is ok in my book. I purchased an Avid rod and a Pflueger reel 3 weeks ago, cost me a little over $250. This week I get a mailer from Dick's with a card for $25 off a purchase of $150 or more. So tonight I take my receipt and the card to see if they could do anything for me. The manager told me it can't be used for prior purchases (it was on the back of the card, my mistake for not reading the fine print)

He asked my wife and I if we were shopping for anything else, we said yes. He saw us in the checkout line and came over and punched in a 15% discount on our total, which was mostly stuff that was on sale to begin with.

I know retailers are in for a bad season, but I thought that was pretty cool on their part.

Its good that they were cool and gave you that discount. If they were jerks about it, you could always just take your reciept and return the whole setup. Then purchase it again with the 25$ card.

That "doesnt apply to prior purchases" is just a technicality.  And technically you can get arround it if you really wanted to.