In case you missed the news, CVS is doing some promotional testing this week with no active weekly sale ad for 7/12-7/18/15. Illinois is one of the states affected, but taking a peek at CVS’ Facebook page has revealed more states participating in “no sale week:” Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
CVS’ Facebook page is filled with complaints, and I imagine those will continue throughout the week. How confusing it must be for shoppers to look at the ad online, then head to their local stores and find that those nationally-advertised sales aren’t taking place. CVS posted a response on Facebook: “In order to continuously bring you great value, we may occasionally alter our promotional activities at select stores on a weekly basis. Rest assured that this is not permanent, and weekly sales will resume at your local store next Sunday.“
Honestly, I don’t understand this at all. Full disclosure: I have had a great relationship with CVS’ marketing department for many years. They have worked closely with bloggers, inviting us to their Rhode Island headquarters on several occasions, even hosting regional events for bloggers around the country to keep us up to date on all things CVS.
Of course, my blogger friends and I have been discussing this all weekend. We had no warning that this was happening. It seems to fly in the face of everything we’ve been told about CVS’ promotions — that they’re proud of how many ExtraCare members they have, how many ExtraBucks are redeemed by shoppers, and how easy their loyalty rewards are to use compared to their competition’s.
A reader over at Mashup Mom shared this comment:
“My CVS store in Oak Park,IL manger said there is NO items of sale all …. at their district meeting they were told this is to see if they can generate enough sale without ECB and sales. The manager said it was targeting the couponers especially those that abuse rule such as more than one card, return items that they used coupons on or that generate ECB. She told me their is a lot of abuse and told me not even to buy milk or liquor from if I want the sales, ECB to continue. If this is true it is so sad and upsetting that it will effect me.”
When a CVS manager is telling shoppers not to buy a thing at the store this week if we want sales to continue? It doesn’t look good at all, guys.
If they’re looking for shoppers to “vote” with their dollars, sadly, I won’t be shopping at CVS this week.
ron says
empty lot no cars all day working great
nix12618 says
Why wouldn’t they at least send us ExtraCare members an email telling us and explaining? They send us emails for lots of other reasons. Doesn’t matter I guess as it would just cement that we aren’t going there this week, although I have extra bucks that will expire this week if I don’t use them. I will be sure to not buy anything that is more than a few cents over those bucks for sure. Corporate America…….
Coupon Maven says
I honestly don’t know. CVS sent the ad over earlier in the week without mentioning how many states and markets were part of this “test.” It really blindsided everyone.
Bobbi says
They actually DID put the word out. It’s all I’ve heard over the past 2 weeks….we were warned that this was going to happen (at least those of us in the coupon world knew about it lol). I’m glad our stores here didn’t do this. They did, however, postpone our weekly CVS coupon center coupons to later in the week.
Concerned shopper says
This show we are just dealing with dishonest people like most od the other times it is a big b business that is only concerned with dollar amount not how they get them if it’s not as high as they want they have to blame someone else. Granted there may be the few people that return items to get the ECB bucks but I don’t think that’s destroying a whole chain. They should do more research before they randomly shut down Store.Not high on the bid business wise decisions. Also I’ve been in plenty of stores where nobody uses their Extra Care Bucks ever or coupons. They don’t even look at them and they throw them in the basket so there’s enough people shopping the don’t care how much they’re paying to keep the store open.
Erin says
… I’m assuming they did put a lot of thought into this and this is obviously their research.
dolrskolr says
Hmmm … did they tear a page from JCP’s playbook and are testing it out? They should ask JCP how that worked out for them.
Angela says
I’m really upset because you can’t even use the ebc they gave you before this. Im asking people in my circle not to shop at cvs next week and we can conduct our own study.
lynn says
my store took my ecb and the red box shot out some coupons but no ad no sales!
Peggy says
Mistake, but I sure hope they learn from their mistakes. I hope it doesn’t happen in Alabama
susan says
well looks like cvs won’t have much business this week. I also think people shouldn’t buy from there for a while see how quickly they stop doing this.
wolverine70 says
I have to think that the regular managers must be on vacation. CVS’ sales and ECB programs have a loyal following. Their retail prices are much higher than Wal-Mart, but the targeted deals bascially brings their prices in line and shoppers mught pick up some other items for convenience. Sort of hard to get these incremental sales when no one comes into the stores though. We’ll see if this continues. Judging by the reaction on social media, I think CVS will be reconsidering this. Glad my market (Michigan) was not included in this ‘test’.
jessica says
The only reason I ever go shopping at CVS is if I see a good deal in their weekly ad. Otherwise their prices are considerably higher than Wal-Mart or target. If I don’t see a good deal in their ad I do drive the extra little bit to hit the other stores.
Briana says
I have heard of the issue with the returns being an issue and cashiers not being able to do anything about it. Maybe, they could crack down on those people instead of ruining it for the rest of us?
Coupon Maven says
I agree, Briana — if they started giving post-coupon totals on returns instead of pre-coupon, that form of fraud would end overnight..!
dkbakken says
Are the cashiers able to tell which ECBs were earned and coupons that match that returned product? If so, why wouldn’t they just subtract that $ from the return total? It seems like that would solve the problem.
Concerned shopper says
That is a huge problem the refund your total if u can’t find your receipt. And then people walk away with free money. Again they are just blaming other thing because of there dumb way of running a store
Kristy says
Seems the easiest way to handle that is to have a “No Receipt, No Refund, No Exceptions” policy.
And find some way to crack down on the multiple cards. Like kicking out multiple card numbers tied to the same phone number/address combo?
Sue says
what sucks is that they told no one, just sprung it on us and that is poor marketing..what did we do wrong? Inform us so we are not as mad. I wonder how much they lose in a week..will they share that with us? Or they should have told you bloggers to get word out – or tell us at midnight Saturday so we did not look and only see “no ads available in your area”…
Deborah says
I LIVE IN ONE OF THESE SO CALLED PROMOTIONAL AREAS AND I MUST SAY THIS SUCKS. I LOOK AT ALL THE DEALS BEING POSTED OF THE PEOPLE NOT AFFECTED BY THIS AND IT’S VERY FAIR TO THE OTHER LOYAL CUSTOMERS. I SHOULD’VE REALIZED WHEN I WENT TO CVS YESTERDAY AND THE PARKING LOT AND STORE WAS EMPTY SOMETHING WAS UP..SHAME ON YOU CVS..
Anon says
The author may want to remove the city of the CVS store so that the manager doesn’t loose his job over that helpful comment, if he hasn’t already. Other than that, good job!
Coupon Maven says
I left it in because it was a quote from a post on another blog. I’m actually grateful that this manager spoke up and shared more information about what’s going on this week.
Bridget says
There are two stores in that town so hopefully no one is fired for telling customers the truth. I love CVS and I am really disappointed in this test.
Erica says
I still ended up shopping there this week because I had $25 in ECB that expire this week as well as a 30% off coupon on non-sale items as well as other coupons. I still managed to make out pretty well!
Beverly VonVolkenburg says
I am in an area where this is happening, and I am NOT a happy camper. However, as usual, I know that many people come into our stores with multiple CVS cards and abuse the deals. I don’t think CVS should punish many for a few abusers. I am sure that CVS can come up with some rule so people can only use ONE card. Punish the abusers, not us everyday shoppers who get the limit that is set. BAD MOVE.
Lilly says
Does anyone know if we are getting an ad next week? I checked their for a “sneak peek” of next weeks ad and I get “Sorry, there are no deals for this combination of selected store and dates.”
Coupon Maven says
Yes, I have the new ad — it is supposed to be nationwide.
Lilly says
Awesome! I was getting worried!!