New Policy at Walmart Stores in North Carolina is Bad News For Shoppers
Walmart has long been considered a friendly place for coupon users due to fewer limits and restrictions than most other retailers. However, recent changes to its coupon policy now align it more with other stores by abolishing overage, imposing like-coupon limits, and declining to manually override a register's rejection of a coupon.
Walmart's coupon policy had not seen any modifications in almost six years, making these new changes largely unobserved until they were published online last month. It only gained attention when an image, seeming to be an internal memo, started to circulate in online coupon groups, informing store employees of a register software update designed to enforce the new policies.
The New Policies
According to the Coupons in The News website here is what to expect,
No Coupon Overages or Cash Back
A new policy has been put in place that prohibits the use of coupon overages or receiving cashback in a transaction, also known as 'money maker deals'. These deals previously allowed customers to use a coupon which could result in receiving cash back if the value of the coupon exceeded the cost of the item purchased. This extra value could also be applied towards the total amount of the transaction, even including WIC and SNAP benefits. This is no longer permissible, with the minimum price possible with a coupon now set at $0.00.
Limit of 4 Identical Coupons Per Day
Walmart has recently implemented a new policy limiting the use of identical coupons to four per day, despite the manufacturer's coupon specifying 'up to six' per household daily. The internal memo warns that “a hard stop will occur at the register” if more than four identical coupons are scanned.
In the event, the Register Rejects a Coupon, its Final
Up until now, if your coupon was not accepted by the register for any reason, an employee or manager had the ability to override the register's decision and honor the coupon. This is no longer the case. The register now has the final say. If it rejects the coupon, then that's it, the coupon is void...done and dusted.
Why is Walmart Changing Its Coupon Policy?
Of course, it's because there has been way too much coupon misuse and counterfeit coupons.
More minor changes in Walmart's Coupon Policy can be viewed in the video below.