THE MARCH 2011 GROCERY CHALLENGE THREAD

[mercee]

I stopped at WAGS on my way to work. Cashier was telling me some interesting (yet confusing) things. She said that there are test markets going on right now where RRs would be on cards instead of the paper. I said, well, how would the card differentiate the RR if I bought another colgate & wanted another RR. She said something about me agreeing to terms & conditions, blah blah blah - I think she was trying to say (without saying it) that technically, I shouldn't be buying multiple colgates (or any item) the way many of us do.

She also said that they're going to have various things where you can win prizes for walking XX steps, etc. And that the rebate program ended cuz it cost WAGS so much money, so they're trying to find other things to save costs but still give cust's rewards for shopping - they're trying to increase traffic into WAGS.

Makes sense, but it could be a bad thing for rolling RRs... Anyone else have any real insight into this?

[family legacy]

Can you combine a RA in-ad Q with a VV Q or is that 2 of the same thing?

[saveinla]

Mar 4, 2011 9:54:16 GMT -5 family legacy said:

Can you combine a RA in-ad Q with a VV Q or is that 2 of the same thing?

deepindebt,
If one of them start with RA48 and the other starts with RA49, then you should be able to combine both. If not, then you can use only one. HTH

[AJ CouponGG]

Mar 4, 2011 9:22:10 GMT -5 mercee said:

I stopped at WAGS on my way to work. Cashier was telling me some interesting (yet confusing) things. She said that there are test markets going on right now where RRs would be on cards instead of the paper. I said, well, how would the card differentiate the RR if I bought another colgate & wanted another RR. She said something about me agreeing to terms & conditions, blah blah blah - I think she was trying to say (without saying it) that technically, I shouldn't be buying multiple colgates (or any item) the way many of us do.

She also said that they're going to have various things where you can win prizes for walking XX steps, etc. And that the rebate program ended cuz it cost WAGS so much money, so they're trying to find other things to save costs but still give cust's rewards for shopping - they're trying to increase traffic into WAGS.

Makes sense, but it could be a bad thing for rolling RRs... Anyone else have any real insight into this?

Wasn't there a test market like in Missouri or something where Wags had a loyalty card like CVS? I believe ThriftyPuppy/Domino was in it and she talked about it when she had her blog (remember her? Hope she is doing well!) I never heard anything else about it......I think it was like 6 months ago? It was summer time.

[mercee]

I'm one of the "newbies" AJ, so unfortunately, I don't remember her or know of her blog. I missed so much by not jumping into this sooner!

If they do come out with something, I hope it's still a "win" for us. WAGS & Target are the only stores I have near me - no CVS, no RA, etc.

[leanna]

DEBINWA:

Could you post the link about coupon coding? I would like to learn more.

Thanks!

Leanna

[leanna]

Mercee and AJ Coupon,

I'm in the test market for Walgreen's - I'm in Portland, OR.

It started almost a year ago. We still get register rewards, but they're very rare.

Instead, we get points for products we buy. For example, this past week, when they were all the freebies, we got NONE of them. Just points.
Needless to say, the coupon community in Portland, OR metro area is up in arms about this!
Many of us have written and called Walgreen's.

Walgreen's also gives points for prescriptions, so if you have to get a lot of prescriptions filled, you can earn rewards that way.
But if you don't have prescriptions filled at Wags, the rewards program stinks.

[mercee]

Thanks for the info leanna - that TOTALLY sucks. The only reason I go to WAGS is to get stuff free or nearly free. Without the RRs, there's no point & I'm probably better off shopping at WalMart (or Target or even the grocery store!). *sigh*

[mommax4]

leanna-it sounds like your WAGS test market is different than mine. I'm in Kansas City and we have the card, but still get the RR. I'm just starting out, so don't know much about how the rewards work for us, but at least we get the RR too.

[leanna]

Mar 4, 2011 12:44:07 GMT -5 mommax4 said:

leanna-it sounds like your WAGS test market is different than mine. I'm in Kansas City and we have the card, but still get the RR. I'm just starting out, so don't know much about how the rewards work for us, but at least we get the RR too.

Yes, we get rr but just very rarely. Does your ad match up with the national ones? Our ad in Portland is totally different.

For example, starting this Sunday, nationally there is a rr for Irish Spring deodorant. There is NO rr for this in Portland.

We will be getting some rr's this week in Portland, softsoap for example, but unless there is a magical $2 off softsoap coupon that I don't know about, the softsoap wouldn't be free.

And if it's not free, it's not for me! :D

[mommax4]

I'm pretty sure it's the same as the national ad. I haven't looked at next weeks, but this week we had the $3 RR on motrin, baby magic, $5 on nasal gel, $10 on something else that I can't remember.

