The Ultimate Guide to Couponing in the Northwest: Know the coupon strategies {WALGREENS CATALINAS}

CATALINA: A coupon you get with your receipt at the register; usually triggered by a specific item that you purchased

Now that you have mastered Grocery Store Catalinas, let’s move on to Walgreens. Catalinas at Walgreens are called Register Rewards. A Register Reward (RR) prints when you purchase either a certain dollar amount of product or group of participating products or a certain number of products and is good for a certain dollar amount off your next purchase.

Register Rewards print and function just like Grocery Store Catalinas, but, like everything Walgreens, is a bit… funkier.

These deals are usually promoted in the weekly ad, though sometimes they run for a longer period than indicated in the ad. For instance, sometimes a RR deal runs for an entire month, but is only advertised in one weekly ad. Even though a product is not tagged in the store, the RR will print.

You can use a manufacturer’s coupon on a RR deal to lower your out-of-pocket (OOP) cost. Example:

Colgate Toothpaste on sale $4.49
Buy 1, Get $4.49 Register Reward
Use $1/1 coupon
Pay $3.49, Get $4.49 RR
FREE with $1 overage after coupon & RR

Obviously, it’s not really “free” because you’re getting what amounts to a Walgreens gift card (with more restrictions) rather than cash. But we consider it “free” if you are using your Register Rewards strategically (more on this later).

Register Rewards do not roll to an identical RR deal. This is the big difference between Walgreens cats and grocery store Catalinas. This means that, say, you use the Colgate RR to pay for your next Colgate RR deal — the RR will not print. The register will allow you to pay for the second transaction, but you won’t get another RR. Example:

Transaction #1:

Colgate Toothpaste on sale $4.49
Buy 1, Get $4.49 Register Reward
Buy 1
Use $1/1 coupon
Pay $3.49, Get $4.49 RR

Transaction #2:

Buy 1 Colgate
Use RR from transaction #1
Pay $0, but no RR prints

You can roll RRs from one RR deal to different RR deal — use the RR from transaction #1 to pay for another RR deal and the second RR will print. Example:

Transaction #1 is the same.

Transaction #2:

Gillette Fusion Razor on sale $9.99
Buy 1, Get $5 RR
Use $4/1 coupon from 12/26 P&G insert
Use $4.49 Catalina from transaction #1
Pay $1.50, Get $5 RR

Now, you can use the RR from transaction #2 to do a Colgate RR deal and the RR will print.

You must have as many items in your transaction as you have manufacturer’s coupons and a RR counts as a manufacturer’s coupon. Example of a transaction that will not go through:

Buy 2 Carefree Pantiliners @ $1 each = $2
Use (2) $.50/1 coupons (-$1)
Use $1 RR (-$1)

Why won’t it work? You are attempting to use 3 manufacturer’s coupons (2 Carefree + 1 RR) and are purchasing only 2 items. Remember, manufacturer’s coupons must “stick” to an item in order for them to work. You need to add a filler item to this transaction so the RR can stick to something. Example of a transaction that will work:

Buy 2 Carefree Pantiliners @ $1 each = $2
Buy 1 pencil on clearance = $.11
Use (2) $.50/1 coupons (-$1)
Use $1 RR (-$1)

Now the RR will “stick” to the pencil and the transaction can go through.

Register Rewards usually have a two week expiration, which means you have time to be strategic and plan out how you use your RRs.

• Which scenario will yield the least amount spent out-of-pocket?
• What order should the scenarios go in?

The goal of any good Walgreen’s couponer is to spend as little out-of-pocket as possible, even if it means you “buy” some items you don’t use. Brittany has come up with a series of four Walgreens transactions to illustrate this point.

If your RR does not print, you could take it up with your Walgreens cashier or manager or contact the Catalina company directly.

CATALINA COMPANY CONTACT INFO:

• Phone: 888.8COUPON and press #3
• Email: coupon@catalinamarketing.com — make sure you include the store name & address, date & time of purchase, what you purchased, the transaction ID from your receipt and what Catalina you expected to get

Read more from The Ultimate Guide to Couponing in the Northwest here.

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