Here’s the applicable section of the revised coupon policy as regards multiple purchases:
When purchasing multiple items, Walgreens accepts multiple identical coupons for multiple qualifying items as long as there is sufficient stock to satisfy other customers, unless a limit is specified. Management reserves the right to limit the quantity of items purchased. Customer and employee purchases of excessive quantities of advertised items is not permitted. An excessive quantity is any quantity above and beyond normal household usage.
I read about this last week and then promptly forgot about it – I mean, when was the last time the Walgreens warehouse actually had enough inventory to matter? And what constitutes a normal household? The Jersey Shore folks? The Duggars? Mom, Dad and their 2.5 kids? Then I got an email from a Walgreens employee who said the following
We just had a communication from corporate about it because stores are “ordering more than their forcasted amounts of sale merchandise” and according to our district manager “normal household usage” is considered 12. (this seems arbitrary because his store manager has set a lower amount).
This will have a HUGE negative impact on sales. It’s just unfortunate for the couponers, because I like you guys, and it does look good when are sales are up $10k+ for the DAY!
So there you have it. Btw, stores have always reserved the right to limit quantities – check out Jewel, CVS or any other large chain’s policies. So the question is will this be strictly enforced or not or followed for a short time. As it stands now, there are friendly Wags and Wags run by coupon nazis – we flock to one and avoid the other.
My take (admittedly a cynical one) is that manufacturers are upset over the amount of free merchandise they are providing us and Walgreens is attempting to placate them with this revision. Possible solutions (assuming they have deals where a quantity will even matter!) is to have multiple cards and use them in multiple stores across a couple of districts. Obviously this won’t work in a place with only one or two Walgreens, although I don’t suggest moving just yet. And the Walgreen’s district maps are very, very weirdly drawn: The stores in Lisle belong to the same district as Wheaton, Bolingbrook and into Chicago. It’s not a huge district, just oddly drawn (a spike into Chicago? come on now), perhaps by off-season Republicans.
When running the starbucks deal yesterday the register locked up after 21 and said “too many transactions”… Manager said they have discovered there is a limit on the number of transactions allowed per day with the rewards card. So silly…I mean capitalism says if you have product to sell and a customer willing to buy it, LET THEM BUY IT!!!