Since 2015, Bed Bath & Beyond has tried to wean shoppers off their 20% off coupon addiction by making paper coupons less available.
Luckily, they’re not very good at it. Coupons abound and the paper ones still don’t expire.
So put on your game face and get ready to stiff-arm all the glorious floor-to-ceiling gadgets you’re forced to walk by just to get that one (75% off!) throw pillow in the back of the store. Self-control and knowing how to wield your coupons is key to winning at Bed Bath & Beyond. Now, for the rules:
1. With Bed Bath & Beyond Welcome Rewards+, you can use your 20% member discount on top of liquidation prices.
If you haven’t heard, Bed Bath & Beyond liquidation sales are in full swing at 200+ stores closing across the U.S. At these stores, almost everything is 20% – 40% off, and some items hit over 60% off or even 90% off.
With a BBB Welcome Rewards+ membership ($29/year), you get 20% off your entire purchase every time you shop at Bed Bath & Beyond — and you can use your member discount to save even more on liquidation prices.
So, because you can stack your 20% discount with up to 90% off, it’s totally worth paying the $29 for a membership (because you’ll walk out of the store with even bigger savings, anyway)!
2. Don’t shop without a 20% off coupon!
Even though paper coupons technically have an expiration date, they really don’t expire when you use them in-store. Plus, you can always find one.
Legit ways to get more coupons:
- Sign up for BBB’s email newsletter and get a 20% off coupon.
- Sign up your spouse, your mom, or your cat for emails and get their 20% off coupon. Bed Bath & Beyond will send as many coupons as you have email addresses.
- Sign up for mobile texts and get a 20% off coupon. Mobile coupons do expire, so use this one first.
- Sign up to get them in the mail.
- Sign up every time you move to get exclusive coupons.
Just a heads up, though: Bed Bath & Beyond stores that are set to close won’t accept coupons on top of their liquidation prices. The only discount you can stack with these sales is the 20% discount from your BBB Welcome Rewards+ membership.
3. Use mobile coupons first, then online coupons. Save paper coupons for last.
Since mobile coupons expire, use them first and leave your hard-copy coupons — current or expired — at home for later. After you use mobile coupons, use your online coupons so all you’re left with are paper coupons that don’t expire.
4. Some stores allow you to use up to five 20% off coupons in a single transaction.
Stack. Build up your stash. Repeat.
Some stores allow you to use a 20% off coupon for each eligible item, no matter how many items you have. Others cap it at five coupons for five items in a transaction.
Some may limit how many you can use altogether. (Fingers crossed you can use at least five!) If your store manager won’t play ball, ask if you can do multiple transactions.
5. But you can’t use more than one coupon per online order.
There is a silver lining here because you still have options, even though you can’t use expired coupons online and you can’t use multiple coupons in a transaction (unless you have a 20% paper coupon — you can double those up online by entering the code on the paper coupon).
Option #1: The “Workaround” — This is the only option that doesn’t require you to go in-store. Buy each item separately online so you can use one coupon on each item. This only works if your items are all over $29 because you’re gonna need free shipping!
Option #2: The “Buzzkill” — Select “Reserve Now” for your items online, and when you go into the store to pay for them, use your coupons! Your card will be charged $1.00 to do this, but the charge will automatically disappear within 24-48 hours.
Option #3: The “Adjustment” — Buy your items and use one coupon. Then head into the store with your receipt and your coupons and request a coupon adjustment. Speaking of which. . .
TIP: You can use your Bed Bath & Beyond coupons at buybuy Baby too, but only in-store.
6. Bring your coupon back to the store with your receipt to get a coupon adjustment.
There’s no official policy on this, but the company has been known to make these adjustments even if your receipt is several weeks old.
Or, call Bed Bath & Beyond’s number (800) 462-3966, and they’ll adjust the order over the phone as a one-time courtesy.
7. Don’t buy anything on the coupon-exclusions list. At all.
And try not to cry when you read the list.
There are a lot of items and situations where you can’t use your Bed Bath & Beyond coupons. Certain brands and certain entire categories like diapers, wipes, formula and baby food are on the no-can-do list.
But dry your tears because you can save up to 80% on many of these items when you use Ninja coupons, KitchenAid coupons, FitBit coupons, diaper coupons, wipes coupons and more to shop retailers like Kohl’s and Target. Download the KCL app to get started.
8. Use your coupon with a rebate to save more money.
Look for high-end brands you can use your 20% off coupon on — like Sonicare, Calphalon, Homedics, Noritake, KitchenAid and more. Some of these even offer rebates.
