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Extreme couponing backlash
Many retailers are changing their coupon policies in response to the extreme couponing trend.
Thu, Jun 30 2011 at 2:00 PM
 73

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When TLC’s show "Extreme Couponing" hit the airwaves, the response was drastic. Some fans loved the show and started to learn more about how they could use coupons to significantly reduce their grocery bills. On the other side of the coin are those consumers who were concerned about the hoarding-like behavior exhibited by some extreme couponers. Now retailers are sounding off, and many companies are changing their coupon policies.
 
Kelli B. Grant covers some of the store coupon policy changes in her SmartMoney.com blog post, Extreme Couponing: Now Extremely Prohibited.
 
“Rite Aid, Target and Publix have all revised coupon policies in recent weeks (see details below) to limit the number of store and manufacturers’ coupons they accept per item or per shopping trip. Procter & Gamble now limits consumers to four of the same coupon per shopping trip.”
 
In some cases, the new polices will prevent coupon stacking — using multiple types of coupons on a single item. In other cases, the policy will limit purchase quantities. Having seen one episode of "Extreme Couponing" myself, I think the item limit is probably a good thing. I can’t imagine being a shopper in a grocery store after an extreme couponer just cleared the shelves.
 
While these policies might have an effect on the extreme couponer, everyday coupon users probably won’t face any problems. According to Grant’s article, The Grocery Game founder Teri Gault shares this sentiment. "Being tighter about coupon redemption is fine for the average shopper buying two or three of something,” she says. “You can still save a ton of money using coupons.”
 
The policy changes probably won’t have a negative effect on your average consumer and the effect will be less noticeable to those of us that prefer organic, natural or non-processed foods. The vast majority of coupons available today are for processed food items. Sure, I’ll find a coupon for Horizon organic milk or Stonyfield Farm yogurt from time to time, but most of the coupons in my Sunday paper are for products I wouldn’t purchase anyhow.
 
How about you? Are you a coupon user? Will the store changes affect your shopping trips?
 
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Comments: 73
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anonymous
Slynn Sep 10 2011 at 11:11 PM

I have always used coupons, however, I now use them mostly for toiletries and cleaning supplies. Most of the food coupons are for processed foods, and with the stores[ stricter policies, I've decided to stop buying processed foods altogether. It's working great for me.

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susanlbinder
susanlbinder Jul 06 2011 at 6:36 PM

I wish there was a better way of getting coupons to people. It seems so wasteful, I don't have a bird anymore so all of those coupons I get in the mail every Wednesday go from my mailbox to the recycling bin and never even make it inside my home. I don't coupon but I groupon :)

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anonymous
Guest Jul 08 2011 at 12:57 AM

Services like Cellfire let you load coupons to a shopper card. Many stores now have load-to-card coupons on their web sites. Also, P&G has high-value e-coupons you can pull from their web site.

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jamiew's picture
jamiew Jul 08 2011 at 2:09 AM
 At first I liked electronic coupons you never have to worry about forgetting them.  Especilly if you can just punch you phone number in.  However as i become a more serious couponer there are some pitfalls.  You would still need to list what coupons you have, and you can't use an electronic coupon with a paper coupon, and the elecctronic coupon is auto applied and can't be removed at the register.  For example I had a  75 cent e coupon on my card for laundry detergant, but I had a $3.00 paper
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coupon.  Now I am sure it is obvious which one I would want to use, and I don't list my ecoupons so I didn't knnow what was on there.  So store said I could only use the 75 cent coupon.   I told the store to keep their item and I bought it elsewhere.
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anonymous
Sarah Jul 06 2011 at 7:30 PM

Ask your friends and neighbors if any of them would like the coupons. I know I'm nervous about asking my friends if I can have their coupons because I don't want to take them from them so it would probably be helpful if you asked them if they wanted them instead.

