a RR contact the customer service via email or phone on their web site. I had the same problem with one store and the manager called me back personally to understand fully the situation and ever since at that one walgreens where I had trouble with that manager, it is smooth sailing now! It is not Walgreen place to say you can not use a MQ and RR because that is up to the manufacturer not walgreens. Now on another positive note I would just like to share how great Walgreens has been to me so far… I have only been doing the RR deals for about 2 months and successfully rolling them over and making money on the deals that I have now accumulated $256.50 in RR. (with only a few (.05 to .20 )filler items added and tax as my out of pocket expenses. My only problem now is that there does not appear to be any items coming up that I will be able to roll them over and get back the same amount let alone make a profit (except one small transaction) so it looks like I might have to spend them. I sure wish they would allow me to put it onto a Walgreens gift card.
Laura
I have two Walgreens in my city: one of them is awful and the other is fabulous. The awful store doesn’t post shelf talkers for advertised sales, so I always have to scour the ad and double-check myself before I purchase an item, and then hope I remembered to grab the right items. The good store has every deal posted plain and clear on the shelves, and sometimes I even find deals that haven’t been advertised in the circular. However, the employees at both stores seem to understand the RR system pretty well – and even they admit that it’s confusing and downright ridiculous. I had $7 RRs (in increments of $3, $2, and $2) to use in my last transaction and bought over $20 worth of items. I had 5 coupons (4 manufacturer and 1 wags), 6 items, and wasn’t able to use my last RR without purchasing a $0.25 cent filler item, which basically counteracted the $0.25 cent coupon I had used. Pointless! I would just like to note that the RRs do NOT state that they work like manufacturer coupons on the actual RRs themselves! They simply state “$X off your next purchase” which is very deceiving. I haven’t had a problem doubling Manufacturer and Wags coupons on items that produce RRs, but the entire system is flawed and could use a revamp. I don’t mind limits on RR/ECB deals as long as they’re easy to use! Looking forward to the upcoming changes. I have written Wags customer service and hopefully we will see some good things soon.
Wendy
My local Wags will only allow one RR per item per WEEK! Tara, do you know if this is corp. policy? Or just cranky employees!?
Tara Kuczykowski
Wendy, as far as I know that is not corporate policy. Sometimes they’ll have limits stated in the ad, but if there’s not one stated, it’s up to the store’s discretion. However, limiting them to one is a little extreme. I’d call customer service to see what they say.
Jessie
I shop at walgreens regulary and I have never seen the RR’s. I have even gone over a lot of my old receipts. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong. Also, I seem unable to open the coupon for the Aquafresh, is anyone else having that problem?
Tara Kuczykowski
Jessie, they don’t print at the bottom of your receipt like CVS ECBs. They’re a separate coupon that prints from a machine next to the register.
I’m not sure on the Aquafresh coupon. I was able to open the site just now.
Laura
Jessie, there is a coupon for 75-cents off any Aquafresh 5.6oz or larger toothpaste in this week’s Sunday paper. This will work with the 6oz Aquafresh associated with the $3 RR deal this week. I’ve been rolling $3 RRs both last week and this week and stocking up on some good items: Oreo Cakesters and St. Ives body wash last week, and Oreo Cakesters again this week along with the Aquafresh toothpaste. I was tempted to not use the Aquafresh coupon and simply use my $3 RR to bring the $3 balance to exactly zero so I didn’t have to pay anything OOP, but instead I used the 75-cents off Aquafresh coupon and bought some 89-cent candy for my daughter. Total OOP was 14 cents.
Rita
After today, pretty much decided not to shop Wags again. They don’t have the advertised items, rain checks are almost useless as I’m told there’s no guarantee they’ll ever get the item again, couldn’t use $4 RR to pay for $4.11 total (had plenty of items and 1 MQ). Once I had a raincheck which stated I would get $2 RR for item that was $2 on sale, also had MQ for $2 off and they wouldn’t let me use the MQ as they used the not-yet-generated $2 RR as payment, which I was just going to use another day. Manager said no b/c I would be making $2! Wags not worth the effort.
Laura
Rita – I had the same experience this week. My Wags only had one Starbucks ice cream pint left during the BOGO sale a few weeks back, so the manager gave me a choice: either get one pint at half price, or get a raincheck for BOGO. I opted for the raincheck, thinking two pints at half price was better than one. WRONG! The same pint has been sitting on the freezer shelf for the past 2 weeks and the manager doesn’t know if they’ll ever get more in stock. Then he refused to sell me the one pint at half price, stating that I’d have to get two and pay full price for one. Ugh.
Lindsey
Ok…my first bad experience at Walgreens ever yesterday. First, can you use more the one RR in a transaction? The cashier gave me dirty looks and called a manager to reduce the price of a coupon I was using. First he said it was the second one he had gotten that day (my guess is he did an over-ride for that person when it didn’t scan, and when it happened for me he looked into it – realized it was worth more and then refused it for me, but called over a mgr when i said you could reduce the amount). Then I handed over my RRs (I had two) and he said you were only allowed to use one per transaction. I didn’t argue because I didn’t know. But if this is the case, I really don’t like their program. I will never be able to do this whole rolling thing well with minimal OOP cost that way. And yes, I have heard that they will be rolling out a Card system like CVS beginning this fall (I think Sept) and they will marketing it different ways and trying a few things. I think it will be a public “change,” if you will, for everyone sometime early next year.
