Crazy Black Friday Drugstore Shopping

Hi everyone

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

This is the only year (in all my years of couponing) that things have gone to pot at the drugstores. Not just at one store, but all 3 stores. Crazy!

First stop was CVS. I was shocked to see that I was the only customer in store. This was at 9am. I know that there are very few customers at the drugstores on Thanksgiving, but I didn't expect to see only the cashiers. What I love about CVS is that they display all the free (after rewards) items in the front of the store, so it's easy to find. You can be in and out of the store in 5 minutes (which is what I did). They are always well stocked on sale items too, so shopping is a breeze.  I did 2 transactions so I could roll my EBs.

Trans 1

3 x Wet 'n Wild makeup sets $14.97
Less EBs (14.97) I had $15 EBs, but the rest can't be applied to tax
Tax : 0.90
OOP : $0.90

Earned $12 EBs (Buy 1 set, earn $4 limit 3)

Trans 2

1 x Orbit gum $0.99
1 x Wipes 0.99
1 x Liners 0.99
1 x Disposable razors 1.99
1 x Pain tablets 4.49
1 x Schick razors 6.99
1 x Lint roller mini 2.49
Less Schick DQ (4.00)
Less EBs from Trans 1 (12.00)
Tax 1.08
OOP $4.01

Earned $11.45 EBs ($2 Schick and everything else was free after EBs). Also earned $3 Beauty EB.

When I unloaded my bags at home, I noticed a small lint roller in the bag. Oh man, the cashier packed an extra item into my bag. Then when I checked my receipt, I saw that I was charged $2.49 + tax for this lint roller that I never purchased. I don't even know how the cashier ended up adding this to my transaction. I'm thinking its probably one of those many items they have displayed on the register counters. This silly thing is getting returned on my next trip. I'm not gonna throw away money on something I don't need.

You'll notice that I have a bonus pack razors. I always look for bonus packs/sizes (any items) when the sale price is the same. Why not get more for the exact same price? :)

Then on to RA.

2 x $50 GCs  $100.00
2 x Planters nuts 11.98
2 x Russell Stover candy bags $9.98
2 x Russell Stover candy singles 1.00
2 x candy singles 1.00
2 x Dunkin Donuts coffee 9.98
2 x Kleenex 2.00
2 x Scunci elastics 6.00
1 x Oreo 1.03
Less 6/30 mailer q (6.00)
Less DD mailer q (2.00)
Less 2 DD L2C  (4.00)
Less BC points (18.00)
Tax 0.41
OOP $112.39

Earned $31 BC

Earned $1.25 Ibotta ($1 Kleenex, 25c any item). This was a nice surprise, because I wasn't even aware of the Kleenex q that I clipped before.

The cashier had trouble scanning the $10 WYS $40 in ad q. He tried several times. Transaction went well, so I grabbed my items and scanned my receipt as I walked to the door. Hold it! I only earned $31 BC. This is so not right, because the 2 gcs alone earned me $20 BC, then there's the $10/40. So that's already $30. What about the rest of my items? So I checked and noticed that I didn't earn the 10/40 and $10 for the Home Depot gc. Grrrr. So now the cashier and manager are there trying to figure out how to fix this. I'm not going into detail, but let me just say that it took them half an hour (yes, I was pissed by then, because I haven't even had coffee yet) to finally give me $10 cash for the Home Depot gc. So I told them I'd contact CS about the rest. Which I did, after I had coffee...lol

When I checked blogs on Friday, I saw that the same thing happened to other RA customers. For some strange reason, the $50 HD gc didn't produce any BC. Only the ones where you ask the to load a specific amount onto, worked. Also, in certain areas customers received the $10/40 for purchasing any items in the ad. In other areas, you had to purchase the items in the green section only to earn the reward. I don't know what the heck is going on at RA, but I'm not liking it. RA has always been really good. I had this grand plan to do a different transaction on Friday to earn another $10/40. That got scrapped after Thursday's shopping. I just didn't want to risk not getting bonus points again.

