"Out of Stock" When an Item is on Sale Can Be Good News

If a Store Offers Rain Checks on Sale Items, 

You Could be in Luck, Big Time, When Items are Out of Stock

I was lamenting the "out of stock" classification of the Edy's Ice Cream at all the local Rite Aid Stores. They were on sale BIG TIME this past week. After you worked the deal by buying 6 of the normally pricey ice cream, you would get enough "UP/Register Rewards" (like Extra Bucks, or "dollars" to spend at Rite Aid on just about anything you want to buy. Think of the RR, or UPs as mini gift cards) to make buying 6 Edy's cost a total of 99cents. OR, 16.5 cents EACH!  

So, as soon as the stores opened last Sunday, Rite Aids everywhere SOLD OUT of the ice cream. My own personal coupon diva says "Yeah. But you got your rain check for the sale/deal, right?"  Oh. Yeah. Rain check. DUH! How did I forget to ask for one of those? SO, I went back and got my rain check. This means that I can get the same pricing, sales, deals, and rewards if I can find the ice cream in stock at any Rite Aid within the next 30 days.  Great!  I made sure to tell them I needed 6 of the Edy's included in the rain check. 

Why is it a good thing to get an item rain checked?

1. You now have 30 days to find the ice cream.. and any possible coupons to make the deal even better. 
2. You now have 30 days to work other Rite Aid deals as cheaply as possible to get UP/Register Rewards to pay for the ice cream.  (The ice cream deal works where you pay about $18 out of pocket and get $17 back in UP/Register Rewards. The goal is to roll the rewards into each other so you can have the least amount of out of pocket expense as possible.  If you are buying the ice cream without any ice cream coupons or RR to pay for it with, it is still a good deal to buy. Especially if you need shampoo, milk, any other items that the drug store may sell. You would buy your ice cream first, then take the coupons for the other items you need to buy anyway and the RR you just got from the icecream, and you would use all that to pay for the items you needed. The idea here is that you could spend $18 out of pocket getting things you need like diapers, milk, whatever. OR, you could spend $18 out of pocket, roll your transactions into each other and get the diapers, milk whatever AND all that lovely ice cream! 
3. You might be able to roll even more transactions depending on the deals of the week when you do find the ice cream in stock.

If you have the time and patience, or even good luck, catching a mega deal/sale like this in rain check form can work out much better for you than those folks that got up super early last Sunday when the deal started and ran out to buy out all that ice cream.  All you have to do is look at the situation and scenarios critically and creatively and you can really really get some major bang for your buck.

Just make sure you keep up with that rain check!!

*The deal I am alluding to is an ice cream deal from last week. The lesson applies to any really great deal. Some deals the stores will not issue a Rain Check for. Just ask. The worst they will do is say "Nope, sorry." 
**The deal was Pay $2.99 for Edy's Ice Cream, get $2 back in rewards.  THEN, it was on a page that had a headline of "Get $5 rewards back when you spend $15 in the participating brands below".  SO, you buy 6 ice creams. You spend $18. You get $2 x 6 back because of the ice cream deal. So, $12 back right there. BUT you spent $18 in participating products (that is more than the $15 required), so you get another $5 back. Your total back after spending $18 is $17 for 6 ice creams!