You Can Pin Your Box Tops With This App
Since the mid-1990s, parents have carved small, rectangular “Box Top” symbols from the lids of our Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Ziplock boxes. We hide them in trash boxes, mostly unforgettable, until: 1. we feel that we finally have enough to collect them and send our child to school; or 2. we will clean out the drawer after a few years and throw away a bunch of expired cardboard. …
Still. General Mills, which is launching the Box Tops for Education program , has graciously unveiled its new app that allows parents to scan eligible product receipts and automatically apply it to their school account.
I had my doubts that this app could properly scan deliberately faded and long receipts at my local grocery store, but it did, and now my son’s school is 10 cents richer thanks to my efforts. And – and – I don’t have to trim (or rip, as I am more inclined) this damn box.
The app is easy to navigate. You enter your zip code to open a list of schools in your area and then select your school. You can then see how much your school has earned over time and how much you contributed. You can also see special offers on selected products that will bring you tops of bonus boxes if you want to go all-in. You need to create an account with an email address, so be prepared to share some of your personal information.
If you have very long receipts, like mine, you may have to take a few photos and stitch them together, but this is a pretty intuitive process. If you order products online, you can forward a receipt (from eligible retailers) to [email protected] with the same email address you used to register your BTFE account; your earnings must be credited to your account within 10 business days.
You can still crop – bye
If you’d rather keep cutting and merging, you can do so at least until brands switch from old clips to new labels and old clips expire. This is likely to happen towards the end of this year. Once they look like the label on the right, you can no longer crop them; you will need to scan the receipt:
Pro tip: Until this step is complete, you can scan the receipt and mail it at the top of the box before it expires for a little double action. It is ethical because it is for children.
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