Several employees at my store were fired for using a valid Walgreens coupon for a free 16oz bottle of Iceland Pure water that was valid for all of 2008 — the expiration date on the coupon was given as 12/31/08. Most of my store's employees (managers too) had used it just like any coupon (like all valid Walgreens store coupons, it had a four-digit code that when typed in activates the sale price) over the course of many months.
Suspiciously, on THE DAY BEFORE the coupon's expiration (12/30/08) a woman from loss prevention came in and tried to round up any employees who had bought the water with the coupon. She called them into the office one by one and told them all they had been "stealing" by using this VALID Walgreens store coupon (?!). She also made vague accusations of shoplifting, claiming that the employees were caught "on tape" doing these things, but when her accusations were challenged by the accused, she quickly changed the subject.
Oddly, as grave as the Loss Prevention worker made it sound, out of the entire store the only employees fired over it were the ones who were full-time employees with benefits (with a new year of benefits about to begin in just a day). The other, newer employees (incidentally, without benefits) who were questioned and said that they too had used the coupon were only suspended a couple of days!
Would like to know if any other employees have been fired over this. Since this was a VALID, in-store Walgreens coupon (active a year), used by consumers and employees alike all over the country (Walgreen managers included), it's likely that the Walgreens company has been using this coupon, through Loss Prevention, as a means to fire employees who used it buy the water last year, claiming it as "employee theft".
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