The economy would be fine. People seem to think when somebody pays next to nothing that the grocer is getting stiffed. NOT SO. Every coupon is reimbursed from the company plus a nominal handling fee. So the grocer makes MORE money, the company who issued the coupon moves product, and my family has more disposable income. Win/win/win!
Sometimes I get bizarre reactions from the cashiers when I get good deals. The other day I bought 4 boxes of Vicks Sinex Sinus liquigels at Walgreens. They were on sale for $5 each. I handed the cashier (who I know) 4 coupons for $4 each knocking the price down to just a buck each. The bill came to just over $4 (I included a cheap filler) and then I handed her a $2 register rewards making the total bill just over 2 bucks out of pocket. The cashier (who always acts jealous of good deals by customers) asked what I was going to do with all that Sinex. I told her probably very little and that the real reason for the purchase was about to take place. At that point the Catalina machine spit out a $10 register rewards. As I split, I told the cashier the real reason for the purchase would take place in a few minutes.
Few minutes later I am before the same cashier again with 2 Red Barons pizza (on sale 2 for $5), 2 Harvest Select soups (2 for $3 with store coupon), and a tube of Colgate. I used the $10 register rewards from the previous transaction to pay for most of it with less than two bucks out of pocket. Then the Catalina machine spit out a register rewards for $2 (for the Colgate) which I could use to repeat the entire deal again.