How Do Coupons Work in America?

[Tulin]

I have heard mention of "coupons" in many US tv shows and movies and I recently saw a promo for a show called "Extreme Couponing". They showed someone's grocery bill going from over $1000 to about $8!

How is this possible and how does it work?

We have coupons here in Australia but it's usually like a two for one offer or 10% off or something but nothing this extreme.

How does it work in America and is there a stigma attached to it like I have heard in movies? Why do shops do this when people can get such massive discounts? What is in it for the shop owners?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

And WHY DON'T WE HAVE IT HERE??

 

[Tulin]

I KNOW!!!!

I have just started watching this Couponing show and HELL I would use them!!!!!

We don't even really have the big bulk discount places here - not like I saw in the US. I remember going to a place called, IIRC, Sam's Place or something where you could buy MASSIVE amounts of things at bulk discount prices. I swear between just Woolies and Coles, we are being ripped off MAJORLY here in Australia!!!


I WANT COUPONS DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Small White Car]

We have coupons here in Australia but it's usually like a two for one offer or 10% off or something but nothing this extreme.

They're the exact same here.

You have to remember that TV also has shows about a guy who eats lightbulbs a bunch of near-naked people who fight for an idol on a Pacific island.

Your mileage may vary when comparing TV to real life.

 

[Tulin]

This woman just got over $1900 worth of groceries for $103.00!!!!!!!

WTF?!?!?!?!?!??!




But then, who needs SEVENTY bottles of mustard - especially when her husband just admitted he doesn't even eat the stuff!!!

 

[scotpens]

. . . I recently saw a promo for a show called "Extreme Couponing". They showed someone's grocery bill going from over $1000 to about $8!

How is this possible and how does it work?

I have no idea how that would work either. Many stores offer “double coupons,” i.e. they’ll double the value of any coupon you bring in for a particular product, but reducing a grocery bill by more than 99 percent? Sounds like a fish story to me.

How does it work in America and is there a stigma attached to it like I have heard in movies?

There are jokes about compulsive coupon clippers, especially if they happen to be elderly people. But I’ve never heard of any real “stigma” attached to using coupons. Hell, there’s nothing wrong with saving a few pennies here and there whatever way you can, right?

Why do shops do this when people can get such massive discounts? What is in it for the shop owners?

I’m not a retailer, but I guess they make up for the discounted prices in volume.

But then, who needs SEVENTY bottles of mustard. . .

Maybe if you’re going to eat a REALLY big hot dog.

 

[RoJoHen]

This woman just got over $1900 worth of groceries for $103.00!!!!!!!

WTF?!?!?!?!?!??!




But then, who needs SEVENTY bottles of mustard - especially when her husband just admitted he doesn't even eat the stuff!!!

Some people are obsessive about coupons. Some people treat it like a hobby. If they want to do the research and scour the newspapers for coupons, more power to them. Most people don't do that. Most people use coupons just like you do, to get a small discount on their bill.

I personally never use coupons because I'm too lazy to remember to save them. And if I do save them, I forget to actually bring them to the store.

 

[Tulin]

Here for a few years now the two major grocery retailers, Coles and Woolworths have started running petrol stations and offer a small discount on fuel with purchases over a certain amount from their shops. For instance, if you spend over $30.00 from Coles you get a voucher for 4c off per litre from their branded stations. Sometimes that can double to 8c per litre. When you are filling up a full tank that can save you from $2.00 to $4.00.

There is a bit of an outcry here now because it looks as if certain discount policies at Coles(which in themselves have made national news for other reasons)are being funded by an INCREASE at the bowser for the pump price of their petrol.

But DAMN I want these coupons like I am seeing in this show!!!!

 

[RoJoHen]

WTF is a bowser?

 

[Tulin]

Petrol pump

 

[Tulin]

I know what you mean - I am still trying to work out why this bitch keeps saying KEW-pons.

 

[Sector 7]

While some coupons are for a percentage off the price, most coupons are for a specific amount. Harris-Teeter (one of 4 stores where I do my grocery shopping) often has Buy 2 Get 3 Free offers, which reduces the price of each item considerably. They also have Double Coupon weeks. When combining that offer with a $1 OFF coupon, I can actually get a pricey item for next to nothing.

In total, I am saving an average of 20-25% off my grocery bill each week. It adds up considerably. As of April 9, I have saved $279.48 at Harris-Teeter this year.

