What is a RR and how do I use it?

[Melissa]

A RR is short for Register Reward. It is a catalina coupon that prints after you purchase the qualifying products. Often times you will be able to get products FREE after RR. For example. Aussie Shampoo goes on sale for $2.99 and there is a coupon good for $1.00 off one bottle. If you purchase this item you will pay $1.99 and a coupon good on your next order will print for $2.00 making the item free bc they are essentially giving you the monies paid in form of walgreens money although many stores will accept these RR as competitor coupons.

The key to maximize the RR program is to utilize the RR you just received by purchasing product X and purchase product Y with the RR from Product X thus less OOP cost and more free stuff.

Click here for FAQ for Walgreens Register Reward Program

[stlcouponwizard]

Hello Melissa, I have been surfing the net tonight am alarmed at the number of people out there that are (for the lack of a better term) afraid to take on Walgreens. I just put togeter a post for my editorial page and would like to share it with you and your readers. It goes a little further than you explanation above but hopefully it helps peopl understand how to shop Wags.

As I surf the internet at night I find unbelievable numbers of people fed up with Walgreens and the difficulty they have working deals at their local Walgreens. After reading their comments I can sort of relate to what they are saying but fail short of feeling sorry for them for some reason. Okay I know the reason I don’t feel sorry for them. the reason is Wags is easy.

When I first started shopping Wags I guess I felt a bit confused but it was short lived. I quickly figured it out with a little help and it has been a breeze since. There are only a few things to remember to turn Wags into your friend and I will try to explain them to you.

First, never go unprepared, as you probably know the Walgreens associates are not very helpful unless you are friendly and organized. You hold up their line and they need to get on the PA and ask for help at the checkout you most likely screwed up.  Don’t let this happen because you are not prepared, it does happen to me but it is because the checker did not perform their job correctly and that is fine. That is how a lot of these checkers learn the process since it seems to be the only training most of the associates get. I plan and clip my coupons together with paper clips and unless I find a cheaper filler I stick to my plan. If the transaction does not work know why and quickly inform the checker what went wrong. Demand that the transaction be rang correctly and then thank the associate for their help when finished. Always go to Walgreens with at least a plan “A” if possible have a plan “B”.  Plan your transactions well know what you are getting and know the cost both retail and your oop on each transaction.

