I promised this over a week ago- sorry for the delay!
CVS has a loyalty card called the Extra Care Program. You sign up for free, they track your purchases, reward you quarterly for your purchases and will email you coupons to print for $X/$X purchases... usually over the weekends. Most are $5 off $25.
CVS has monthly and weekly ECB deals on products that you can get for free or even make money when you combine a coupon with the ECB deal. ECBs print on your receipt and you can use them like cash on future purchases. Most are good for a month so just make sure you keep track of your ECBs and don't throw them away!!
The goal at CVS is to get these great products but spend as little out of pocket each week. You do that by "rolling" the ECBs you get and you do this by doing multiple transactions.
Here are my ways to work the deals at CVS:
1. Go to Coupon Mom each week, do the % upside down triangle on the deals at CVS. The free after ECBs will show first and she will match the coupons with the ECB deals each week.
2. Just like the post for the deals this week I did- I am going to try to do my best to create the smaller purchases for you and how to "roll" the ECBs each week.
3. Be considerate of the store, the cashiers and the managers. We have no trouble doing multiple transactions and most employees know what you are doing. Some might have get an attitude and we do have 1 store that we prefer not to go to. In my opinion, ECBs are ways for companies to get you to try their product and CVS to get you in their store. They want your pharmacy business and they are hoping you will spend more money buying need items.
4. There are die hard ECB fans that are in the stores first thing Sunday morning and some even hit the 24 hours stores right at midnight on Saturday. If you are having trouble finding an item- find out when their trucks come and ask if they have more items in the back. Ask a manager and they are usually more than happy to help you out.
5. Have your game plan ready- work out your scenarios and be ready to have a Plan B if you can't find an item. Living in Atlanta (and I realize that some of you live in more rural, smaller areas) there is a CVS pretty much on every street corner. I can get to at least 8 in about a 10 mile radius of our house. Mike passes so many on his different ways home from work that he can try other locations if we can't find the items we want each week. Keep your lists, coupons and ECBs in the car so if you are taking your children to sports, lessons etc.- you can stop and work your lists.
6. Do your first transaction and tell the cashier that you want to break your purchases up. If they are busy or helping people with photos- ask them if they want to call a manager or another employee up to help you on a different register. And if you start doing your transactions and a line forms- get out of line and go to the end of the line. The deals are worth the few minutes, the cashiers will appreciate and so will the people behind you! Be nice about it! There are very few people that understand what you are doing and they consider you one of "those people." And people throwing invisible daggers in your back will only stress you out and you might mess up your game plan. I've had that happen before.
7. Don't clear the shelves and if you do- tell a manager or employee. CVS sends mystery shoppers into stores and managers get in big trouble in their districts if there are items missing on the shelves. Getting in trouble makes some managers hate the ECB program. Be courteous
and if you frequent that store- the managers will remember you.
8. If you are new to rolling ECBs at CVS- take baby steps and just start out slow. Email me for help- I will walk you through the process and how to start. It's fun to try to products and get great products for free or very little out of pocket. And if you are at the store and have your gameplan but can't find the products- get a manager to help you! When a product is free or close to it- the store may move it to an end cap or feature it in another area. Tell the manager what you are trying to do and if you are nice about- I can assure you they will help you out.
CVS is really easy to master and I know it sounds confusing at first. It's really fun and I know you will have fun with it too!
And again- email me!! I love helping people and I am so proud of my friends that I meet through the blog and we talk all the time about the deals.
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