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anonymous
Tired in Texas Jul 06 2011 at 1:17 PM
In the Houston area, what "Extreme Couponing" has killed is the practice of doubling and tripling coupons. From what I can tell, in addition to "stacking", doubling and tripling manufacturers coupons is how most of those featured on the show manage to get so much of something for nothing. I wish stores would simply limit the use of this popular enticement and not kill the benefit for all of us in order to constrain the small minority who have 40-70 hours a week to clip, shop and obsess. Please
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excuse any typos or other grammatical errors in the above.
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anonymous
Richard Jul 06 2011 at 12:56 PM

What gripes me are the extreme coupon folk that buy five or ten Sunday papers just for the coupons and leave no papers for the rest of us who just want to get the news, I'd gladly GIVE them the coupons if they would ask!

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anonymous
a of b Jul 08 2011 at 1:27 AM

so what? if they pay for all their sunday papers, SO WHAT?!

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anonymous
Jean Deaux Jul 06 2011 at 12:21 PM

The only coupons I use are those that the store displays with the item. I don't worry about clipping a bunch that I won't use and while I don't save much, I save on those items I actually use. I very seldom buy more than 4 or 5 items, coupons or not.

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anonymous
Al Dorman Jul 06 2011 at 12:17 PM

Well, when you have a criminal government which never enforces anti-trust and anti-competitive laws, these companies can get away with running ruff-shod over consumers...

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anonymous
Momto4 Jul 06 2011 at 10:31 AM
People must think manufactures are dumb. If couponing didnt work, they would stop printing the coupons. Whoever says it costs the non couponer money is wrong. If you want to buy all non name brand food, with no coupons go to Price Rite or Aldi. Don't get mad at the mom who spends her time matching sales to coupons to get a better deal for her family. Which the majority of couponers are!!! There is a limit on the number of identical coupons you can use at the store. Usually 4. If you dont like to
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coupon, or it doesnt work for you because you need organic toilet paper, than so be it, but dont trash people who use coupons because they have every right to be at the same grocery store as you do and save money, by following the rules.
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anonymous
Clevelandpennyp... Jul 06 2011 at 9:39 AM
It is very frustrating when I see comments about how "all" couponers clear shelves and hoard. I began couponing as a way to provide food, not only for my immediate family, but also for my extended family and the local homeless shelters. I now spend a quarter of my grocery budget a week and am able to provide for even more people. I just pray that everyone remembers that Extreme Couponing is reality television and as such shows the extremes. The people featured on the show do not actually coupon that
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way in real life. They are helped by producers and store owners that will create new rules to get their stores featured on television.
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anonymous
retail employee Jul 06 2011 at 9:38 AM
Next time you are in line for a half an hour behind an idiot with a thousand coupons who wants 50 boxes of tacks for nothing try not to blame the store employees..these coupon people are at best, rude and cheap...at worst, they have a mental illness that needs to be treated. Moreover, they suck up the customer service of any given retailer because of their need to "understand" the policy or find more of the product they are attempting to hoard. So next time you wonder where the associates in a
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store are when you need help, just think, they're probably pallet jacking out a gross of deoderant to the hoarders car.
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anonymous
none Jul 06 2011 at 1:39 AM

Well, that WAS one way to donate to the poor very easily. Naturally, got to tighten that up...

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anonymous
Guest Jul 05 2011 at 7:41 PM

Not all stores are "changing their coupon policies" in response to the Extreme Couponing show. Target has allowed 1 manufacturer coupon to be stacked with 1 Target store coupon for more than a year. They have enforced the printed coupon limit for as long as I can remember. Read your coupon--most say limit one per purchase or one per transaction. That is not some "new" policy, enforcement may be the change.

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anonymous
bill Jul 05 2011 at 11:20 AM

most of the coupon I see are for some pretty unhealthy products, lots of frozen junk food, foods that are more like fat pills, and a host of other hydrogenated crap, I never see coupons for fresh veggies or organic meats. Who needs 20 bottles of Tide? That crap ruins your clothes anyway. They should call it "Extreme Stupidity"

