It has been the buzz of Pocket Your Dollars since yesterday morning. Rainbow Foods stores will be doubling the face value of coupons on Saturdays through April 10, 2010. This is in addition to their on-going double coupon promotion on Wednesdays. It sounds like the other Roundy’s chains, Copps and Pick N Save, may not be participating (sorry for all of you!)
The rules remain the same. They will doubled the face value of up to 5 coupons per transaction. The value of your groceries must be $25 in order to be eligible for doubling. The first 5 coupons scanned that are worth $1.00 or less will be doubled (buy one, get one free and other free product coupons will not be doubled). Coupons that say “do not double” are not eligible. Read a more detailed description of the complete rules.
I am super excited about this for a few reasons:
New coupons. After 3 pm on Saturday CouponMom’s grocery coupon database is updated with the new coupons that are coming out in Sunday’s paper. There may be some new coupons that match with the current week’s sale to provide maximum savings.
Newspapers. The cost to buy an early edition of the Sunday paper will go toward your $25.00 threshold. Not that the paper costs much, around here it’s just 50 cents, but in other markets it might be a couple bucks.
Restocking.Some things that were out of stcok on Wednesday will likely be restocked.
Your turn: Why are you thrilled about this?
About Carrie Rocha
I am thrilled because I only like to make a couple trips through in one day even though Wed is my day off I can’t waste it enirely on shopping I figure this way (though I work on Sat) if I forget something it goes on the honey do list. (so long as I haven’t already completly blown my budget for the week :)
Heads up for Wisconsin shoppers… I just put a call in to my PNS and the CSR person knew nothing about it. She’s checking with her supervisor and calling me back later. I’ll post back later when I return from story hour at the library :-)
Just got a call back from PNS and the answer was “no not as of right now.” Not sure why this is different in Wisconsin, but thought I’d share!
I was told yesterday that they will also be allowing up to 10 coupons during this promo. Can anyone confirm?
Nevermind. I just checked my 2nd receipt from yesterday and they only doubled 5 of my 7 coupons though I was told by my first checker that they would double 10.
When I was at my local Rainbow last night doing my weekly double coupon stock up….a friendly cashier told me that Rainbow will now double on Saturdays. I couldn’t believe it…the only bummer is that Saturdays are normally crazy and not sure if I can get away with doing two transactions at a time at the register.
This added day in the week will also help when ordering extra coupons (online) on Monday…they will be able to ship out and be in my mailbox by Saturday!!!
how do you order coupons online? I just started my couponing and am really excited about the savings…I cannot believe I just wrote that. Hahahha…anyways…How can I get these coupons?
I recommend TheCouponClippers.com for buying coupons online.
SO excited!!!! I don’t get home on Wednesdays until after 6 so by the time I make dinner and eat, the deals are always long gone before I can get to Rainbow. I was just shopping at Cub on Saturdays because I didn’t see the value of driving to Rainbow if I couldn’t double coupons, but I will be there bright and early now for the next couple of trips!!!!
Thrilled? Totally!! Reasons? Well, along with yours: more free food! more donations for the food shelf, more savings for my budget, more time to shop (I work on Wednesdays and often have hectic evenings, so Saturdays will be GREAT) and a chance to use my rainchecks from the previous week without having to feel like I’m taking away from the other coupons I wanted to double this week. Yay!!!
I was at Shoreview last night and saw two girls on a “shopping adventure” (seriously, they were “hunting” just like me for lipton soup and such, and it seemed so much more adventurous to have a friend along! I wanted to ask if they were PYD girls but chickened out!). I asked one of them if they knew if our Rainbow was doubling on Saturdays and she said yes with a big smile – one more chance to get the stuff they couldn’t get/remember/find last night!
I’m excited because now I’ll have some time to read about the deals some of you more experienced shoppers get on Wed…and I can’t try to get them on Sat :)
I’m wondering about the Kellog’s cereal deal. I did it once on Wed. Can I do it again on Sat. or is it linked to your Roundy’s card??
Thanks everyone for all the help and ideas!
I did it twice on Wednesday, so yes, you can do it again.
And the promotion is good thru 2/13 — which means everyone can take advantage of it this coming Wed and Sat too.
My store in WI hadn’t heard about it either. Bummer.
I’m excited because I don’t have to have my 3 little kids with me when I shop on Saturday like I do on Wednesday! I’m sure they’ll appreciate it as well!
Just a thought – but maybe we could add a special Saturday Rainbow Doubles Open Mic to share ideas of combining sales that are still good on Saturday with the new coupons from the Early Sunday paper? I don’t expect Carrie to provide yet another list, but perhaps we could share what we were able to find looking through the new coupons and comparing to the current Rainbow Ad that is good through Saturday.
