Welcia 20th Customer Appreciation Day (“Welkatsu”) Guide: Spend WAON POINTs at 1.5x Value for 33% Off Groceries and Medicine

Among household money-saving strategies in Japan, ウエル活 (Welkatsu) sits in a tier of its own. On the 20th of every month (お客様感謝デー – Customer Appreciation Day), nationwide pharmacy and grocery chain Welcia Yakkyoku (ウエルシア薬局) and its sister chain Hac Drug let shoppers redeem WAON POINT balances at 1.5x face value (1.5倍分お買い物ができる).

In practice, spending 1,000 points pays for 1,500 yen worth of merchandise—an automatic 33.3% discount across your entire shopping cart, covering everything from over-the-counter cold medicine and sunscreen to laundry detergent, diapers, frozen foods, and beer. Following Welcia’s major loyalty overhaul in September 2024, the 20th bonus now applies exclusively to WAON POINT rather than T-Point/V-Point. Here is how the current rules work in 2026.

1. How the 1.5x math works on the 20th and the 200-point minimum rule

Welcia Group’s お客様感謝デー runs on the 20th of every month across participating stores (Welcia, Hac Drug, Dacs, Happy Drug, Marue Drug, Kanemitsu Yakuhin, Yodoya Drug, Kokumin, and others). At the register, the multiplier works as follows:

• Minimum threshold: You must redeem at least 200 WAON POINTs in a single transaction (redeeming 1 to 199 points only gives standard 1pt = 1 yen value).
• Exact purchasing power on the 20th:
  • 200 WAON POINTs = Pays for 300 yen of goods (100 yen bonus).
  • 1,000 WAON POINTs = Pays for 1,500 yen of goods (500 yen bonus).
  • 2,000 WAON POINTs = Pays for 3,000 yen of goods (1,000 yen bonus).
  • 5,000 WAON POINTs = Pays for 7,500 yen of goods (2,500 yen bonus).
  • 10,000 WAON POINTs = Pays for 15,000 yen of goods (5,000 yen bonus).
• Daily cap: Up to 30,000 WAON POINTs per day (covering 45,000 yen worth of merchandise).

To check out on the 20th without paying a single yen in cash:

1. Fill your basket so the tax-included total (税込合計) is at least 300 yen.
2. Go to a staffed register, present your WAON POINT barcode, and tell the cashier: *”Subete WAON POINT de shiharai onegaishimasu”* (すべてWAON POINTで支払いお願いします — “Please pay the entire total with WAON POINTs”).
3. The register automatically divides your tax-included bill by 1.5 and deducts the exact point amount—so a 1,500-yen basket deducts 1,000 points and prints a 0 yen cash receipt.

2. Crucial post-2024 rule: Only WAON POINT qualifies (plus the 1:1 V-Point exchange route)

If you used T-Points at Welcia in previous years, pay close attention to two critical rules now in effect:

1. Only WAON POINT (in uppercase English letters) gets the 1.5x boost on the 20th:
   • Since September 2024, V-Point (formerly T-Point) can no longer be redeemed at 1.5x value on the 20th. Your balance must sit inside WAON POINT.
   • Do not confuse AEON’s two similarly named point programs: The eligible program is WAON POINT (spelled in Roman letters) earned on the magenta WAON POINT Card, Welcia Card, or AEON Card. By contrast, 電子マネーWAONポイント (written in Katakana on prepaid blue e-money WAON cards) only converts 1:1 into e-money balance and cannot be used for the 1.5x Welkatsu discount.
2. Double-dipping on regular days and converting V-Points to WAON POINTs at 1:1:
   • Registering as a free ウエルシアメンバー (Welcia Member) inside the ウエルシアグループアプリ (Welcia App) lets you scan both WAON POINT and V-Point cards on everyday purchases to earn both points simultaneously (ダブルで貯まる), including 2x base WAON POINTs every Monday (月曜日はポイント2倍).
   • Even better, any V-Points you earn from a Sumitomo Mitsui Card (Olive / NL), FamilyMart, or point portals can be exchanged 1:1 into WAON POINT (1 V-Point = 1 WAON POINT, zero fee, instant transfer) via the iAEON app or V-Point portal. Just convert your V-Points into WAON POINT on your phone before walking into Welcia on the 20th.

3. Best items to stock up on the 20th and the 5 excluded categories

Because 33.3% off beats almost every supermarket flyer sale, the 20th is the best day of the month to buy fixed-price items and heavy household staples:

• Over-the-counter medicines (市販薬 / OTC医薬品) and cosmetics: Cold medicines (Paburon), pain relievers (Loxonin, EVE), eye drops, skincare, and sunscreens (Anessa, Biore) rarely go on deep discount elsewhere, making the 33.3% Welkatsu cut unbeatable.
• Bulk household consumables: Large refill packs of laundry detergent (Ariel, Attack), dish soap, toilet paper, facial tissues, food wrap, baby diapers, and infant formula.
• Groceries, frozen food, and alcohol (お酒類): Unlike regular 10%-off drugstore app coupons that exclude food and alcohol, paying with WAON POINT on the 20th works on rice, eggs, milk, frozen meals, snacks, beer, and canned Chu-hai sold at Welcia.

Keep in mind 5 excluded items that cannot be paid with the 1.5x point bonus:

1. Prescription medications (処方せん調剤薬) dispensed at the pharmacy counter.
2. Tobacco and cigarettes (タバコ).
3. Municipal designated garbage bags (自治体指定ごみ袋) and oversized-trash disposal stickers (粗大ごみ処理券).
4. Prepaid gift cards (POSAカード such as Apple, Google Play, or Amazon cards), postage stamps, postcards, and utility bill payments (公共料金収納代行).
5. Plastic shopping bags (レジ袋) in certain municipalities—always pack a sturdy reusable shopping bag (エコバッグ) when heading out for your monthly Welkatsu haul.