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abbyful
abbyful Jul 05 2011 at 9:44 AM
Stores do not lose money on coupons. A store gets a coupon, they send it to a coupon processing plant, and the store is paid for the coupon plus a handling fee. So for a $1 off coupon, the store gets the $1 plus a few cents extra back from the manufacturer that put out the coupon. The "couponers" just wait until they can maximize their coupon. They have a 99c coupon for a $2.50 item, when the $2.50 item goes on sale for $1, the couponer uses their coupon at the point. The store is still getting the
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same amount of money from the item sold to the coupon user that they are getting from everyone else buying that item on sale that doesn't have coupons. I'm not an "extreme couponer" by any means, most coupons are for things I don't want (junk food, prepackaged food, stuff full of chemicals). But we do use coupons to stock up on things like shampoo, toothpaste, etc., for cheap. If I can get 5 items for the price of 1 at full price that's a great deal (usually can only get those types of deals at CVS/Walgreens). If manufacturers didn't want people to use coupons, they wouldn't print them! Coupons benefit both the manufacturer and the store.
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anonymous
Libba Jul 05 2011 at 9:45 PM

Abbyful, just who do you think ponies up that $1 in the end? Nothing in life is free. Yes, there are those who think they are clever in taking everything possible and exploiting every loophole. But when an "extreme couponer" buys $600 worth of groceries for $10, it's you and I who pay for those groceries. After the store gets the moey from the coupon processor, and the coupon processor gets the money from the manufacturer, the manufacturer raises its prices enough to get the money back from us.

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anonymous
abbyful Jul 06 2011 at 10:13 AM
Did you not READ what I posted about how coupons work? The manufacturer reimburses the store. The manufacturer builds this into their advertising budget. If the manufacturer didn't send out coupons, they'd just spend the money currently allocated for coupon reimbursement for more TV ads, product placement, billboards, etc. You and I are NOT paying any extra because someone uses coupons. Coupons are a great way for manufacturers to get people to try their product. Here's an example: I would have
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never picked up a stick of Ban deodorant to try, I never even considered that brand; but I got a coupon for a free stick of deodorant, and that actually made me switch brands because I liked it better than what I was using!
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anonymous
Guest Jul 08 2011 at 12:52 AM

So sad to see such uninformed comments.

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anonymous
Travis Jul 06 2011 at 8:54 AM

It's a pretty old expression. From 1978 according to wikipedia.

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anonymous
please!!! Jul 06 2011 at 11:08 AM

Wikipedia!! huh!...Then it must be true...

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anonymous
Joey Smallwood Jul 06 2011 at 12:55 PM

It's true .. it came from the Jonestown Massacre where the cult drank a poison-laced beverage, except that beverage wasn't Kool-Aid but Flavor Aid. Those of you claiming this event is a myth and invented on Wikipedia are obviously showing their age. If you were alive in 1978, you know it happened. It was very heavily covered by the media.

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anonymous
Jenny Jul 04 2011 at 7:06 PM
I hate extreme couponing. I think it's a moronic waste of time. When I was a stay-at-home mom, I frugally clipped my coupons from ONE newspaper every Sunday morning. I would combine ONE coupon with MAYBE one in-store coupon, but I only went to ONE store and saved upwards of 75% on my grocery bill. My mom at one point, returned to couponing and got involved in a subscription based website for $20 per month. She was now going to MANY different stores, spending MUCH more on gas per month and buying
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a ton of stuff she DIDN'T need. After a couple of months of that- she gave up. I now am a single-mother so staying at home isn't an option. I go to ONE grocery store- when I have a need and it's on the way somewhere I HAVE to be (to save gas and any extra trip). I watch for anything half-off or better and stock up- but only if it's items I know I normally will use. Now I save at LEAST 50%-75% on groceries without batting an eye OR clipping a single coupon. I am no saving money every week not purchasing a newspaper, I no longer own a printer so I'm saving on ink also and I now ONLY go to the store once in a while as needed and save MUCH more on gas. I will NEVER be an extreme couponer and buy a bunch of allergy medications, high sugar or high salt snacks or anything else I NORMALLY wouldn't buy........and I surely don't want to get stuck in line behind any of these guys- especially if you were the one who took the last bottle of dish-soap off of the shelf that I ACTUALLY needed.
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anonymous
Amy Jul 08 2011 at 12:44 AM

Then just don't use coupons - and let others use them if they want to. Why be so negative?

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