Target Register Update – Important Changes You Need to Know

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targetTarget Register Update

There has been a lot of chitter chatter lately about the “Register Update” at Target! If you have not heard about this yet, here is what is going on. After testing out a deal to make sure that the items were working, we noticed that our coupons were adjusted down. Unfortunately, there has been nothing official said by Target about the register update, so here is what we know based on our own experience.

First and foremost, we do not know if this is happening at all stores, so this may have no effect on your shopping at all. Here in New Jersey, we have experienced this. b1175a0cde4b6b173efad988e684e7681a8b2ff825d207ed527b32f23cf4d5ab

Here is what happened to us… this is a receipt from the beginning of October, the deal was to Buy 3 Select CoverGirl Products and Get a $5 Target Gift Card. Included in this offer was the CoverGirl Brow & Eye Makers Pencils, these are priced at $3.99 in the store. In the past, these would all ring up at $3.99, you would hand over your coupons, get a $5 Target Gift Card and this would turn out to be a nice little money maker for you. However, what happened was that the register has changed the way that it sees the value of the items. The value of the items is what it would cost after the Target Gift Card, so in the case above, rather than see it at $3.99, the register saw the value at $2.33 and $2.32.

Now this is what the Target Coupon Policy States about overages with coupons:

The value of a coupon will be applied up to the reduced price of the item and any excess value will not be applied to the transaction total.

We do not give cash back nor do we apply any overages to the remaining items in the transaction if the value of a coupon is greater than the purchase value of the item.

So now that the Target Gift Card is reducing the value of each item, it is also going to automatically reduce the amount that the coupon takes off, so in the end with a deal like this we will end up paying $5 and getting a $5 Target Gift Card. The good part is that we are still getting all of these items for FREE. The bad part for us couponers is that we are not getting that money maker like we used to.

It’s also important to remember this is only going to happen in instances where the value of the coupon ends up being greater than the value of the item. Also, we have not been able to test this in instances where we have high value coupons and a Target Threshold Coupon – for instance – Get a $5 Target Gift Card with a Personal Care Purchase of $20 or more, when a deal like this comes around again, we will be sure to test it as soon as possible and get back to you with the details.

Here is a way to determine how much the coupon would take off:

Deal Example:
Buy 3 Gillette Shaving Gel $2.97 each
Buy 3 Get a $5 Target Gift Card
$2/1 Gillette Shave Gel Coupon

$2.97 (cost of product) x 3 (amt buying for gift card deal) = $8.91
– value of $5 Target Gift Card (this value does not come off your receipt but is applied as a return value)
Total return value amount: $3.91

$3.91 (total return value) divided by 3 (amt of coupons using) =  $1.30
$1.30 is the amount that the coupon value will adjust to making your out of pocket exactly $5

A word of advice, because the coupons will adjust down, it’s a better value to buy higher priced items to try and get the full value of the coupons.

Below is Cindy’s Live Facebook video from Tuesday where she discussed the updates.

Go to 26:24 to hear just about the Target Updates:

What are your thoughts about this new “update,” be sure to let us know in the comments! Happy Shopping!

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