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Rite Aid Tips

Rite Aid is one of my favorite stores to complete my grocery shopping. It sounds strange, I know, but with their expanding "grocery" selection, it is a great place to purchase not only medicine and feminine hygiene products, but also toiletries, soaps, and snacks for pennies on the dollar or even better, for FREE.

I will keep adding to this page as I think of new tips, but for now...

1.   Introduce yourself to the store manager or assistant manager.

The manager of the store can be a valuable asset to you. My local stores often "special order" product for me and set it aside. (I'll explain why this is imperative in bullet number 2.) One friendly manager even opened the store an hour early for me to be able to complete my shopping and get to my Sunday morning meeting on time. We want the manager to be on our team.

2. Plan your purchases ahead and request a special order for buying larger quantities of items.

We have all gone to a store, intent on buying an item, only to find the shelf empty. Frustrating! Especially in Maine, where most of us have to drive some distances to go to the store to begin with. Now, imagine you are the manager and you have to listen to irate Customers' complaints... all... day... long. When you plan ahead, and give the store time to order in the products you are planning on purchasing, you are not only adding to the store's revenue, but you are not clearing shelves and causing the manager headaches with their other customers. It is a kind and respectful way to shop and it is just good business. We want the manager to be on our team.

3. Use previews of sales flyers to plan your sales and maximize your coupons.

I use sites such as iheartriteaid.com to preview upcoming sales.

Use this link: http://www.iheartriteaid.com/

An example:
I have 2 coupons for $2.00/1 Dove Deodorant. Dove is on sale for 2/$4.

If I use my coupon now, I am getting them for free. Sounds good, right? But, by looking ahead, I notice that next week, they will be on sale for 2/$4.00 with a $2 RR on 2. So, instead of free, my coupon just became $2 in profit. The store will pay me to buy their product. Let me repeat that: the store will pay me to buy their product. As long as my coupon is not going to expire before the coming sale, I would wait and make a profit. If my coupon were going to expire before I could use the upcoming sale, I would use it on the 1st sale and be happy with my free deodorants. Planning is the key.

4. Use Rite Aid Rewards (RR) to your best advantage.

When you use RRs to their full extent you are, in effect, using your money more than once to make multiple transactions. Stock up on items you will use, which do not expire. If it is FREE now, why pay for it at FULL PRICE later? Purchase enough so you can reasonably wait until the next sale and do it again.

An example: Toilet Paper is on sale for $1 with a $1 RR. In essence, the item is free. (You always have to pay the tax on any taxable item; RRs cannot be used for tax)

You could purchase 10 rolls of toilet paper, pay with $10.50 (tax) of your dollars and receive $10 RR back. The net transaction is .50 cents. And, that will work, if you want to spend $10.50 to begin with. Another way to handle this transaction is to make multiple purchases. In the same scenario, you could break it up like this:
        
Transaction 1: buy 2 rolls of toilet paper, pay $2.10 & get 2RRs.
Transaction 2: buy 2 rolls of toilet paper, pay 2RRs and .10 cents 
          & get 2RRs.
Transaction 3-infinity: repeat, repeat, repeat…

Breaking up your purchases into more transactions would cost you $2.50 out of your pocket (instead of $10.50) and you would still have 2RRs left. The net transaction is .50 cents. In both scenarios, the end cost is the same, but the out of pocket expense is 75% less by using multiple transactions.