Amy
I was also told 1 RR per transaction. I thought they were like cash. Anyway, I am new to all of this and found that the Walgreens deals aren’t good enough to mess with in my area. This seals the deal with me that I will only visit CVS & occasionally Rite Aid.
Laura
Walgreens cash registers treat RRs like manufacturer coupons; therefore, they are limited to accepting 1 RR or manufacturer coupon per item in each transaction. That means if you are buying just one item, then you can only use one RR or one manufacturer coupon. If you are buying two items, you can use: two manufacturer coupons, two RRs, or one manufacturer coupon and one RR. It’s confusing and frustrating and sometimes not worth the trouble. But maybe that explains why they declined your other RRs.
Lindsey
Here was my scenario – I bought 3 items. I had one manufacturer coupon, and two RRs. The total for all 3 items before tax was about $8. I used the manuf. coupon that brought my total down to 6.99. I handed him a $5 RR and a $1 RR. He said “you can only use 1 RR per transaction” and handed me back the $1 RR. So my total was 1.99 + tax. I looked over the RR details and it doesn’t state this. I know there is the total item restriction (as it states on the RR), but it says nothing about only being able to use 1 per transaction. I just didn’t know if anyone knew or has tried using multiple RRs in a transaction.
Laura
Lindsey – I’ve used 3 different RRs and they scanned fine without beeping. According to your scenario, you should have been able to use the second RR. The cashier seems misinformed, and it might be worth writing Walgreens customer service about it. If he had tried to scan the second RR, it probably would have taken without beeping.
I’ve never been told by either Wags in my area that I can only use one RR per transaction. The only three problems I’ve encountered using RRs are: (1) the manufacturer+RR count cannot exceed the total number of items purchased; (2) the balance must be greater than or equal to the value of the RR (you can’t use a $1 RR on a $0.99 bill – they won’t even adjust them down like CVS does); and (3) the RRs for an active deal won’t print if you use a RR that was produced by the same manufacturer.
Amy
I’ve received some great deals at Walgreens, but I do agree that their program could use some improvement…..Does anyone know about how Walgreens deals with returns when the item being returned is more than the amount you paid in actual cash? I used a bunch of coupons and register rewards and my Out of Pocket was $3.00, but I realized that the listerine I purchased was not the correct one for the listerine deal. I want to return it, but don’t know how they deal with this????? HELP
wennona
A few weeks ago I bought an air freshner that didnt print out my RR. Manager told me it was because I used a coupon. so. I returned it and got my money back plus face value of coupon in cash. I then used cash only to purchase one and it still didnt print. But I got cash back for coupon so they will probably give you cash back for whatever item cost.
Modern Day Mom
Amy – it’s pretty much YMMV. I went to return some Benadryl this week because we bought too much (a communication error on our part) … the manager at one store refused to give me more than the amount I actually paid because I had used (2) $1/1 coupons and a $3 RR. I told her that the store will get reimbursed for the coupons and RR, but she still refused, saying that I would make a profit from the refund. Another store gave me cash back, no problem. I’ve also had stores insist that they have to load the amount onto a gift card. It’s pretty inconsistent.
Katherine D.
If you want to 2 separate RR deals (i.e. buy Carefree liners for $1.99, get $1.99 RR and buy Excedrin for $x.xx, get $2 RR), do you have to ring them up separately, or can they ring them up together and have both RRs still print out?
There are a few RR deals I am thinking about doing this week, but I don’t want to have to do several transactions/make several trips to do them.
Tara Kuczykowski
As long as they are separate deals, you can do them in the same transaction. But if say you wanted to do two of the Carefree deals in the same transaction, you’d only earn RRs on one. Does that make sense?
anoo
i tried walgreens this weekend…..my first transaction…and i must say “I loveeee CVS”. At Walgreens, the staff does not seem properly trained. I asked for a Healthy Savings Booklet and she said, “Its been discontinued as people are using it for the wrong reasons!!” I thought thats hard luck. My husband tried in another store and he got that booklet…wow! So inconsistent. I dont feel like going to that store anymore..:( I truly love CVS.
Jennifer
I’m so discouraged with Walgreens program. I thought RR worked the same as they do at CVS, but I was slammed today with not being able to use my $25 worth of RR b/c I also had MC. I’ll try it the way you mentioned next time, RR first. So frustrating.
Dona
Does anyone know the official policy on Register Rewards? I thought you could use 1 manufacturers coupon per item with RRs counting as a manufacturer coupon. Today I had 5 items with 2 coupons and 2 RRs and she said I could only use 1 RR per transaction. I had her void it and do 2 separate transactions but what a pain. If I have to each item separately, I’ll stick with CVS.
ILiana
Sound like some one needs to learn there policy. There is so many employees that need to read there policy.
Joy
My final OOP keeps ending up about $2. Can anyone tell me why? I’ve had two different Walgreens tell me they have to scan the MF coupons first and RR last…. could this be the reason for my OOP expense being so high? thx!
Concerned Walgreens employee
Walgreens cashiers are trained to ring up manufacture coupons first, and then the RR. If you have too many coupons, it will automatically void off the RR. So trying to hand them over in a different order is not going to work.
You can’t get something for nothing. Its time to realize that, and stop harassing the poor employees who are just doing their jobs.