The Cove Summer Captain Handbook

Hey — you made it. You applied, you got approved, and now one Target store in America is officially yours. That's not nothing.

Here's the whole program in one breath: once a week, you do a Cove run at your assigned Target, you post about it, and you send us the receipt. Do all three and we pay you back your receipt total for Cove products, up to $65, each week, through Sunday, August 30, 2026. That's it. That's the whole program. There's no script to follow, no quota of likes, no secret catch hiding in section 7 (we checked — section 7 is just the plain-English legal stuff, and it's short).

Why does this exist? Because the best thing that can happen to a soda brand is real people putting real cans in real carts, every week, in their own neighborhood. You're not an influencer on assignment. You're the person at your Target who actually knows where the Cove is.

A few things that make this program different, up front:

• One Captain per store. Your Target is yours alone for your whole run. Nobody else can claim it while you're its Captain.
• Any flavors, always. Aim for up to 24 single-serve 12oz cans a week — mix and match however you want, change your mind every week. There is no required flavor list and never will be.
• You get your actual money back. Not a flat stipend, not points, not store credit. Your receipt total for Cove products back, up to $65 per week, for every compliant week, sent to the Venmo or PayPal you gave us at sign-up.
• Finishers go first. A new program is coming in the fall, and Captains who finish the program — a compliant week every week from their first week through August 30 — get the first invite, before anyone else hears about it.

This handbook is the single source of truth for how the program works. If an email, a post, or a friend-of-a-friend tells you something different, the handbook wins. And if the handbook doesn't answer it, a human will: brandambassador@covedrinks.com.

Cold soda, warm summer, money back. Let's go.

Every week of the program has the same three beats: the run, the post, the receipt. Here's each one, precisely, because the details matter.

The week itself

Beat 1: The run

Head to your assigned Target — the one named in your welcome email — and put Cove in the cart.

• Aim for 24 single-serve 12oz cans. Any flavors, mix and match, your call, every week. Grab the ones you love, grab the ones you're curious about, grab a spread for the crew.
• Key rule — singles only

  Singles only — skip the multipacks. Your 24 means twenty-four loose 12oz cans off the shelf, not boxed 12-packs or bundles. A 12-pack box isn't 12 singles for program purposes, so if it comes in a box, leave it — the singles shelf is your shelf.

• Drink a bunch, share the rest. Twenty-four cans is plenty for both — and honestly, sharing is the job at its best. Someone's first-ever Cove should come out of your fridge: friends, family, the neighbor who always asks what you're drinking. Life's best when it's shared.
• The 8-can shelf rule: always leave at least 8 cans on the shelf for the next Cove fan — buy any amount above that, up to your 24. Shelf running low? Buy what you can while leaving 8; the week still fully counts and you're reimbursed for what you bought. A short shelf never counts against you — honestly, a picked-over Cove shelf is a good sign. Truly empty, zero cans to buy? Snap the empty shelf ("sold out" is content too), post it to your Story with your @covesoda tag, and email brandambassador@covedrinks.com with a screenshot before Sunday 11 PM PST — handled that way it doesn't count as a miss (confirming it is at our discretion, and with nothing bought there's nothing to reimburse; see FAQ 1). And know we hear you: Cove is working to get more cans on shelf all summer.
• It has to be your store. Receipts from any other Target — or any other retailer — can't be reimbursed. Your store is on the receipt; that's how we check.

Beat 2: The post

Every weekly run gets posted — as an Instagram Story. Your story must:

1. Tag @covesoda
2. And add #CoveCrew — the community tag. It's how the crew finds each other and how we find your post to reshare it.

Beyond the tags? The story is yours. Your voice, your angle — a cart photo, a shelf shot, a fridge restock, cans at a picnic with your people. It doesn't have to be shot in the store (though shelf shots are the gold standard and we cheer every one); the real job is sharing the Cove love with your friends and family. We're not here to art-direct you. (#CoveCrew is the fun one — add it so the crew can find you, but forgetting it will never cost you a week.)

