Pocket Your Dollars’ readers ask about the coupon policies and practices at Rainbow Foods more than they ask about any other topic discussed on this website. It is time to explain again Roundy’s corporate policy and my current understanding about what is actually happening in the stores.
First, when I started Pocket Your Dollars in March 2009 I could not find a formal written coupon policy from Roundy’s (Rainbow Foods’ parent company) on their website. Therefore, when I wrote this article about their policies I based it on what I had observed and learned over 2+ years of shopping at Rainbow, with a few additions from a online forum (I did update it today).
About a month ago I learned that Roundy’s formal corporate coupon policy was actually different than what I had posted online. The discrepancy relates to their rule about needing to spend $25 in order for the face value of your coupons to double on Wednesdays. It came to my attention that Roundy’s corporate policy (which I have yet to see myself from Roundy’s) says that they calculate the $25 based on the pre-coupon, sale price of the groceries in your order. Interesting. My experience and that of countless other Pocket Your Dollars readers is different than that. I have consistently seen and witnessed the registers at Rainbow double the face value of my coupons when the pre-coupon shelf price (which is usually the full price) of my groceries totals $25.
I became aware of their formal policy and the discrepancy between it and their actual practice at the very same time I wrote this article about The Ethics of Couponing. I felt torn. I do not want to misrepresent Roundy’s formal policy, but yet I know their stores are consistently operating outside of that. I decided to settle my conscience by disclosing this difference to Roundy’s.
I emailed a Vice President-level contact at Roundy’s corporate saying:
Dear so-and-so,
We spoke a few months ago and I am in touch now regarding a different topic. I am hopeful you can connect me to the right person.
As a reminder and by the way of background, I own and operate a website called Pocket Your Dollars. On my site I provide ready-to-go shopping lists for the grocery stores in Minneapolis that match sale price items with available coupons (similar to the lists provided on hundreds of websites). Me and many, many thousands of readers love Rainbow and Double Coupon Daze.
One Wednesday, a few years back, I stumbled upon the fact that your register will double the value of 5 coupons when the shelf price of my products reaches $25. I have been told (but have not seen the policy myself) that your official coupon policy states that you double coupons when the sale price of the groceries totals $25. If that is your policy, this email is intended to inform you that practically something different is happening in your stores.
This has been the source of a lot of conversation on my site and other sites recently and I want to be above board in letting you know that I share with readers what practically happens versus the stated policy. If you plan to change your policy, the way the registers function, or Double Coupon Daze I would appreciate being advised so I can spread the word to thousands of impacted shoppers so that they are not met with an unexpected surprise and frustration at the register one Wednesday.
Sincerely,
Carrie Rocha
Owner, Pocket Your Dollars
I have yet to hear a response from Roundy’s.
I have also updated the information about Rainbow Food’s Coupon Policies to reflect this difference between their policy and practice. I believe that transparency and disclosure are important.
About Carrie Rocha
Last week when I went to Rainbow, my $25.00 was on the sale prices not the shelf price. I shop at Riverdale Rainbow.
Carrie, I SOOOOO appreciate your honesty. By you contacting Roundy’s, and passing on the information, we all can be honest in our shopping. I appreciate your integrity and find it refreshing. Thank you for providing a website that helps so many out, and that keeps integrity at the forefront. God bless you!!!
Also with the spending of $25 at rainbow, they will only double up to five coupons and the coupons cannot exceed $1.00….when doubled….they will only do $2 for the value…so if you have a coupon for $1.50….that cannot be doubled….it is only good for $1.50… (This is the Rainbow in Chaska and they said that they might be getting rid of double coupons in the near future!!)
Here is the response I received from Richard Cole about their coupon policy.
“ I want to sincerely apologize for all the inconvenience you experienced on Wednesday with the General Mills offer. I am glad that we did finally get that corrected. The problem wtih the double coupons working is this: you must spend $25.00 in a transaction before tax and after store coupons come off. The General Mills $10.00 was a store coupon; not a manufacturer coupon. So the $10.00 came off of your total. Most of the time these types of discounts are store discounts. I hope this clarifies this policy for you. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 651-738-1974. Dick, Store Director, Rainbow Woodbury”
It has been really frustrating shopping doubles lately. Rainbow should program their registers correctly and stop having the cashiers be the double coupon police.
Peter – Interesting email in that I have never had my $25 calcuated before store coupons. Store managers or someone might say that it has worked that way, but I always keep my transactions super close the the $25 threshold ($25-30 max) based on shelf price and my coupons always double (well, except once when I did my math wrong, but that was my fault) even when I have used a Rainbow-issued coupon or been part of a Rainbow-sponsored promotion. Granted, I shop in Maple Grove so the stores could function differently.
