Advice on Shopping at London Drugs

I have been asked some questions about how I'm able to get such good deals when shopping at London Drugs. I thought I would write a little tutorial with some advice and tips that might help you in getting the good deals too.

First off you need coupons. Good places to check out are:

www.save.ca
www.brandsaver.ca
www.smartcanucks.ca
www.gocoupons.com

Also you can get coupons from the newspapers. Smart Source, Brandsaver and Red Plum flyers are the ones that I have found. These flyers can be found in the Saturday paper. Coupons can also be found in store and in magazines or sometimes on the product itself.

A good blog to read for tips on coupons and deals is savemoneyinwinnipeg. Search the archives for posts on London Drugs, coupon stacking, and coupon chains. The owner of the blog, Nadine, also organizes coupon chains. Read her blog for more on this.

Once you get your coupons it helps to organize them. The best system to use is the one that will work best for you. I use a small plastic photo album to organize my coupons. Each pocket is labelled with a different category of coupon (i.e. diapers & wipes, cereal, toothpaste, shampoo, cleaners etc). Others use a zippered binder with hockey card inserts and put their coupons in there.

The next step is to make a shopping list. You have to be pretty organized to stack coupons. If you aren't the cashier gets crabby at you and you spend a lot of time at the store!

I read through the flyers and see what is one sale that week. The reason I do this is because London Drugs (LD) allows you to "price match" to other competitor's sale flyers. For example, the regular price of a pack of Pampers Mega diapers is $18.99 at LD. If they are advertised in the flyer for $15.99 at Zellers you would bring your Zellers flyer with you to LD and say that you want to price match to that flyer. Instant savings! They you use your coupons to lower the price even more.

This brings me to coupon stacking. The only store that allows this is LD. Coupon stacking means using more than one coupon on a single item. If you are using multiple coupons on one item they must all have a different UPC code on them. Sometimes you can even get items for free!

You will want to organize your coupons and flyers at home before you go to the store. Make a list of the items you want to purchase and if you are price matching them. Be sure to check your coupons for expiry dates and to make sure you are using the coupon on the correct product (some coupons specify a size ie. 4 pack bar of soap, 500 ml bottle etc). I circle the item that I am price matching in the flyer with a marker so that I can easily find it at the store to show the cashier. Get all of you coupons together and maybe paper clip them to keep them together.

When I pay, I put the item on the counter and the coupons with it (as you go). This works well for me. Make sure to tell the cashier ahead of time if you want to price match (PM). It is a good idea to do all of the items from one flyer at a time. Speeds up the process.

My list might look something like this:

Pampers - mega PM Zellers $15.99 - $10 coupons
Secret Flawless Deo - PM Walmart $2.50 - $2 coupon
Reach Toothbrush - PM Rexall $1 - $1 coupon - Free!

When you want to price match or coupon stack at LD you need to take your purchase to the customer service till. Do not go through the regular check out. Also, make sure not to try to price match too close to closing. It takes some time to do the shopping and check out. Cashiers don't like it if you try to stack too close to closing.

I think that is most of what I do. If I think of anything else I will add it up. Feel free to add your tips in the comments!