I am happy because I can not always get into town on Wednesdays and my husband will RELUCTANTLY try to do the deals I put forth for him, but after work they are often out of things and he can not think on the fly LOL.
It means that after this weekend I can always go w/o kids!!!
Kathy – you can totally do the Kellogg’s deal again. In fact, if you don’t have more than 5 coupons that you want to double, you can do it twice in the same transaction. I did an order of 16 boxes yesterday, because I only had 5 coups to double (since it was my third transaction of the day). It’ll automatically take off $20 from your order (insteadof $10).
This is FANTASTIC and the first I am hearing about it!! Saturdays will be so much easier to get to Rainbow to shop. Woo hoo!!
So does this start THIS Saturday – February 6th? Thanks!
I was wondering this also!
Yesterday was crazy so I didn’t make it to Rainbow at all, so if the doubling starts this Saturday I’m still in luck for this week!
Yes, it starts this Saturday … yeah!
Thanks Brenda!!!
Cub food lost me as their customer. With double coupons, gas promotions and CAT, Rainbow and target is the only places I go now. Well, Aldis from time to time for cheap produce. If they allow 10 coupons… oh man…
Like some of the other posters I am really excited because I work during the week and most of the time by the time I get to Rainbow on Wednesdays things are out of stock, finally a level playing field for getting deals there!
Did everyone see that the gas promotion ends 4/1/2010? It was in the add on Sunday. Bummer!
I was just going to comment on that as well – I saw it in their 3 day flyer that came in the mail today – “current program ends Thursday, April 1, 2010.” Major bummer! I loved their gas rewards!
Maybe I am a moron but I dont understand the gas promo. Could someone explain it? I see the “rewards” at the bottom of my reciept but dont understand it.
You need to have a roundy’s reward card to participate in the fuel perks. For every $50 ‘spent’ you get .10 credit towards gas at participating BP gas stations (up to 20 gallons). The ‘spent’ often includes prices before coupons, so it is very easy to accumulate .10/gallon when you only spend a couple of bucks out of pocket. To maximize the program, my husband and i go fill at the same time so we can take advantage of the 20 gallon limit (since neither of our cars hold 20 gallons).
I was told by a Rainbow employee that they are keeping the gas program and just ending it temporarily to tweak it a bit. It may mean that we won’t be able to accumulate money toward gas purchases like in the past to earn 90 cents and such.
Ahhh! This may explain why they are cracking down on the policies:
sale price to meet the $25 min
not doubling DND coupons anymore
no more overage on a doubled coupon, will only double to the shelf price
Does anyone shop the Rainbow by Northtown? Just wondering if they have cracked down on policies also like Coonrapids did?
Tammy,
I shop at Northtown also, and for the first time today I had to hit 25$ with my sale price. And that was with the super cool cashier I always see on Wed. So it looks like times have changed. My BF is happy though, because I grabbed a few of his favorite candy bars for my filler!
She also said they’re really looking at the internet coupons for authenticity (for the numbers to not match on the 16 number bar code) too- they’ve had so much fraud. As a matter of fact, someone in a different line had copied coupons while I was there. It’s really too bad. Hope they don’t ruin it for the rest of us.
Julie W
I can’t get to Rainbow on Wed – this is a BIG deal for me. But I am curious about Tammy’s post above — if they will be doing the $25 shelf or sale price…
tell me it isn’t so….Rainbow will discontinue the gas promotion in April?!!!?
grrr, just when they are adding something great (Saturday double coupons), they take something away that’s great.
oh well, I’ll have to take the money i’m saving on Saturday and apply it to my gas budget!
Tammy, the Northtown Rainbow cracked down on their coupon policies too. I was there on Wednesday. Bummer!
Asked my fave Eagan RB cashier about the gas promo ending 4/1, and she smiled apologetically and said it was being reviewed because they were losing money on it. She wouldn’t say it was ending, but couldn’t say it wasn”t either.
When I posted this yesterday morning I was so excited I couldn’t believe it. I started a list at 6:00 am and my husband said “again”. He does love the savings but he wasn’t as excited as I was. YEAH!!!!!!
I’m thrilled!!!! Between work and Church on Wednesday nights I often don’t make it for double coupons, unless my awesome husband and daughter go for me — I will be at Rainbow bright and early Saturday!!! :)
I heard a comercial on the radio for the Sat. double coupons. I like the two days of options because I can’t always get there after work on Weds.
Can anyone confirm the details of the Pillsbury deal where you buy 6 items (crescent or dinner rolls) and get a catalina for $4 back? Is this deal still going until Saturday? Does it work on the small packages that are $1? Are they still on sale for $1? Thanks.