To know what your transactions will cost you need to know how RRs work. This is the part that scares some people but it shouldn’t because they are only a MFG coupon. They have the same restrictions as a MFG coupon the major difference is that they are not tied to a product and they can produce overage. That may be over simplifying it but basically that is what they are MFG Coupons. That means that you can not use it on a product that you have a MFG coupon for but you can stack it on a Walgreens coupon. You can also use that $6.00 RR to buy that $0.25 piece of candy since it is not tied to a product.  Simple right,  I told you so. Well if you understand all of that I will go back to working on something else, Good Luck  ……………………………………  Okay if it was that simple there would be a line getting in Walgreens instead of a line trying to get out the door.  The next thing about the RR is Walgreens attempt to prevent people from clearing the shelves. They do it by not allowing a second RR when you use a RR from the same manufacturer to buy a product that also has a RR attached to it.  That means you should not use a P&G RR that you got by buying Crest Toothpaste to get an Oral-B toothbrush. You can use it to get the toothbrush but you will not get a RR for the toothbrush because of the RR you used. That is why we “ROLL” transactions.  To roll you need two transactions from different Manufacturers and then use the RRs from your first transaction to buy the second transaction and the RR from the second transaction to buy the first transaction.  You dizzy yet?  so you go back and forth and back and forth. To me and most of the people that read my post this is basic knowledge but this is the part that gets most newbies. To put together a Roll look at your oop on a transaction, I would keep it simple “Small” at first until you get the hang of it. Say you are getting the recent deal the Contac Cold & flu medicine, it cost $6.00 with a $6.00 RR, there was also a $2.00 coupon on it. so The important parts are the OOP  ($4.00) and the value of the RR  ($6.00), Okay for the second transaction there was the Colgate toothpaste at $3.49 with a $2.50 RR and a $1.00 Coupon  so the oop was $2.49 and the RR was $2.50. Well look at the two transactions, the $6.00 RR will pay for the oop on the toothpaste but the RR from the toothpaste will not pay for the Contac. Well there happened to be another deal on Alka Seltzer, the deal was buy 3 & get a $5.00 RR. It was priced at $3.99 and had a $3.00/1 coupon on it, so this deal will cost $2.97/3 OOP (3 x $3.99 =$11.97 - $9.00 coupons = $2.97). Now add this to the tooth paste, the oop will be  $5.46 and you have a $6.00 RR to pay for it. That means you need $0.54 worth of fillers to complete the transactions. You need these fillers because of two reasons on this transactions, 1,  you are buying 4 products and have 4 MFG coupons (no more that 1 MFG coupon per product & an RR is a MFG coupon) and you only have $5.46 of the $6.00 spent. Since you are only using 1 RR all you need is one item worth at least $0.54, you can get more than one but keep the cost as close to $0.54 as possible. This is where I get things I need for instance a can of tuna at $0.69 or 2 Halloween bags at $0.58  ($0.29 each). The two bags is what I used and it produced a $0.04 OOP before tax. On This transaction I used a $6.00 RR and received a $2.50 and a $5.00 RR. That’s a deal since my other Transaction (Contac) will cost $4.00 OOP. I will use the $5.00 RR to buy the contact and since I have a MFG coupon you guessed it I need a Filler worth at least $1.00, once again get something you need or can use and/or stock.  This week there was several things that cost $1.00 and since I was only using 1 RR to pay I only need 1 filler, I found Chicken stock 2/$1.00. When I added this to the transaction my OOP was $5.00 and I used the $5.00 RR ($0.00 oop) from the Alka seltzer to purchase the products and received a $6.00 RR back.  So on the set of transactions I spent $0.05 and got $23.04 or product and gained $3.50 worth of RRs. Then do it again. You can do both of these transactions together (one after the other at the same register.

  I hope that clears things up a bit for those out there just starting. Keep it small until you completely understand it. That was a rather long thing to know about this simple process but if you read it a couple of times and break it down it is really very simple.

  The last thing to know about RRs is the same as the first. Be Prepared, I guarantee that you will run across all sorts of reasons from the checker and manager why you can not do that. If you are right do not accept it and here is the reason not to accept it. If you accept their answer when it is not correct they know they can beat you and will continue to reject your transactions.  I shop Walgreens a lot and have had untold interactions with all sorts of managers and as of yet I have not lost. That is that I have not paid more than I planned to, I have been rejected but when that happens I cancel the transaction, pick up my toys and go home. NEVER PAY WALGREENS PRICE. I honestly think that these managers know the rules but work to reject as many transactions with coupons as possible. It makes no sense to me but it is even harder for me to understand how a store manager does not know the retailers Coupon policy. I just cant see it, I’m thinking the managers sit around the table at the corporate meetings and brag about the coupon users they rejected this past month. Boy I would love to attend one of those meetings. Be confident and carry back up (coupon policy), The Walgreens store managers can only limit the quantity  of product you get from a store, they can not change the corporate coupon policy nor can they refuse to sell a product to you as long as you are with in the limits, and are calm unless they refuse to sell it to every one else that enters the store.

So to summarize, know the rules and rolls and be prepared to discuss your transaction with a manger. Don’t leave and give up if that happens, stand up to him/her and let him/her politely know you know what you are talking about (as long as you do know) and never be shy about canceling your transaction and contacting the Walgreens Customer Service department. If you are right you will get a resolution. You will be treated better the next time when they understand you know what you are doing.

[bethaliz6894]

this really helps me understand walgreens a bit better. i do, however, have one question. are the RR's published in the weekly ad? or is there some hidden knowledge about them?

[Melissa]

The weekly RR are published in the sales ad. However there are some unadvertised ones that you will hear about on coupon boards though sometimes there is tags for those they are just not in the ad. Then there are the monthly RR usually good for a whole month!

hth