Yesterday I was telling someone about my fabulous diaper deals and she said “Is that even legal?” Certainly it feels like stealing sometimes, I’ll admit. But my take on it is this. Walgreen’s is a huge company. If they really wanted to, they could make it so that the coupon dates do not overlap. If they wanted to, they could program their registers to only take one coupon, not both. It is their marketing people who arranged it so that a register rewards deal, sale, and two monthly coupons all overlapped for the same two days. Nothing about it is illegal and certainly the argument could be made, if they did not honor all the deals simultaneously, that it is false advertising.

But speaking of fraud…
There are lots of fraudulent coupons out there. It is amazing the lengths people will go to to manipulate a company’s website or create fake coupons. And there are websites out there that perpetuate and even encourage this type of activity.

You will find none of that posted here. Everything I do is legal and legit. There are enough good deals to be had without being unethical or illegal. And that type of activity just ruins it for good couponers. I will not link you to sites or recommend you visit sites where members chat with each other on ways to get around the system.

CVS, when opening a new store, often times will advertise in that town’s local paper and offer a coupon. And often times you can go to that particular newspaper’s website, access the coupon, and print it. I do not think this is an illegal or unethical thing to do though some will disagree. I will concede that it is not the intended use of the coupon, but I have done nothing illegal in gaining access. CVS is the largest pharmacy retailer in the country-all they would have to do is print a “Valid only at XXXX Location” on the coupon, and it would not be able to be used anywhere. And I have in fact at times visited a newspaper’s site, looked at the coupon but the computer would not allow me to print it. It can be done if they want.

Internet Printables: Lots of retailers are cracking down on internet printables right now and it’s unfortunate that honest shoppers are bearing the brunt of this. I get many, many good deals using IPs and I only get my IPs from legitimate sources such as coupons.com, smartsource.com or manufacturers’ websites. And lately I’ve been hassled many times at the Avondale Acme over using IPs. It is their corporate policy to accept IPs and in fact, you can get some IPs from the Acme website, so don’t let them tell you different. But be a good honest customer and NEVER photocopy your IPs. Most websites limit you to printing only 2. So use your desktop, your laptop, your work computer, or go to the library if you really want more. But be prepared to explain why you have more than two–unfortunately most Loss Prevention people at the stores have told cashiers and managers to be leery of anyone who has more than 2 of an IP. And it is very easy to legitimately get more than 2.

Coupon fraud is a very serious offense and not to be taken lightly. Like I said, there are enough good deals to be had, if you know where/how to to look, without participating in fraud.