I bought 6 small $1.00 packages on Wed. and got a $4.00 catalina. Yes, they are still $1.00.
Catalina promotion goes through 2/21:
Buy 4 Pillsbury refrigerated products, Get $2.00 off your next purchase
Buy 5 Pillsbury refrigerated products, Get $3.00 off your next purchase
Buy 6 Pillsbury refrigerated products, Get $4.00 coupon off next order
Thanks!
Tammy,
Sorry but they are NOT doing it based off of $25 sale price…..perhaps it is just the store you shop at, but from the 2 Rainbow stores I shop at this is not the case.
Again, I’m not sure where all of these rumors start about people not getting the CATs etc,…..really confuses some people. Yes, they are ending their gas promotion, but I believe that because it is printed right in their flyer. I’d appreciate if people could help stop the rumor mills that go on! :) Good luck everyone.
Hi Rachel,
I reported this morning that they based my doubled coupon eligilibility on the sale price, not the shelf price so things might have changed. I don’t know if I’m spreading a rumor or not, it was a cashier that has ALWAYS based my double coupons on shelf price in the past, i go to her every week. It wasn’t an odd cashier I’ve never gone to that might be doing it her way. This is a cashier I trust, and has consistently based 25$ threshold on shelf price who has changed to basing it on sale price. I am more inclined to think that they are starting to enforce the “25$ sale price” rule on double coupons that has always been Rainbows policy, but hasn’t been enforced.
For the newbie here, or a refresher to others, here is a copied portion of Carrie’s link on the Rainbow policy. I guess my thinking has changed, and I am tempted to view the “25$ threshold based on shelf price” as the exception, not the rule any more. It seems Rainbow times are changing……..
“$25 threshold. Rainbow’s formal corporate policy is that the sale price value of the groceries in your transaction must be at least $25 for your coupons to be eligible for doubling. However, the registers are currently programmed (as of September 27, 2009) to double coupons when the shelf price (the highest price listed on the shelf tag, which is usually the full, pre-sale price) before coupons is $25. If you plan your transactions using the shelf price versus the sale price, you do so at your own risk that the registers have been modified to align with their formal corporate policy.”
Anyone find more reinforcement of this policy recently?
Julie W
Julie
I agree with your statement. The cashier today totaled my sale before starting coupons and the sale price is what activated the double coupons. My total shelf price was $31.25 after sale was $25.61 so I just barely made it. My total after coupons and double coupons was $4.72 so was good day at Rainbow.
I, too, had my coupons double based on shelf price. One of my totals before coupons was 16.xx and the other was 24.xx. I shop at the Quarry and every time I go I’m a little afraid that my coupons won’t double based on what I see on here, but every time they do!
Does anyone know if the Bryers Carb Smart ice cream in the bogo sale?
My vote: Keep our stories coming. As long as we say, “This is what happened to me” and maybe try to avoid saying, “Rainbow at X location doesn’t do this anymore” then we can separate anecdote from assumption/rumor.
We all find disparity from week to week and cashier to cashier. But if I know what happened to you and how you handled it, I can be prepared.
I don’t like being blindsided by a new policy/new enforcement of old policy, and really appreciate this site.
My caution to everyone is to watch your checker! For some reason, some of my printed coupons did not scan, and the checker manually entered it in the register. This did not guarantee that the coupon was doubled!
I am so glad I read your site, or I wouldn’t have known about double coupons on Saturdays too!
I used the Kellogg’s deal and purchased 6 boxes of cereal and two boxes of Nutrigain bars. I had 3 $1 coupons (2 for cereal and 1 for Nutrigrain), two of which doubled. By adding in the coupon from the register tape for $4 off my next trip, the 8 boxes were $1!
Question about multiple trips — can you put the groceries in your car and then go back inside for a second round of shopping? What is the rule about shopping more than once a day?
I was bummed that the EP Rainbow still doesn’t have the frozen smoothie fruit bags in stock yet.
Make sure you get your Roundy’s reward card soon, every $50.00 you spend you get $.10 of per gallon of gas up to 20 gallons. Spend a $100.00 and you get $0.20 off.
i love it because i used a rainbow coupon for sour cream and a mfr coupon that was doubled, and ended up getting paid a quarter to take the sour cream home. and i got 2 jars of ragu for $1.32. got overcharged !1.13 per each of 3 12 packs of coke though. have to go back for my refund. grrr!
this was a huge shopping day for me so every little bit off of my $140 grocery bill helps!
help me with this concept. how can u save so much when u can only use five coupons