One guardrail on content: keep it honest — your real experience, no health claims or product claims we haven't made ourselves. We may ask you to fix or remove a story that breaks this, and a week's reimbursement requires a compliant story.

Stories vanish in 24 hours — so when you submit your receipt, attach a screenshot of your story (or a link if you saved it to a highlight).

Beat 3: The receipt

• Key rule — the deadline

  Receipts are due Sunday at 11 PM PST, through the receipt & content form. It's the same link every week, so bookmark it — it's also in your welcome email, and if you ever lose it, brandambassador@covedrinks.com will re-send it.

  Submit your receipt & post →

• Receipts combine. Build your week across multiple Target runs if you like — say, 6 cans Monday and the rest Thursday — up to 24 cans total for the week. Everything still goes in as one weekly submission: the receipt form accepts multiple receipt photos, we sum the Cove totals across your receipts, and reimbursement still caps at $65.
• Late receipts: the Sunday deadline is real; occasional grace is at our discretion. If your receipt shows an in-week purchase and it simply arrived late, we may accept it — but that's a maybe, not a promise, and it's not a habit. Don't build your week around the hope of grace.
• A missed week can't be made up later. Weeks don't stack, roll over, or double up. If Sunday passes without a submission, that week is a miss (see Section 5 for what happens next — it's kinder than you think, but it's real).

That's the rhythm. Run, post, receipt, repeat — every week through Sunday, August 30, 2026.

Here's your on-ramp, start to finish:

Step 1 — You're approved. You get a welcome email naming your assigned Target store. That store is yours.

Step 2 — Your first week is already underway. There's no waiting for a start date and no practice period — the clock is running now. Your first week is this week: the calendar week (Monday–Sunday) you're approved in. Whatever day your approval lands, you're already inside your first week, and your first receipt is due this Sunday by 11 PM PST, through the receipt link in your welcome email.

Step 3 — Do your first run. Head to your assigned Target, put Cove in the cart, post your Story with your @covesoda tag, and submit it through the receipt & content form — all before this Sunday at 11 PM PST. Same three beats as every week (see Section 2): the run, the post, the receipt. You're in, so there's nothing to wait for.

Step 4 — The program calendar. The Summer Captain program runs on one shared calendar: July 6 through Sunday, August 30, 2026, in Monday-to-Sunday weeks. Your run goes from your approval week through August 30 — a run, a post, and a receipt for every one of those weeks — and everyone finishes together on August 30. Program changes can never shorten your window — see Section 7.

The part you scrolled here for. Fair. (One framing note that matters: this is a reimbursement — we pay you back for the Cove you bought. It's not a paycheck, a wage, or a salary; see Section 7 on being an independent participant.)

Every reimbursement starts the same way: submit your receipt and Story through the receipt & content form by Sunday, 11 PM PST. Same link every week — bookmark it.

• What you get: your receipt total for Cove products back, up to $65 per week. If your Cove total is $58.41, you get $58.41. If the shelf was short and your Cove total is $24.90, you get $24.90. If you went big and it's $71, you get $65 — the cap is the cap. We reimburse the Cove items on your receipt, up to $65 — we read the line items, not just the total, so anything else in the cart is on you.
• How you get it: via Venmo or PayPal, to the handle or email you gave us at sign-up. If that handle changes, tell brandambassador@covedrinks.com before your next submission — money sent to the handle on file is money sent.
• When you get it: reimbursements go out weekly, after your submission is reviewed. Review is a human looking at your receipt and post, so we don't promise a specific day — but you won't be waiting around wondering. If something looks off, we'll email you rather than silently reject.
• What gets a submission declined: a submission has to be compliant to be reimbursed. Non-compliant means things like: a receipt from a store that isn't yours, a purchase dated outside the Monday–Sunday week you're submitting for, a missing story, or a story missing the required tag (@covesoda). Non-compliant submissions may not be reimbursed — and approval of any receipt is at Cove's discretion. When in doubt, email us before you shop, not after.
• Taxes: reimbursements may be taxable income depending on your situation, and taxes are your responsibility. We're a soda company, not your accountant — if you're unsure, ask someone who is.

