How the stores process coupons

This post is about understanding your stores and how they process your coupons. If you have any questions about a specific store please contact me, I will try to get you the information.

CVS Pharmacy-
Reads Family Codes
992 Coupons Beep, even if you bought the item.

Target-
Reads coupon family codes
Treats 992's as 000
Overage should go through beepless, unless cashier notices amount and manually enters the coupon.
Store Policy, is to scan the coupon first. If it goes through, they consider it a vaild coupon. If it beeps they are supposed to ask if you bought the correct item. If you say yes they are technically supposed to hit the override button no questions asked, but some may check the transaction screen to be sure.

Walmart-
Regular Checkout
Reads Family Codes
Treats 992's as 000
Overage will beep, "verify coupon amount". cashier just needs to hit the enter key for it to go though.

Self Checkout
Does not read family codes
Has a varying coupon limit.
Some stores allow 2 coupons up to $10
Some stores allow unlimited coupons up to $15, and $20
At some stores overage will go through just fine, at others it will not.

Walgreens-
Reads Family Codes
992 Coupons scan through beepless. Takes amount off your total.
For every coupon you use, you must have one item.

Harris Teeter-
Does not read family codes.
992 Coupons should go through beepless, but some stores might have different settings in there register.

Self Checkout-
Does not allow self scanning of coupons,
992 Coupons depend on your stores settings.

Kroger-
Self Checkout/Uscan
Does not allow self scanning of coupons, must be given to attendant.
Reads Family Codes
Treats 992's as 000.

At the regular checkout,
Reads Family Codes
Treats 992's as 000.

Kmart-
No longer has self checkout/uscan.
Does not read family codes, but asks cashier to select a item to match the coupon with on the screen at some stores.
992 coupons scan through as no purchase required, takes amount off the total.


There's no way for us to cover every single store. So here are a few tips to help figure out how your store handles coupons. Your homework assignment is to run these tests and report the results to us!

You need to test 3 different things at any given store - 1) do they take 992's; 2) do they read other family codes; and 3) will they allow overage. It's better to run each test as a separate order, just to be sure your results for each test are valid. Have a few other items in the order too, but choose them carefully, making sure none of those items will affect your test results.

1) An easy way to find out about 992's is to try a wine tag. It's fairly easy to find/trade for some of the simple tags like "save $1 on any deli purchase" and most of these are 992's. There's no embarrassment involved if it beeps, assuming you did get that 1/4# of ham or whatever. Another common 992 is Mazola, that would be an easy "oops I forgot to buy it" if it beeps. Whatever you choose for your test, make it something nondescript - don't start off with the $2 Monistat coupon.

2) A fairly discreet way to test whether the store reads other family codes is to get a coupon that *almost* matches what you are buying, but has a different family code than the product you want. Here's one example: in the 4/6 Valassis insert there were 3 Lawry's coupons - marinade, spice blends, and steak sauce. All have different family codes, but the same mfr code. Try buying one of the products, but using the wrong coupon for it. (Make sure the product costs at least as much as the coupon value.) If it beeps, your store reads family codes. If it doesn't beep, then your store does not read family codes, and this means good shopping fun! Like using the Whitestrips coupons.

3) To see if your store will allow overage, you have to find a coupon whose value is higher than the price of the product. Trial sizes are great for this - for example, there are frequently toothpaste coupons that do not specify size, and the trial size costs around 97 cents.