At Last – Smith’s New Official Coupon Policy

Attention eCouponers. Sorry, I know this is a long post, but you will want to read up.

If you are signed up for Smith's email alerts then you may have gotten an email today regarding their new paper and eCoupon policy. Here's what mine said.

“Smith’s recently notified you of the one-stop e coupon location on smithsfoodanddrug.com or Kroger.com. In addition, we are offering this clarification of how coupons may be stacked in Smith’s or Kroger stores:

Smith’s and other Kroger divisions will take both a store coupon and vendor coupon for the same item. All electronic coupons offered from Kroger (on our brands) are regarded as store coupons. Electronic coupons offered by manufacturers through our web site are considered to be manufacturer coupons. A store coupon may be used in addition to a manufacturer coupon on a single item. The electronic coupon will be used first in any transaction.”

There is good and bad news in this. Plus, a few new tips.

First off the good news. At least now we have clarification and we can still combine the Kroger brand eCoupons and paper coupons. If you have the correct address registered to your Smith's card you get Kroger coupons in the mail and they sometimes have them on their website for printing here.

For the bad news, while combing the eCoupons and paper coupons has saved us some money on select products. The hard part now is going to be keeping track of them. Since the eCoupons will be the coupon that comes off first, you will want to make sure you don't have eCoupons loaded on to your card when you intend on using a higher value paper coupon. Since eCoupons are typically a lower value coupon, for me the eCoupon companies  just lost a lot of my business. Sad!

So, from this point on our deal idea's for Smith's will still show you where to find both the eCoupons and paper coupons, it will be up to you to decide which coupons you need to ad to your shopper card. You will want to make sure your card doesn't have any unintended eCoupons. Be careful what you load! You can remove coupons from your card that are located on Smith's website. But, Cellfire, Shortcuts and PGeSaver do not have removing options. Not yet anyway, (I think I have a new project). This is going to take some getting used to, especially for those that have been loading up all the available coupons. If you are a big couponer planning your shopping trips just took on an extra step. That's where we come in and hopefully we can help you organize your shopping trips.

One thing to remember, none of this is the cashiers fault, be patient with them. There is no need to ruin their day over a .50¢ coupon. While coupons are a great benefit, they're not really intended to pay our grocery bill. It's easy to become greedy when you use a lot of coupons, so let's remember to be thankful for the savings we have!