The Planters is tracking on Fetch rewards and I also earned 750 points just for buying one package.

I wish that I'd bought more of the Russell Stover bags as gifts. They are huge and will make nice gifts. I'm hoping that they'll have another sale on those before Christmas.

On Friday I received another q mailer from RA. It had a $4 Dunkin Donuts Q and $1 Kleenex. So off to RA I went on Saturday, cause I only drink DD coffee.

1 x DD coffee $4.99
2 x Blue Diamond nuts 5.00
2 x Kleenex 2.00
Tax 0.12
Less DD q (4.00)
Less Blue Diamond L2C (2.00)
Less Kleenex q (1.00)
OOP $5.11

Earned $2 BC
Earned $2.25 Ibotta ($1 Kleenex, $1 B Diamond, 25c any item)
Total cost $0.86

Now the mailer qs didn't scan. Said it was invalid. So the cashier got the shift manager/supervisor. I asked him if the qs had a start date, because my other mailer qs expired on 11/30 and I didn't want to use the new qs if it's not valid yet. He said he didn't know and pushed the qs through.

Does anyone know if the mailer qs start at the beginning of the month? Nothing is printed on the q (only an end date) and I want to be sure for future trips. TIA

Then he told me my total and I told him that I selected to use points at the beginning of the transaction, but nothing was happening. I eventually told him that I'd pay cash.

Then we stopped at WAGS on the way home. WAGS had the worst BF ad. Nothing you'd want to make a trip for, but there were other items in the weekly ad that I wanted. Plus I needed to spend down some points, because I have accumulated way too much

Trans 1

1 x Curling iron $9.99
2 x Crest t/p $5.98
2 x Herbal Essences $11.98
Less HE DQ (5.00)
Less Crest DQ (2.00)
Less BR points (20.00)
Tax 1.65
OOP $2.63

Earned $15 RR ($5 Conair, $5 Crest, $5 HE)

Except.... the CAT machine was out of ink, so you could hardly read my RRs. So the shift manager added $15 BR points to my account. Then told me to do my 2nd transaction at his register. As he's scanning my items, I noticed that his CAT machine was off and pointed it out. After checking cables and under the counter, he still couldn't get it turned on. So he eventually figured out that he could switch CAT ink cartridges with the first register I went to. So back to that register I went.

Trans 2

1 x Conair Dryer $9.99
1 x Crest t/p 2.99
1 x Oral b t/b 2.99
2 x H&S shampoo 11.98
Less Oral b DQ (2.00)
Less H&S DQ (5.00)
Less BR points (20.00)
Tax 1.68
OOP $2.63

Then my RRs printed...... in the same way it did before. Nooooooo! So he added another $10 points to my account. Wait, what? He showed me the RRs and they all said P&G so I knew that my RR for the hairdryer didn't print. Ugh. They have signs up that says buy this item, earn $5 RR. By this time I was too tired to try and figure it out or argue about it, so I left. I'll contact CS about that..... maybe....lol. I'm just worn out from all this nonsense.

Then on our way to dinner last night I asked DH to stop at a different WAGS to look for the Planters so I could finish the deal on Fetch

1 x Planters Nuts  $5.99
Less DQ (2.00)
Less BR points (3.00)
OOP $0.99

Yep, the register won't allow you to use $4, even though it's just a penny short.
Earned 2500 Fetch points for completing Planters, so I earned over $3 in points when you add in the RA deal too.

Shopping was very frustrating, but all in all I think I did okay.

I got all the above (excluding gcs) for $22.16 OOP (after coupons and Ibotta/Fetch rewards), but I'll be returning the lint roller, so its $19.53 OOP. I'll take that, because I usually pay $6-7 (depending on store) for one bag of coffee.

I'm pooped. I really need a break from shopping. The drugstore deals don't look good this week, so I might give the drugstores a miss. Thankfully my Christmas shopping is almost done.

Did anyone else score good items at the drugstores?