For example, once I saw a $350 KitchenAid mixer with an instant rebate of 10% ($35) plus a mail-in rebate ($50). That brought the stand up mixer to $264.99. Since I can add in the 20% off coupon, I got myself a $212 mixer. That’s a savings of $138, and it’s in the range of the lowest prices we see on this mixer.
9. Combine the $5 off $15 coupon with other coupons in the same transaction in-store.
And then there’s the other Bed Bath & Beyond coupon — the one that gets you $5 off an entire purchase of $15 or more.
In the past, you could find these in the catalog. More often though, they’re showing up in your “My Offers” area as you make purchases. (Or when you call customer service to ask a question and they lovingly bestow a coupon upon you because they can tell you’re coupon-obsessed. Yep, that happened.)
Generally speaking, you can’t stack this coupon with a 20% off coupon. However, the last time I was in-store, the store manager told me he lets customers combine a 20% off coupon with a $5 off $15 coupon in the same transaction, as long as you have the items to back it up.
10. Use your $5 off $15 coupon only when your total is between $15-$25.
You can use the $5 off $15 coupon on an entire transaction, instead of an individual item. This means you can get the deepest savings in the $15-$25 range by using your $5 off $15 coupon instead of your 20% off coupon.
Tempted to break up your transactions to get your total into this sweet spot so you can get the most use from this coupon? Well, now you sound Krazy. Welcome.
RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Stacking Coupons
11. Use your 20% off coupon when items are under $15 or over $25.
Here’s the math: At a purchase price of $25, the two coupons have identical value on a single item. You’ll get $5 off with either coupon you use. At $26, Your $5 off $15 coupon is still worth only $5, but your 20% off coupon is worth $5.20, and so on as the item’s price increases.
Now, since the 20% off coupon is only good on a single item, try to have multiple coupons to use on your eligible items in this price range.
12. Shop online through Ibotta or Rakuten to save 2% on top of coupons.
Are you an Ibotta girl, or a Rakuten person? Either way, you’ll save 2% when you shop Bed Bath & Beyond online through one of their links. (Sorry, RetailMeNot peeps, Bed Bath & Beyond isn’t eligible for cash back offers yet.)
Also, if you’re shopping in-store you can take a picture of your receipt to redeem offers through the Ibotta app for items like lotion and baby food. Always check Ibotta if you’re buying anything in the health and beauty section!
13. Download the Bed Bath & Beyond app to manage your coupons and find prices.
The Bed Bath & Beyond app (iOs)(Android) is the easiest way to manage all your coupons and haggle for more discounts at checkout, because they’ll all show up when you tap “My Offers” at the bottom of the screen.
Plus, just like competitor apps (Looking at you, Target, Amazon and Macy’s), the BB&B app has a barcode-scanning feature to use in-store for price checks.
14. Orange clearance signs are either the first markdown or temporary.
If you look in the lower left-hand corner, you’ll see the date the sale started. Use this to determine how urgent your purchase should be with a rule of thumb that the longer it’s been on sale, the more likely it is that the sale is coming to an end, or someone else will snatch it up before you.
15. Yellow clearance signs are final markdowns.
Once it’s yellow, it’ll likely stay yellow until it’s gone.
You’ll mostly find these large yellow signs in the main aisles, and you can also find them around each department. These are worth pawing through, because you’re likely to find brag-worthy deals other people don’t have the patience to look for.
I once found a beautiful tapas set of four dinner plates for $11, which was 70% off the original price of $36.99!
The online version of clearance is the “Outlet” section of the website. By “outlet” Bed Bath & Beyond means clearance and closeout merchandise. Go ahead and use coupons on these items too!
16. Shop in-store during Semi-Annual Clearance events in January and September.
Twice a year — January and September — Bed, Bath & Beyond runs a clearance event where you can get the absolute lowest prices on items.
If you can get to the store during these events, you’ll have access to deeper discounts. Online sales only reach up to 50% off. In-store sales hit 75% off.
Unfortunately, you can’t use your 20% coupon with clearance. Whomp.
17. Return your item a decade later using one of the best return policies on the planet.
I’ll start by saying: Don’t be shady about this!
But it is legit, so if something you bought 10 years ago suddenly stops working, you can return it. And if you happen to be fanatically organized (or perhaps a borderline hoarder?) and you saved your receipt, invoice or registry, you can exchange it for the same amount of your purchase.
Also, as of a couple years ago in an effort to curb abuse of this policy, Bed Bath & Beyond made a change and now will return your item for store credit in the amount it’s currently selling for, minus 20% for up to one year if you don’t have a receipt. (There are a few exclusions — for example, you can’t return monogrammed items or breast pumps.)
Related: Here’s everything you need to know about the Bed Bath & Beyond return policy.
