This thread is to educate & announce when Fred Meyer coupons apply to video game accessories, and more specifically towards Xbox & Playstation gift-cards available within the Home Electronics department. About 1 week or weekend per month, Fred Meyer will offer either:
- a "save $10/$20/$30 off $50/$100/$150" savings certificate (aka coupon), or
- a "save xx% off video game accessories" coupon, or
- in the rarest of cases, a few days when 2 or more coupons overlap & apply simultaneously!
- If you have a "save $10/$20/$30 off $50/$100/$150 in Home Electronics, etc" coupon, this will take a fixed amount off the total of your qualifying purchases.
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- If you have a "save xx% off Video Game Software & Accessories" or "save xx% off Video Game Accessories" coupon, then there's no limit to how much credit or games you can buy.
- If you have both coupons overlapping & valid simultaneously, then you've hit the jackpot & will save 28-31% off video game accessories ... including Xbox & Playstation GC's!
- When you have both a 10% coupon and a "save $10/$20/$30..." coupon (about 1x per 3 months), then you'll need to buy at least:buy $60 in credit & pay $44.00 ... aka 26.7% off ($60*.9=$54-$10=$44 and $49/60=73.3%).
- buy $115 in credit & pay $83.50 ... aka 27.4% off ($115*.9=$103.50-$20=$83.50 and $83.50/115=72.6%).
- buy $170 in credit & pay $123.00 ... aka 27.6% off ($170*.9=$153-$30=$123 and $123/170=72.4%).
- buy $60 in credit & pay $41.00 ... aka 31.7% off ($60*.85=$51-$10=$41 and $41/60=68.3%).
- buy $120 in credit & pay $82.00 ... aka 31.7% off ($120*.85=$102-$20=$82 and $82/120=68.3%).
- buy $180 in credit & pay $123.00 ... aka 27.6% off ($180*.85=$153-$30=$123 and $123/170=68.3%).
- buy $65 in credit & pay $42.65 ... aka 34.4% off ($65*.9*.9=$52.65-$10=$42.65 and $42.65/65=65.6%).
- buy $125 in credit & pay $81.25 ... aka 35.0% off ($125*.9*.9=$101.25-$20=$81.25 and $81.25/125=65.0%).
- buy $190 in credit & pay $123.00 ... aka 34.8% off ($190*.9*.9=$153.90-$30=$123.90 and $123.90/190=65.2%).
- While you may find Xbox, Playstation, and other gaming-related gift-cards nearby on the "Gift Card Mall" kiosk in the Home or Grocery departments, only the shelf-hanging tags on the Game Accessories rack within the Home Electronics dept. are considered "accessories". remember these are amongst the Game Accessories (like gamepads & headphones), and NOT the Gift Card Mall kiosk or end-cap!
- Here are examples what the shelf-hanging tags look like ...
- When you bring the shelf tags up to the Home Electronics counter, they will exchange these placeholder tags for actual pre-activated GC's they keep locked behind the counter. Keep in mind the quantity of tags on the Game Accessories shelf should correspond to the actual number of GC's they keep locked away, so if you don't see any tags for a particular denomination, that means they don't currently have them in stock.
- Because the shelf-tags correspond to actual GC's behind the Home Electronics counter, you shouldn't expect cashiers in Apparel, Home, Garden, Grocery, or at each outside entrance to be able to honor the coupons correctly, much less go back to Home Electronics to fetch the pre-activated GC's.
- The coupons can be presented either as the physical newspaper ad, coupons printed from the website at home, or simply on your phone ... but whatever you do, the UPC barcodes must be legible enough (with enough contrast) for their laser gun to read them. If you have the ability to print a coupon on your printer bigger (such as full page), or can magnify the coupon's image on your phone, then that saves you from begging the store clerk to manually type the UPC into the register (which they may refuse to do).
- You can redeem these coupons multiple times, but be prepared to drive around to several locations, since they reserve the right to only honor 1 redemption per store per day.
- Newspaper ads are frequently available at all outside entrances but in limited supply. Presenting the coupons within Fred Meyer's iOS or Android apps is strongly advised for simplicity ... but if your phone can't run the app, or you need multiple copies of the coupon, then the website offers PDF's of each ad page, in addition to a version of each coupon that's mostly plain text (albeit with only a small UPC graphic that sometimes doesn't scan).
- These coupons are good at all participating Fred Meyer locations in the Pacific NW, but not other stores within the Kroger family of stores (as always, YMMV).
- More math will be involved if you purchase other non-accessory merchandise from Home Electronics to meet the $50/$100/$150 thresholds, or if you purchase merchandise with additional discounts (such as "save an additional 40% off clearance-priced accessories").
- Sometimes the "save $10/$20/$30..." coupon is only for "Music, Movies, and Video Games" within Home Electronics, and other times it's for anything from multiple departments like Apparel, Garden, Home, and/or Home Electronics. As long as the coupon mentions "electronics", then it will always apply towards "video game accessories".
- The only caveat to a percentage coupon is that they never doubles with "Home Electronics Accessories" coupons, which will expressly exclude video game hardware, accessories, & software in the fine-print.
- Both coupons work across all gaming accessories, including gaming accessories in the clearance section. You can even buy other electronic crap with the "save $10/$20/$30..." coupon, but unless you're traveling around to redeem multiple times, then the most-efficient use is buying more virtual XBL & PSN currency with less actual currency.
- If you have consoles from both Microsoft & Sony, I typically favor the Playstation credit and only use Xbox credit to top off the threshold ... because sales on Xbox gift-cards are more frequent at other retailers like Safeway, Best Buy, and Fry's ... whereas Playstation gift-card promos at retail stores are fairly infrequent. Also, Sony's been knocking the online sales out of the park recently, and it's been much harder to keep my PSN wallet stocked (especially those $15 rebates after spending $100) rather than Xbox's less-than-stellar "Deals with Gold".
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