Remember when you could walk into a drugstore, and you'd find a sale on Tylenol or some other product, even if you weren't a regular customer?

Not anymore: Now you need to be a member of their rewards program in many cases. And even that doesn't guarantee an instant markdown.

Sales Prices Now for Card Holders

Chain drugstores are now like supermarkets:  in many cases you have to join their rewards card program to get a discount.

The website Mouseprint.org says Walgreens is now operating like CVS and Rite Aid, in giving most sale prices only to loyalty card members.

It means you need to join its program, and carry another card in your wallet, because if not, you'll be paying some very high prices.

Doesn't That Stink?

But from the "doesn't that stink" file, why some drugstore discounts are still hard to get, even if you have a loyalty card.

Mouseprint says the newest trend at some drugstores is to give you a discount on your next purchase, not this transaction.

So you'll get a discount on M&M's, for instance, the next time you buy M&M's, not with the current transaction.

Some customers are saying "doesn't that stink?"

They're unhappy because it's easy to forget  you have the coupon, and you have to make a second trip to the store to save money.

A couple of ways around this:  Buy the second item a few minutes after you buy the first one, so you get the discount on your "next purchase."
    
Or, if you don't like the idea of another loyalty card, shop Target or Walmart, which don't have rewards cards, and often have everyday low prices on pharmacy products.

As always, don't waste your money.
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