We built the miss policy to be kind, because life happens. But it's also precise, because one Captain per store means a quiet store is a store nobody's running. Here it is, exactly:

Misses aren't the only exit: fraud or serious rule violations can end a captaincy immediately — see Section 7.

Three things that are not misses, for the record:

• A short-shelf week where you bought what you could while leaving 8 on the shelf and submitted the receipt. That's a compliant week.
• A week where you submitted on time but something in the submission needs fixing — we'll email you to sort it out.
• A genuinely sold-out week — zero cans to buy — where you posted the empty shelf to your Story with your @covesoda tag and emailed us (screenshot attached) before Sunday's deadline. Confirming it is at our discretion, and with nothing bought there's nothing to reimburse, but handled that way it doesn't count as a miss (see FAQ 1).

And one reminder from Section 2: missed weeks can't be made up. There's no doubling up next week to backfill. The streak only moves forward.

One Captain per store, one store per Captain. That's the founding rule of the whole program.

How you got your store: at sign-up, you gave us a 1st and 2nd choice. We work down the list — if your 1st choice was open, you got it; if it was taken and your 2nd was open, you got your 2nd. Your welcome email names the store you actually got, and that's your store for the program.

Standby: if both your choices were taken, you were placed on standby — a short first-come-first-served queue (a handful deep) for each store. When a store opens up, the next person in that store's queue gets the invite. If you're reading this as a full Captain, someone may be on standby for your store — which is a nice bit of motivation to keep the streak alive.

If something about your store needs to change — you're relocating, or your store's stock situation is chronically grim — email brandambassador@covedrinks.com and tell us what's going on. We'll figure out what's possible together. One thing that never changes in the meantime: your assigned store is your store, and receipts from a store that isn't your assigned store can't be reimbursed.

When a Captain is removed (second miss, removal for cause, or leaving the program), their store reopens and the next person on that store's standby queue is offered it. The machine keeps humming; nobody's store sits claimed-but-quiet for long.

This is the section our lawyers care about, written like a human. It's the plain-English version of the program's binding terms — short on purpose, but every sentence counts:

• Eligibility: the Summer Captain program is open to US residents, 18 or older, with an assigned Target store. One Captain per store; one store per Captain.
• You're independent. Captains are independent participants in a brand program — not employees, agents, or representatives of Cove. You can't make promises on Cove's behalf, and nothing here creates an employment relationship. (It also means no schedule, no boss, and no meetings.)
• Content license: by submitting a post as part of the program, you give Cove permission to reshare your program posts on Cove's own channels, with credit to you. You keep ownership of your content; we get to show it off.
• Reimbursement is discretionary on compliance: receipt approval is at Cove's discretion, and non-compliant submissions (wrong store, out-of-week purchase, missing or untagged post) may not be reimbursed. Reimbursement covers the Cove items on your receipt, up to $65. See Section 4.
• Play it straight. Separate from the missed-week policy, Cove may remove a Captain immediately for fraud or misrepresentation — including altered, reused, duplicate, or fake receipts, or returning product after reimbursement — or for serious or repeated rule violations. Removal for cause forfeits reimbursement of the non-compliant submissions and may disqualify future applications.
• Taxes are your responsibility. Also Section 4, but lawyers like it said twice.
• The program can change. Cove may update program terms prospectively, and may close the program to new applicants at any time. But — and this is a promise — once you're approved, your committed window — your approval week through Sunday, August 30, 2026, exactly as published when you joined — is always honored: we will never cut it short because the program changed, evolved, or closed to new applicants. Your window only ends early if you're removed under Section 5 (missed weeks) or this section (for cause).
• What's next: a new program is coming in the fall. Captains who finish the program — a compliant week every week from their first week through August 30 — get the first invite.
• Support: for anything — questions, problems, switches, goodbyes — the address is brandambassador@covedrinks.com. There are humans there. Talk to us.