As for the 'big box stores' such as Sam's Club or BJ's Wholesale Club, if you have a family or desire to buy in bulk, then it is a bargain. Sam's Club is owned by Wal-Mart and I have noticed that there is not enough difference in their prices to warrant buying a large number of items at Sam's Club, when I factor in the drive (over 20 miles) and the cost of an annual membership.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

Most people only use coupons for a small discount. It would take more coupons than your average American even sees in a week to get the kind of discounts you're talking about.

 

[Sector 7]

Most people only use coupons for a small discount. It would take more coupons than your average American even sees in a week to get the kind of discounts you're talking about.

Actually, it is easier than you think. Publisher's Clearing House has a coupon website. I check their list of available coupons, click on the ones I want to print and voila! I repeat the same for another website and glance through the local paper for coupons I want.

I used to think only fanatics used coupons... until I saw women in the local upscale grocery store with 3-ring binders of organized coupons. I decided to give it a try and last year saved over $1,000.00 at that store alone. It all adds up.

 

[RoJoHen]

A lot of times coupons trick people into spending MORE money on things they never would have purchased in the first place.

 

[Amaris]

My cousin is a coupon Queen. She can get $500 in groceries for about $13. She has 200 tubes of toothpaste that she gives away because she essentially gets them for free after coupons. She went through the checkout lane and had a bill amounting to $250 until she was finished with her coupons, and they gave her $9. She's very good with money because they have three kids and her husband is a police officer, so it's not like they're raking it in. Quite frankly, I don't know how she does it, and I've asked her to show me, but she's always so busy she doesn't have the time to spare.

For fixing her computer, she gave me a medium sized gift bag with shaving cream, lotion, toothpaste, a Mach5 razor, hair gel, and a few other toiletries. I initially refused because I knew they didn't have much money. She tells me to please take them because she has more than what they can use, and that she didn't have to pay anything for them. In other words, when it comes to running out of toothpaste, I'm not sweatin' it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I know what you mean - I am still trying to work out why this bitch keeps saying KEW-pons.

Cuz that's how you pronounce them.

As for the rest, I suspect this show may be fibbing.

 

[CaptainStoner]

In America, coupons are big. You need a big car to fit them in. They're actually made of steel, with chrome trim around the edges. In times of war we turn them into bullets.

 

[RobertVA]

And WHY DON'T WE HAVE IT HERE??

I haven't the faintest idea, partialy because your "Location:" is showing some Voyager related material instead of your actual location. Yes, I have my "Location:" set to describe a several hundred square mile area to make it a little harder for some stranger to track down my exact address, but at least it gives a general idea of where I actually am. If you want to make a location specific inquiry give some indication of where you are.

Many coupons in the US are produced and distributed at the expense of the manufacturers to get consumers to try a particular product. Consumers might find coupons included in the manufacturer's ads in periodicals or even direct mailings to the consumer's mail box. Some coupons even arrive by mail in a loose unbound bundle of tabloid size pages, with instructions for the letter carrier to deliver one copy of the unbound tabloid to each residential customer on their route. Some retailers have a color printer at their POS stands dedicated to printing a few coupons for each customer (uses the same blank roll paper as the monochrome register printer).

In most stores the consumer only needs to present the coupons to the POS operator, who scans the coupon the same way they scan the goods. The sales/inventory system automatically checks to insure that the coupon hasn't expired and that the customer has purchased a qualifying product and adds the credit to the printout. There are some occasional problems with coupons that require multiple qualifying packages or coupons offering a "free" product up to a maximum retail price.

For quite a while retailers could send the physical coupons to a clearing house and receive "payment" covering the amount discounted at the cash register (possibly some additional amount to cover the labor and shipping expenses). I suspect in many cases that "payment" may have been in the form of a credit towards their wholesale costs. Any multiplication of the consumer's discount (double and occasionally more) would have simply come from the retailer's markup. I don't know if the proliferation of product bar codes and computerized sales/inventory systems have eliminated the need to physically transport the coupons to a clearing house.

 

[Tulin]

A lot of times coupons trick people into spending MORE money on things they never would have purchased in the first place.

Indeed.

I can understand the toilet paper/paper towel thing but these people had sixty boxes of cereal! If you buy something and it goes off or you never use it, to me that's the same as actually throwing that money away. Thus a COST and NOT a saving.