[leanna]

Another example - no $2 rr on Always, like everyone else is getting

[debinwa]

Mar 4, 2011 11:48:55 GMT -5 leanna said:

DEBINWA:

Could you post the link about coupon coding? I would like to learn more.

Thanks!

Leanna

Leanna (and anyone else who's interested): here is the link. Hope it's okay to post here...

slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=1133028&t=889094

[leanna]

Mar 4, 2011 12:58:00 GMT -5 mommax4 said:

I'm pretty sure it's the same as the national ad. I haven't looked at next weeks, but this week we had the $3 RR on motrin, baby magic, $5 on nasal gel, $10 on something else that I can't remember.

Ok, yeah, sounds like you are getting similar to the national ad. We had no baby magic, nasal gel or anything else here in Portland.

[leanna]

Thanks debinwa!

[mommax4]

sorry leanna

[leanna]

P.S. I like your dancing frog!

[leanna]

Mar 4, 2011 13:13:32 GMT -5 mommax4 said:

sorry leanna

Thanks.
Que sera, sera.

I started doing Rite Aid the last few months, so it's ok. Could be worse...at least I have Rite Aid.

My dream coupon world would be a CVS, Wags (with no rewards card) & a RA all on the same block.

[dancinmama]

Mar 4, 2011 12:48:20 GMT -5 leanna said:

And if it's not free, it's not for me! :D

leanna: That's my motto too!! :)

[aprilleigh]

Mar 4, 2011 11:55:08 GMT -5 leanna said:

Mercee and AJ Coupon,

I'm in the test market for Walgreen's - I'm in Portland, OR.

It started almost a year ago. We still get register rewards, but they're very rare.

Instead, we get points for products we buy. For example, this past week, when they were all the freebies, we got NONE of them. Just points.
Needless to say, the coupon community in Portland, OR metro area is up in arms about this!
Many of us have written and called Walgreen's.

Walgreen's also gives points for prescriptions, so if you have to get a lot of prescriptions filled, you can earn rewards that way.
But if you don't have prescriptions filled at Wags, the rewards program stinks.

Hi Leanna,

I'm in the Portland-ish area, too. I think the WAGS card program is miserable! When you mentioned the coupon community in Portland, do you know of any local deal blogs or sites? You can PM me if you want.

How is the stock at the Rite Aids you go to? I usually do Oregon City, Milwaukie, and sometimes Happy Valley. When the Dove deodorant was on sale, I was at both Oregon City and Milwaukie before noon and there was nothing!! I've pretty much reconciled myself to never getting as great of deals as some other ladies, and just being grateful for the few deals I can do. That also saves on gas!

[AJ CouponGG]

Mercee/mommax/leanna-wow I never really followed up with anyone who was in the wags test market.....and a lot of the ladies fell off when the board switched from MSN Money so to be honest I'm really disappointed to hear Wags' new system isn't as great as I had hoped. I'm hopeful that maybe corporate will take the complaints to heart from the test markets. What are the points for on the Wags card? Is it like riteaid where you eventually get 20% off orders?

[dancinmama]

Mar 4, 2011 9:22:10 GMT -5 mercee said:

I stopped at WAGS on my way to work. Cashier was telling me some interesting (yet confusing) things. She said that there are test markets going on right now where RRs would be on cards instead of the paper. I said, well, how would the card differentiate the RR if I bought another colgate & wanted another RR. She said something about me agreeing to terms & conditions, blah blah blah - I think she was trying to say (without saying it) that technically, I shouldn't be buying multiple colgates (or any item) the way many of us do.

She also said that they're going to have various things where you can win prizes for walking XX steps, etc. And that the rebate program ended cuz it cost WAGS so much money, so they're trying to find other things to save costs but still give cust's rewards for shopping - they're trying to increase traffic into WAGS.

Makes sense, but it could be a bad thing for rolling RRs... Anyone else have any real insight into this?

mercee: We never know when something is going to change. I remember when there were NO drug chain rewards and getting non-perishables for free was EXTREMELY rare. Getting free food was more common for me due to sales and double coupons. Now things are completely the opposite - rarely do I get free food (unless I get it with drug chain rewards) because I no longer have anywhere that offers double coupons, but I can get non-perishables for free all the time.

My rule of thumb is that if it is something that my family uses, is free or a MM, and non-perishable I most likely will do the deal. If I find that I have over-stockpiled something, I can always donate it later cuz there is no expiration date.

How long will the major drug chains compete with each other via rewards? How long will the newspapers continue to offer MCs in the Sunday edition? (In some areas the RP is already only delivered via USPS.) Could it be that eventually all coupons will be printables and thus limited in quantity?

