(photo courtesy of www.dannysfamily.com)
Yesterday I went into Rite-Aid to purchase some moisturizer for my 13 year old daughter. She has sensitive skin, so I buy Simple Protecting Light Moisturizer SPF 15. Rite-Aid has signs up all over their store for videos you can watch and get coupons. They had one for this very product. It was a $3.00 off coupon. So I went on my iPhone and watched the video. I was hoping I would be able to get the coupon and apply it to my store card and get a very substantial discount. When I went to check out I was told the coupon had to be printed out and handed in for the $3.00 off. What? Why have the signs up if you cannot take advantage of the offer? The clerk did tell me I could come in the next day with my receipt and get a $3.00 cash refund. The problem is I am disabled and it is hard for me to get out everyday. I only get out of the house 2x-3x a week usually. She gave me the number of Rite-Aid’s corporate office (1-800-Rite-Aid) to call and complain because frankly, I am hopping mad about the whole thing. It is just plain idiotic.
Rite-Aid needs to catch up with the 21st century. Seriously. They need to add these video coupons to the store cards so that people who watch them can load to the store cards immediately afterwards. I am quite sure that many people see the signs in the store and want to watch these quick videos to get the coupons. They are usually for $1.00-$4.00 off.
I called the corporate office. Here is what the woman on the phone said to me: She told me that the merchant requests the coupons be on paper to print out and get sent back to them. And I was told it was because they assume you will watch the videos at home before you go to the store. She told me that I should go to my computer and watch all the videos for the products I wanted to get prior to leaving home. The logic to this is flawed because often I make many impulse purchases based on coupons I see in the store, or I am just going into Rite-Aid on the way home from doing something else and most of the time I would honestly forget to do that. I forget a lot because of meds I take. Most people won’t do this I believe.
Rite-Aid is not the only store with this coupon issue. CVS has the same problem. They have a gazillion coupons that get printed out when you scan your store card at the kiosk in the store. Or at checkout. People don’t want to carry all of those coupons. They would rather have a small printout of the list with the coupons loaded to their store cards.
I don’t believe it is impossible for these stores to have the POS (point-of-sale) or POP (point-of-purchase) (Thanks Stevie for telling me the proper names!) items loaded to store cards. They just need to get their software engineers to design the software for it. Rite-Aid and CVS need to catch up with Walgreens, who already has this system on their Balance Rewards cards. It can be done! Rant over…
Until Next Time~
Marie Papachatzis
I Am The Makeup Junkie
I am not sure if my first comment went through.. Thanks for sharing this info! I too am an impulse buyer and think they need to allow coupons from your phone, where they can scan them. They are missing out on sales by not allowing this.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think I was the only one who felt this way! I'm sure there are many. Thanks for the support.
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ReplyDeleteI'm a marketing and media buyer in my day job. And this is one of those perfect examples of companies who need to see the forest through the trees. I can see why they don’t want to discount someone when they are in the place, as it ends up being an accidental discount. Incentives are used to drive people to a business or increase the bill average. None the less, the approach they are taking comes across as a bait & switch! Furthermore, old & antiquated is not something a business wants to come across as! Did you use your rotary phone to call them? Lol
ReplyDeleteBarbie
barbiesbeautybitsblogger
Barbie, if you watch the video that they have the sign up for, then it is not an accidental discount. That is why they have it there! It confuses me as to why they have the sign "watch a short video and receive a discount coupon for this product". It IS a bait and switch! And not something I'm going to do again. It pisses me off because I spend enough money there to get a 20% discount every year.
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