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Walgreens - Extreme Couponing Ruining the Store
Coupons - Complaint
Review by SuperMike on 2012-07-16
Rating: 
I shop at my neighborhood Walgreens once or twice every week. I like the store, and I know and like most of the employees there. Seems like every time I go there however, they always seem to be out of their good sale items. At first I thought maybe the store had inventory issues or maybe I was getting there too late so I started going early in the week hoping to be the early bird to catch the worm. Didn't work, store is still out of sale items.
I spoke to the store manager and he tells me that the store is having problems with the extreme couponers who wipe out his inventory very early in the ad cycle and then the store is usually out of stock for a week or more, and he has to write rain checks to all his regular customers. He told me of an instance where a customer just yesterday bought 250 candy bars all with duplicate coupons and didn't pay even 3 dollars.
To me, it isn't fair that the store allows this. I know you can't stop people from couponing, but isn't there some way they can put a limit on how much one customer can buy? It's kind of ridiculous that all the merchandise is going home with a handful of greedy people and the regular customers go home with nothing. I told the manager that if this keeps up, I'm going to have to transfer my prescriptions out of the store and find a new place to shop that will actually have my items in stock. And I really don't want to do that because the people in this store are nice and the pharmacy takes good care of me, but what choice will I have?
I spoke to the store manager and he tells me that the store is having problems with the extreme couponers who wipe out his inventory very early in the ad cycle and then the store is usually out of stock for a week or more, and he has to write rain checks to all his regular customers. He told me of an instance where a customer just yesterday bought 250 candy bars all with duplicate coupons and didn't pay even 3 dollars.
To me, it isn't fair that the store allows this. I know you can't stop people from couponing, but isn't there some way they can put a limit on how much one customer can buy? It's kind of ridiculous that all the merchandise is going home with a handful of greedy people and the regular customers go home with nothing. I told the manager that if this keeps up, I'm going to have to transfer my prescriptions out of the store and find a new place to shop that will actually have my items in stock. And I really don't want to do that because the people in this store are nice and the pharmacy takes good care of me, but what choice will I have?
Comments:
Posted by Dynamo011 on 2012-07-16:
Supermike, I love this post! The "coupon people" as I call them are such a plague. And yes, the store has the right to limit sale quantities and I agree that they absolutely should.
I was a retail manager only a short time ago (thankfully no longer) and I had to put limits on my sale merchandise for this same reason. I would get really strict with them and eventually the coupon parasites (and they know who they are) shopped elsewhere. And guess what? My store didn't suffer one single bit. I still made my sales and hit budget and earned a nice bonus. The funny part is most of them aren't regular customers. They just go from store to store trying to get as much as they can for as little as they can, and they'll fight like heck. Its a problem, but a very solvable one. The key for the retailer is standing firm and not giving in to them.
I was a retail manager only a short time ago (thankfully no longer) and I had to put limits on my sale merchandise for this same reason. I would get really strict with them and eventually the coupon parasites (and they know who they are) shopped elsewhere. And guess what? My store didn't suffer one single bit. I still made my sales and hit budget and earned a nice bonus. The funny part is most of them aren't regular customers. They just go from store to store trying to get as much as they can for as little as they can, and they'll fight like heck. Its a problem, but a very solvable one. The key for the retailer is standing firm and not giving in to them.
Posted by yoke on 2012-07-16:
It is sad that the extreme couponers have ruined it for the rest of us. The store should be able to limit the amount of sale products a customer buys and how many coupons they can use. Many stores do not allow copied coupons and many stores already have it posted that there is a limit. Walgreens needs to get their act together or they will lose valued customers.
Posted by SuperMike on 2012-07-16:
Sounds like more stores need to be run like yours was. I don't care about people using coupons reasonably but the ones who take excessive amounts of items (more than any normal person can even use) because they get it for free isn't fair to the regulars.
Posted by trmn8r on 2012-07-16:
This conjurs up the complaints of those who AREN'T allowed to behave this way. Not everyone will ever be happy, but what is the most fair?
I'm on your side. Excellent post.
I'm on your side. Excellent post.
Posted by MRM on 2012-07-16:
I only use 1 coupon per visit.
Posted by Anna Molly on 2012-07-16:
Excellent review, and it's not just Walgreen's that allows this to happen. I work for one of their competitors, and the other bad thing about this is, those particular customers can hold up the line at the register for over 30 minutes or more. Frustrating to the store employees, even more frustrating to their fellow customers.
*Edited to add - my store does impose limits, but even when the customer neglects to or is unable to read the small print (ha), the customer is STILL always right.
*Edited to add - my store does impose limits, but even when the customer neglects to or is unable to read the small print (ha), the customer is STILL always right.
Posted by Susan on 2012-07-16:
According to the Walgreen's coupon policy info on their website "Management reserves the right to limit the quantity of items purchased" and also mentions something about "sufficient stock to satisfy other customers". So instead of the store manager complaining about people using multiple coupons he/she needs to flex their power and place a reasonable limit on the quanity allowed.
Posted by Nohandle on 2012-07-16:
I wasn't going to comment on this one because it really gets my blood pressure up. First of all, I hate to shop. If I'm given a coupon great, I'll use it IF I happen to be in that particular store anyway. We've all seen them. People with a shopping cart full of whatever and they have stripped the shelves bare. There is no way on earth they personally can use 25 cans of hair spray, 20 tubs of oatmeal (that stuff gets buggy after a while), on and on and on.
Some might say they are shopping for a shelter. In MOST cases I call foul on that one. They enjoy the chase and nothing else. They have no intention of donating to anyone. It's the joy of getting a car full of merchandise for near nothing.
I'll be happy when stores stop this madness. Perhaps when I go in I'll be able to find the product I went to the store for. Very nice review and comments as well.
Some might say they are shopping for a shelter. In MOST cases I call foul on that one. They enjoy the chase and nothing else. They have no intention of donating to anyone. It's the joy of getting a car full of merchandise for near nothing.
I'll be happy when stores stop this madness. Perhaps when I go in I'll be able to find the product I went to the store for. Very nice review and comments as well.
Posted by madconsumer on 2012-07-16:
i agree. people who must have 49 items of the exact same thing just top save a few dollars is pointless. i often see these 'extreme coupon'ers' clear shelves in their selfish desire to save a few pence.
Posted by GenuineNerd on 2012-08-30:
Often times, the "extreme couponers" will resell their heavily discounted purchases at the local flea market, and make a tidy profit. Health/beauty items and cleaning items are popular with couponers, and are often sold at the flea markets. They will. for example, sell a deodorant stick or a bottle of body wash for $2...items that normally sell for $3 to $4 (or more) regularly. The extreme couponers do take advantage of sales and double coupons to get their bargains...sometimes which are re-sold.
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