CINCINNATI — Thomas Stone, 42, would seem the kind of customer most pharmacies would like to have.

The Columbus resident has a good job at Ohio State University and medical insurance that covers prescriptions through OSU. Better yet, he spends as much as $20,000 a year on about a dozen prescription drugs he takes to combat medical conditions that include high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Big spender or not, Stone has managed to chisel his name onto the equivalent of a "Customer From Hell" list at Cincinnati-based Kroger.

"Due to the impasse over your use of multiple coupons at many of our pharmacies, I regret to inform you that you are no longer welcome at any Kroger owned, leased or operated facilities," James Sheets of Kroger's Great Lakes Division in Westerville, Ohio, wrote in a Sept. 21 letter to Stone. The letter warned that Stone would be arrested for criminal trespass if found in any of the stores or on their parking lots.

In effect, Stone is now banned from some 2,500 stores operated in 31 states by the nation's largest traditional grocery store chain.

He acknowledges that he tries to take advantage of the coupon offers and plays "Rx pingpong" by transferring prescriptions from one drugstore to another if he finds a coupon that makes the switch worthwhile.

Kroger spokeswoman Meghan Glynn said Columbus-area pharmacies "...accept competitors' coupons and limit one per customer, per day. This applies to the customer on the prescription, so we can accept two coupons if each coupon is for a separate patient in the same household."