Carrie, I think what he (Peter) is referring to is a little different. I did that $10.00 deal on the boxes of cereal. I went through the self scanners and as soon as I hit the 6th box the register automatically applied the $10.00 credit thus reducing my total by $10.00. I wasn’t done scanning my other items yet and had not even entered one single couplon. It just did it automatically when I hit the necessary 6 boxes. So maybe that is why it seemed to be short at the end. In that partlicular case the 10 was deducted before the 25.00 total. My coupons were doubled though. And from what I can tell by looking at the receipt; the register had to have used the Shelf price and not the sale price to figure the $25.00. Otherwise if it had used the sale price I wouldn’t have met the 25.00. At least that is what happened to me. And the machine did all of it. I think that is what happened with the $10.00 deal.
Carrie, I verified with my local Rainbow that they do not intend to double internet coupons that state “do not double or triple.” The way I read your shopping lists, it seems that sometimes you assume double value for coupons you link to, some of which state that they are not to be doubled. It would be helpful not to expect a free item, when the coupon can’t be doubled.
Kathy – True that is in their formal policy. I cannot tell when I link to a coupon which ones say “do not double.” Also, the Rainbow I shop at (Maple Grove) says that they are willing to operate differently than the formal policy. If the register doubles a coupon, which it always does, then they allow it. I’ll make sure the post about their policy clearly explains this.
I asked about the ‘do not double or triple’ on coupons at the Plymouth Rainbow and they said they honor them. Apparently each Rainbow is different in how they enforce their coupon policy!
A cashier would have to stop a coupon from doubling. If a coupon starts with a “5″, it will always double up to the shelf price of the product. If the coupon starts with a “9″, it will not double.
Yes, it is nice to be conscious of doing the right thing. That is why I didn’t do the Byerly’s deal (buy the coffee (around $7), plates (around $2.50), and a small filler and just pay for the filler. Though the coupon for the coffee stated “Free when you buy $10″…I don’t think it meant the coffee to be part of that $10).
FYI to area shoppers: It has been my experience that the Forest Lake Rainbow will NOT double a ‘do not double/triple’ coupon. They will also NOT double any coupon over $1. And they let the register figure if you are over $25 in sales pre-coupons.
The 5 or 9 that Courtney is referring to above applies to the actual UPC bar code number. That’s the part that cashiers scan and is similar in size to the UPC you would find on most products in the grocery store. The number below the bars is styled x xxxxx xxxxx x. The very first number would be the 5 or 9. Just looked a couple of my coupons that say “Do not double” and the begin with 5s.
Rainbow Fresh will not double my coupons that say “do not double” but Rainbow Foods will. What is the difference? I have only tried each place once since I am just getting the hang of doubling so it may just be a cashier thing too.
Cindy,
I shop the Forest Lake Rainbow and it all depends on what cashier you get that will or will not double the “do not double coupons”. I like the cashier that I went to last week that would not double “the do not double” coupon because she said it was illegal!! I thought she was nuts so I put all my stuff back into my shopping cart and went to another cashier and had no problem.
Rainbow coupon policy is so confusing I refuse to go on Weds I am so tired of being emabarrased and mislead when I get to the register. I feel they are anti coupon sometimes.
I agree with you. Are they doing anything illegal . When they get you in with the hope of a good deal but then they deny you when you get there.. It almost sounds something like bait and switch which I know is illegal . I tried to use the Palermos pizza coupon for 1.00 off at the bloomington Rainbow and the cashier told me to wait and came back with a manger that told me that these coupons are conterfit. I called Palermos directly and asked them about this coupon and they said it was real but it was up to the company if they wanted to take it.I dont know what rainbow is up to but I know it is no good. Lisa
Thanks so much for trying to clarify Rainbow’s policy. I have also sent an email to corporate trying to get more information, because I was made to feel like I was cheating last Wednesday when I was shopping at the Plymouth Rainbow store. (I also haven’t gotten a response yet). I followed my normal policy which is to split my order into two, and then bring it out to the car, before doing 2 more transactions. The cashier in charge would not let me double my coupons on the last order because he said that I had already benefitted enough. I was too tired to argue, but have decided that the store doesn’t do enough business and so I felt too scrutinized. I think that I’ll do another Rainbow this week.
I think it all depends on the cashier. I have always had issues with Rainbow doubles but other people (from other sites) NEVER have issues with the SAME store.
Also, not rainbow foods but relevant, my sister mostly shops CUB. she has always been told they don’t take internet printed coupons!? I use IP’s all the time at the SAME CUB. I haven’t had a chance to make sure she is using a reputable site but she usually never gets the cashier to scan them. WEIRD!?
