At the beginning of March, Wal-mart modified its coupon acceptance policy to be more liberal in certain respects and more restrictive in others.
On the good side, Wal-mart will actually give you back money if the coupon you present is for more than the cost of the item (e.g. you present a $1 coupon for an item that is only 75 cents.)
*MOUSE PRINT:
Coupons may exceed the price of the item. Change may be given or applied toward the cost of the basket purchase.
They will also accept “Catalina” coupons, the coupons that are spit out at supermarkets based on what you buy.
On the downside, Wal-mart will not accept home-printed coupons for free items, and has restricted acceptance of competitors’ coupon to those for specific items at a specific price:
*MOUSE PRINT:
Walmart does not accept the following coupons:
•Print-at-home Internet coupons that require no purchase
•Competitors’ coupons for dollars/cents or percentage off, buy one get one free, and double- or triple-value coupons
Conspicuously missing from the list of acceptable coupons are pharmacy coupons — typically competitors’ coupons — for dollars off a new or transferred prescription. If you have one, it doesn’t hurt to ask if they will accept it.
Really doesn’t matter what their “corporate” says, every store treats coupons differently whether you like it or not. And most cashiers (and managers) never know for sure what their policy is.
Not a complaint though, of the literally thousands of coupons I’ve used at Wally World, I’ve only had a few turned down. And most coupons I use give me the products for free.
It is funny though, if you have a $2 off coupon for an item that only costs $2 they will give it to you without question. But if it says free on the coupon they will sometimes question it, even though in both cases it costs you nothing.
If you do have a problem you can usually just go right back in to the store, go to a different cashier and they will ring it up no problem.
Walmart is much easier on coupons than most grocery stores.
I was a grocery store manager. Manufacturers do not offer valid print-at-homee coupons for free items that do not require a purchase. These are always fake coupons and the store is not reembursed for those.
They may offer a Buy One/Get One, but if you see a print at home coupon that says “Free Coke” with no other purchase necessary. It is a fake coupon.
A few years ago, some of the major print-at-home coupon services were either hacked or people were making counterfeits with their names on them. People were coming in with coupons for a Free full size box of Velveeta cheese. It would scan just like the others, but then a couple weeks later we get the message that those are fake. We just lost around $6 per coupon.
Then they started making fakes that weren’t Free. They would be for $2.99 off a bottle of Simply Orange juice. That is pretty close to the actual price of the OJ, but doesn’t say FREE so not raising red flags. They got a lot of those through before the store gets notice that they are fake.
So what is the store to do? There is no way to know which are real or not. We would receive a list each month of new ones they had found, but there is no way for the cashiers to memorize all of them. So the stores start making more stringent print-at-home coupon rules.
Basically, if a manufacturer wants to offer a free item, it will be on the glossy paper and either be in with the clippable coupons in the paper, or mailed directly to the customer. Again, if you have a print at home coupon that says FREE with no purchase necessary, it is fake. You might be able to slip it through at a mom and pop store, but the bigger stores are not going to accept it. If a cashier overrides it and accepts it anyway, they are going to get in trouble for that because the store is not going to get paid for that coupon. I know this because I got my butt chewed more that once over those coupons.