18. Save up to 11% when you buy Bed Bath & Beyond discounted gift cards from Gift Card Granny.
Gift cards are interchangeable at Bed Bath & Beyond’s sister stores, which include buybuy Baby, and Harmon Face Values. (Not Cost Plus World Market or Christmas Tree Shops anymore as of 4.30.2021)
19. Get a free gift with your big-ticket purchase.
Gifts (including gift cards!) often come with a big-ticket purchase. For example, in 2020 if you spent $300 on Calphalon online, you’d get a free $50 gift card. These offers show up frequently online and in-store.
20. Or get a free gift with a small purchase.
Look for these orange tags that indicate a freebie with a purchase!
You can almost always find a Yankee Candle on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond, and I recommend figuring out the cost per ounce in order to get the best deal on candles. For example, this freebie deal makes 12 votive candles cheaper per ounce than a medium jar candle, even a medium jar candle on sale!
In fact, you’ll save $0.22/oz. when compared with a medium jar candle on sale. And you’ll save even more ($0.88/oz.) compared to a full-price medium jar candle.
- Medium sized Yankee Candle jar (sale price: $9.49): $0.65/oz.
- Votive-size Yankee Candles (buy 9, get 3 promo $8.91): $0.43/oz.
21. Getting married? Register at Bed Bath & Beyond to get loads of freebies.
Bed Bath & Beyond has an all-in-one registry called “love lives here.” When you create a new registry, you get $100 in My Funds rewards if your guests purchase at least $500 in merchandise.
After your wedding day, you’ll get 20% off to use within 90 days on everything left on your registry.
RELATED: Wedding Freebies Worth Over $700
22. Request a price match but not if you want to use a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon.
Bed Bath & Beyond does offer competitor price matching, and they take competitors’ coupons for the exact same items sold in their store.
So if you’re using the Amazon app (to price match Amazon) or the Shop Savvy app (to price match everywhere else) and see that your item is cheaper at another store, you can request that price. Or if there’s a Target Circle Offer or other store coupon that’s higher than 20% off your exact item sold at Bed Bath & Beyond and it’s eligible for price matching, go for it. It’s rare, but not impossible to find.
However, you cannot use your Bed Bath & Beyond coupon with a price match. I’ll break it down:
You Can:
- Request a price match on an exact item a competitor sells.
- Request to use a competitor coupon on an exact item.
- Use a manufacturer’s coupon and a competitor’s price match together.
You Can’t:
- Use a store coupon (20% off, $5 off $15, etc.) when requesting a price match.
- Use a competitor’s coupon and a price match together unless the competitor would accept the arrangement as well.
NOTE: You can’t use a screenshot of a competitor’s website or app to price match. You have to pull up that site and show the cashier the LIVE price to get the match.
23. Only use your manufacturer coupons when you can combine them with a clearance price and a 20% off coupon (or a price match).
And even then, it’s not a guarantee that you’re getting a stock-up price.
In general, you will get more value from your manufacturer coupons when you stack them with a sale or a store promo at Target, Walmart or your favorite drugstore. But sometimes, all the stars align, and you can stack savings at Bed Bath & Beyond to get a final price that would make Rite Aid blush.
These situations happen most often with consumer-packaged goods brands like Axe, Colgate, Schick, etc. They’re located in the Harmon Face Values section of the store (not every store has Harmon Face Values).
24. Get money back when the price drops on your item, even if you don’t have a receipt.
Use Paribus to get alerts when there’s a price drop on something you recently bought. Or do it the hard way and bring your receipt back to the store to get the difference.
Best of all, Bed Bath & Beyond has no defined time frame for adjustments. No receipt? That’s okay. As long as the store can track down your confirmation via check or card, you still get the difference.
Paribus compensates us when you sign up for Paribus using the links we provided.
25. Only join Beyond+ if you spend more than $150 per year.
Bed Bath & Beyond’s membership program, Beyond+, will give you free shipping and 20% off everything. But it costs $29 per year.
Paying for a discount only makes sense if you can recover your money quickly and save a lot using the discount. It has to be worth it.
And it is if you’re already spending at least $150 every year. The rest will just be 20% off gravy.
26. Get shipping fees waived when you order out-of-stock merchandise in-store.
When your item is out of stock in the store, chances are good they’ll order it for you and waive the cost of shipping.
Or when you’re shopping online and the website says your item isn’t available in-store, give Bed Bath & Beyond a call (1-800-462-3966) to request they waive the shipping fee.
27. Wrap your gifts for free after you complete your in-store purchase.
The free gift-wrap station in the front of the store is ideal for last-minute gifts you buy right before a baby shower or a wedding. The only thing better than free gift wrapping is building a gift stockpile so you never have to buy a last-minute gift again.
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