When changes occur we just have to adjust. (When WAGs discontinued the ESR program, my shopping strategy there changed in a HUGE, HUGE way.) In the meantime, when it comes to free non-perishables, my strategy is "get it while the gettin' is good" cuz you never know how long this "gravy train " is going to last.

[dancinmama]

Mar 4, 2011 14:20:44 GMT -5 aprilleigh said:

How is the stock at the Rite Aids you go to? I usually do Oregon City, Milwaukie, and sometimes Happy Valley. When the Dove deodorant was on sale, I was at both Oregon City and Milwaukie before noon and there was nothing!! I've pretty much reconciled myself to never getting as great of deals as some other ladies, and just being grateful for the few deals I can do. That also saves on gas!

aprilleigh: The stock at my Rite Aid on many things has been poor at best (with the exception of the recent toilet paper and snacks deals). I have found that the only way that I am going to get many of the items is to be there at 8:00 am when the store opens. Sometimes I even call the store on Saturday night and have them do a stock check for me so that I know whether or not it's worth my time/gas to drive across town. HTH

[dancinmama]

Mar 3, 2011 23:12:16 GMT -5 herekittykitty said:

Oh no, another name change! I have just now gotten used to weaselfer and constanz! ;D

Okay, major CRS here. Could someone please remind me who weaselfer was on the old board.

[herekittykitty]

I know that one...jgoldsby!

[weaselfer]

Weaselfer is me. I was jsgoldsby.

[dancinmama]

Mar 4, 2011 15:58:40 GMT -5 weaselfer said:

Weaselfer is me. I was jsgoldsby.

And here I was thinking that you were a newbie. ha ha ha

[mizbear]

I'm going to stick a post-it to my computer with a new-name:old-name list.

[dancinmama]

Mar 4, 2011 16:08:50 GMT -5 mizbear said:

I'm going to stick a post-it to my computer with a new-name:old-name list.

Most of us kept our original screen names - I think? Did anyone else switch besides constanz and weaselfer? I know mommyinmissouri became missourimommy and mississippipt became misspt, but those were close enough to the originals that they caused me no problems. And AJ added AJ back into her screen name so that solved the problem of forgetting that one.

Are there any more name switchers out there that I'm unaware of?

[leanna]

Mar 4, 2011 14:20:44 GMT -5 aprilleigh said:

Mar 4, 2011 11:55:08 GMT -5 leanna said:

Mercee and AJ Coupon,

I'm in the test market for Walgreen's - I'm in Portland, OR.

It started almost a year ago. We still get register rewards, but they're very rare.

Instead, we get points for products we buy. For example, this past week, when they were all the freebies, we got NONE of them. Just points.
Needless to say, the coupon community in Portland, OR metro area is up in arms about this!
Many of us have written and called Walgreen's.

Walgreen's also gives points for prescriptions, so if you have to get a lot of prescriptions filled, you can earn rewards that way.
But if you don't have prescriptions filled at Wags, the rewards program stinks.

Hi Leanna,

I'm in the Portland-ish area, too. I think the WAGS card program is miserable! When you mentioned the coupon community in Portland, do you know of any local deal blogs or sites? You can PM me if you want.

How is the stock at the Rite Aids you go to? I usually do Oregon City, Milwaukie, and sometimes Happy Valley. When the Dove deodorant was on sale, I was at both Oregon City and Milwaukie before noon and there was nothing!! I've pretty much reconciled myself to never getting as great of deals as some other ladies, and just being grateful for the few deals I can do. That also saves on gas!

Hi April Leigh,

I sent you a pm, but I couldn't remember your whole msg here (lol) so I'll respond as to your other questions right here.

I live in Lake Oswego, and mostly just shop here, because it would cost me too much in gas to shop anywhere else.

The stock at the RA I go to gets wiped out first thing in the a.m. on Sunday by 1-2 people. It's not very nice

With the Dove deal, one woman bought ALL 12 of the deodorants (one of the cashiers told me) leaving NONE for anyone else. Grrrr!!!

So, I got a raincheck, but of course they didn't get the Dove in before the coupon was going to expire, so I ended up getting the Dove at Walgreens last week. Not as good a deal, but better than nothing!

Our economy is really rough here, in my opinion. Some people do very well financially in terms of their career, and others have family $$$. But for a lot of us, costs have been going through the roof, and salaries are smaller. So, I think there are a LOT of people who have extremely tight budgets in the Portland metro area.

With so many people couponing, it makes it tough to get to the deals in time.

Do you need any coupons, by the way?