Posted on 06/20/2011 9:23:46 AM PDT by simplesimon
Back in the day, when I worked at a grocery store we had couples that did this extreme couponing thing. It was before computers did most of the work. And I will tell you from the working guy’s point of view-—it was a royal pain in the @ss.
The tracking was a pain in the neck. And the people are argumentative, and just weird. You should have seen the cashiers run when they came in.
I know the other side: You are bagging groceries anyway...what difference does it make. The difference is not the volume of the work—no one cared about that. It was the way the customers treated you and their overall weirdness. We hated them.
The only one of these shows that made me feel good was the one where they drove all of the junk over to the local food bank and gave it away.
Buying 20 bottles of soda is one thing (although your kids should not drink that much) but 10 cases of raman noodles, and speed stick?
I appreciate the intent, but it is a little silly. At least thats my take on it.
My father made an observation about coupons over 30 years ago. He said that when stores and manufacturers fear a coming inflation with the threat of price controls, they will pump out lots of coupons. They don’t care if most of their product is bought with a reduced price. They will even provide the coupons at point of sale.
Their overall plan is a hedge against price controls. They can raise ticket prices now, but offset the increase by issuing coupons. They can effectively raise actual prices later by reducing the coupons issued. This allows them to get around government interference.
yes but we do not buy store brands - they are not the quality I am willing to pay for so a coupon for a brand I do use IS woth something to me. Every little bit counts. I count quality as being important and if it costs too much we do without. Store brands just do not deliver the taste I want or performance I want.
I look through the coupons every week but I never buy stuff we will not use. I agree with the posters that are saying buying stuff you never use just because you have a coupon is just silly.
It’s worth using the coupon when the item is on sale already.
This looks like it could be a ‘Dinosaur MediaWatch’ newspaper article.
The newspapers aren’t selling except for those darn coupons, when people can get around from actually buying the newspapers the cost of placing the circulars in the papers isn’t substantiated...nothing is selling but coupons are flying....
The only one of these shows that made me feel good was the one where they drove all of the junk over to the local food bank and gave it away.
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My friend in Canada was telling me of a show they watched oh about a year ago, that the guy went to WalMart and got over 1,000 dollars worth of stuff and paid just over 100 dollars out of pocket and took it right to a food pantry and gave it to them. Now that was really neat.
You have a good point there. Our local paper is totally on a “Dinosaur Media Death Watch” and offered Two Kids’ Mom a year’s worth of Sunday papers for 2 cents (total price, not per issue) so they can count our household in their circulation numbers. We check the coupons, the store circulars, the comics and sometimes the sports section if there was an MMA fight the night before. That’s about it.
I use a lot of coupons but the ones I use are mostly the printed ones. And I rarely dont get things I wont use / dont need or dont want.
But I also have a itty bitty stock pile started for if / when SHTH or for when lay off times comes around this winter. Which will help since unemployment checks just plain stink and with only one of us working right now, coupons are almost a *must*.
Plus, I get items for my grandmother and my older son as well so couponing has really helped me be able to help them as well.
When the milk’s free, why buy the cow?
My take on this whole messy couponing, which I never do, as I don’t won’t buy stuff I don’t need and it is not cheaper even with the coupons. I have better things to do with my time.
Why don’t the companies just LOWER THE PRICE, instead of paying for all that advertising via coupons. If your stuff is good, we buy it, if not no coupon can make it so.
Cheese for instance, only Kraft or Velveetta.
Real Butter, margarine will not do.
Crisco..... there is none better. I use very little now, except for pie doughs or southern fried chicken.
There are many other brands, where the cheaper ones will simply not do for me. I don’t want it even if FREE.
I have a bone to pick with ‘extreme couponers’ and it has to do with that hoarding/greed mentality. Here in Arizona there’s a fee-based coupon system called Coupon Sense. I used to belong to it and would save 50% or so. However, some women became so obsessed with it that on some Wednesdays, when the new food ads came out, certain items that were on special would be wiped out in a matter of hours. One woman I saw had a shopping cart filled with 30 or 40 boxes of Cheerios. Another woman I know personally is a teacher and her classroom gets a set of 25 Sunday newspapers. Guess who takes all the coupons? Yep. That means that she can get 25 “free” toothbrushes at one time or 25 of whatever. Another strategy some of them have is to have multiple “individual” purchases when grocery stores have a policy that allows only three coupons per item at a time. Have you ever stood behind someone at the grocery store who’s buying 12 packages of cookies in four separate transactions. It’s enough to make you hate couponers, unfortunately.
With some people I think it has more to do with, “Look what I just accomplished!”, than a real need for what they are actually purchasing.
I don’t know any here in the Twin Cities that allow doulbe coupons either.
Knowing Minnesota, there’s probably a law against that ,too.
(like selling gas below the price the gubmint says you can)
Never heard of that before. To me, what you're describing crosses the line between "Well, the manufacturer is offering this, so I'll take advantage of it" and "Let me push in front of everyone else to get free stuff that I don't need and can never use". 40 boxes of Cheerios? Come on.
There's nothing wrong with stocking up on something that you'll need. This week, for me, it was Peanut Butter. With kids in the house, the stuff just evaporates out of my pantry. So, while it was on sale this week (and I had a coupon), I bought an extra jar. Will likely last me 4 weeks, instead of 1-2. :-)
But 40 jars? Why? Life is too short.
The thing that I like about my grocery store is that they double (sometimes triple) coupons. But, you're limited to 20 per trip. Might even be 20/week, not sure. Only allowed to use one per item, as well.
So, people like Mrs WBill and I, who shop carefully, get to use coupons and save a few bucks on the stuff we want/need. And, the store's shelves are generally pretty-well stocked because so-called "extreme couponers" get left out in the cold. A Win-win, as far as I'm concerned.
As someone who worked with the food and CPG industries, I can tell you there are three reasons for couponing:
1. To encourage consumers to try a new product.
2. As an inducement to the category managers to continue stocking their product; in addition to face value, they pay a handling fee that makes manufacturers’ coupons very profitable for retailers. Retailers get a better margin by honouring the coupons.
3. To test the effectiveness of their advertising media.
In one of them I saw, the guy was buying stuff to be used to send in care packages to troops overseas. That one got me a little teary-eyed.
Started to do some serious couponing today (saved ~$25, total) but I am now REALLY on the down-side with the coupon sites.
I don’t mind signing up for e-list coupons or “go to our website” pleas but...
being FORCED to install a toolbar don’t fly with Cletus! I’d have to re-up every time I ran the registry cleaner. There must be a better way than toolbars.
Here’s the deal:
Get “15 cases” [/overthetopexample] of Lady Speed Stick and then take them to a “no questions asked” outlet for store credit. Buy items you need using the credit.
Did a quick search. Couldn't find PJ's reference to the speed stick (but I remember him mentioning it).
I did find a reference to 100's of frozen dinners. :-)http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2575147/posts
And, I appreciate you shedding some light on the "No Questions Asked" returns outlet. Not so sure that I could do that myself, and keep a clean conscience. But, each person works the system in their own way, I suppose.
If you want merchandise for 0 cost, start a riot and load up before the cops arrive!
No more Mr. Good Guy. The truly great deals I keep to myself.
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