Walgreens New Rewards Card Starting Nationwide in September

I know many of recall the Walgreens Rewards Card when Kansas City, Portland and Richmond were in the test market.  As I figured would happen, the Rewards Card is going to be rolled out Nationwide.

Starting on September 2nd, you will be able to sign up on-line for the card.  If you would rather wait for the national launch and do this in the store, you can do so on September 16th.  Keep in mind that if you previously had a card, you will need to sign up again as the system is a little different than where it left off in January.

Here are some general points to know regarding this new program:

•  Making healthy choices, such as getting an immunization or participating in Walk with Walgreens (walk.walgreens.com).
• A lenient, customer-friendly expiration policy – points will not expire as long as members remain active by shopping at Walgreens at least once every six months and redeem their points within three years.
• Members may earn and redeem points for both in store and online purchases.
• Exclusive benefits for AARP members.

So, the big question many of you are asking is the reward you can earn with your points.  The earning structure is basically 10 points for every $1 you spend.  Here is a breakdown of the rewards you can earn:

One thing that is very important to note is that you can not redeem your points and earn them on the same product.  For example, if you have 5,000 points you wish to redeem to save $5 and you purchase 3 items which each will reward you with 500 points, you can use the 5,000 but will not earn an additional 1,500 at the same time.  There are also restrictions as to what you can redeem your points towards (which is the same with the majority of rewards cards offers).

So, how do you earn the points when redeeming coupons?  The value you earn will be reduced by the coupon used.  For example:

Product A, $5
Bonus Points: 1,000
$2/1 coupon
Price Paid: $3 = 1,030 points rather than 1,050 points

The bigger question so many will have is regarding Register Rewards – are they going to be replaced?   Walgreens will continue to participate in National offers.  At this time, this new reward system will not replace the Register Rewards, however, there is a lot of speculation on this topic.

Those of us in the test market know for a fact that the points replaced every Register Reward during the pilot program.  While the rest of the country received them, we received none.  And, the bigger issue was the value of those points.  For example:

Most of the country might have received a $3 Register Reward
In the test market, we would get 1,500 points – which equated to $1.50

We can all hope that the Register Rewards will not go away and that this program will enhance savings opportunities.  I, however, am not optimistic about both working together.  I really, truly hope I am wrong.

Given all of this information, will it change where you shop?

(Thanks Coupon Dad)

The original card was created to replace these rewards so that people would not have to remember to keep paper copies of items handy.   As many of us who took part in the test market realize, this resulted in it being more difficult to get the same deals as those we have all earned in the past with Register Rewards.

So, will this change your Walgreens shopping habits?