Forgot to mention that the last time I emailed Rainbow about the double daze I did bring up the sale price vs shelf price and that different cashier are telling me different things and that some friends are able to get $25 shelf price while others have to go by $25 sale price. they basically ignored that part and just gave me their policy which was the $25 based on sale prices and after store coupons, but nor after man. coupons. hopefully, since having a recognized blog you will have better luck in getting an answer.
I have had the same experience at the Forest Lake Rainbow. It all depends on the cashier. I once stopped by the Service Desk and asked about doubling a “Do Not Double” coupon. I was told that it is coupon fraud to double these, and it was also coupon fraud to accept expired coupons. Hmm Cub has been accepting expired coupons for as long as I can remember. Oh well, let’s not pass this information on to Cub.
At the Cottage Grove Rainbow, the $25 is before any coupons…store or manufacturing. We double the coupons that say do not double or triple. We do not accept “free” item coupons. (Meaning…get one free package of Kraft cheese). The cashiers tend to be patient with customers that go through the line many times, especially if they only do one to two orders at a time if someone else is in line. This is due to the fact that waiting customers tend blame the wait on the cashier. We have a couple that shops at a store that does so many orders on double day that it takes the cashier over 45 minutes to complete their order. It is best to simply do a couple at a time and get in line again.
I was at the St. Paul Rainbow on Arcade last week. The doubled my coupons based on the before sale price. At the stores that only double based on sale prices, can you buy a gift card to get up to the $25 threshold?
Would it make sense to direct our efforts toward talking with the manufacturers about removing the “do not double or triple” language from their coupons? In the small print, they could add wording that states the amount rebated to the store is the face value of the coupon and no more, no matter what local promotions the store decides to offer.
Yesterday I printed a dozen coupons from SmartSource and 3 of them included a blue bar with the “do not double/triple” message (Progresso soup, Progresso broth and ChexMix). The other coupons did not include that message.
During the past 2-3 weeks at my local Pick ‘n Save (Roundy’s) in Meno. Falls, I’ve been having more trouble with the coupons with “do not double/triple” on them. Some cashiers are pulling them out and not allowing them to be doubled on Wednesdays. This must be an uncomfortable situation for them. My understanding is that they get audited by store management and get in trouble if they don’t separate out the “do not double/triple” coupons.
I’ve been asking for orders to be voided and items returned to my cart, so I can go back into the aisles and rethink my strategy.
I used to say “Let’s see how the cash register handles them”, and that was good enough. But there must be a focus on this issue by the managment because the cashiers are not satisfied with this suggestion anymore. Maybe with time, this will lessen.
(I find that if I use the self-checkout, my success rate increases significantly.)
I see many disadvantages to this store’s approach: the cashiers have to scrutinize each and every coupon rather than rely on the computerized cash register to “be the bad guy”, customers waiting in line behind me are not happy to see that I’m having troubles, orders get voided (possibly requiring the labor to re-stock the voided purchases), loyal customers (me) begin to look for other places to shop, leads to confusion regarding corporate policy vs. individual store policy, disfavorable blog comments get posted and read by many, many shoppers, and I buy less to pass along to food pantry, shelters, etc.
So we could avoid these types of problems if the manufacturers stopped adding the message.
What do ya think?
Hello. I am a manager at another grocery store in the twin cities but I do shop at Rainbow on the double daze day! I think I have the answer to your question. You and Rainbow are saying the same thing. When Roundys says “sale price” I think they should say “sell price”. They will double your coupons when the groceries total $25.00 at the sell price, (the price they are selling the products on that day) or ‘sale’ price. Not “price it is on sale”. Same word, two different meanings. The price they are selling it for versus the price it is on sale for. They would be more clear if they said “sell price” not “sale price” because it makes you think they are only talking about the mark down price, not the price it is selling for that day. I hope that helps.
I could be making this more confusing than necessary but would the price it is selling for that day and the price it is on sale for (since that is the price they are selling it for that day) be the same thing too? I could see if the sale price is considered their standard resale price (or retail). But like so many, I usually don’t have a problem with using the shelf price and meeting the threshold. I also find they don’t at all care about the store coupon policy. However, I did have a strange experience where one cashier one week was satisfied with doubling at 20 dollar total precoupon factoring in the sale prices for all items and was super nice and patient, but the next week she stopped me when it came to a 22 dollar total precoupon. She was so nice the week before and maybe was just fed up that day and started using customers as her punching bag? That or maybe it was identical twins that both work there and I really had two different cashiers…