Aug 11, 2011 4 min read

Clipping coupons has always been a way for shoppers

to save a little money at the check-out line. Some people have

turned couponing into full-time jobs, saving as much as 80 to 90

percent at the cash register. Such exploits have been documented on

television, prompting many viewers to try to emulate that success.

But such tactics may be at the expense of regular shoppers.

Extreme couponers have created an entirely new

system that includes everything from dumpster diving for discarded

coupon inserts to subscribing to coupon clipping services to

spending 20 to 30 hours online browsing for coupons to download.

The result is deep discounts and a stockpile of

“found”>food

that could sustain an entire state should an

emergency situation occur.

There are a few things extreme couponers have in

common:

* They live in areas where the stores accept

multiple coupons for one item.

* The stores at which they shop double all the

coupons.

* They spend hours a week scouring for deals and

matching up coupons to in-store sales.

* They purchase huge quantities of one particular

item to stockpile.

Although there are many shoppers who have learned

some tactics from watching extreme couponing shows or subscribing

to coupon message boards and Web sites, the influx of coupon use

has caused a shift in the ways many stores are doing business.

Some changes are spurred partially by shady coupon

tactics, including illegal duplicating and even stealing coupons

from neighbors and stores. Another fraudulent couponing tactic that

has been brought to light through some extreme couponers is the use

of product family codes on coupons to purchase items with coupons

for another product. In essence, because the UPC codes of some

manufacturer items are similar on products within their family of

items, it may be possible to pass off a coupon for one product, say

refrigerated biscuits, when you’re actually purchasing refrigerated

pizza crust because the barcode reader on the register doesn’t

alert to an incorrect code. Newer barcodes are helping to correct

this problem. Decoding UPC symbols and barcodes is not smart

shopping, it’s illegal and it stands to hurt the consumers who use

coupons in a legal way. Here’s how.

If the manufacturer who issued coupons wishes to

audit the store for a particular transaction where coupon fraud

seemed to be the case, and the manufacturer determines that the

products that the correct products were not purchased with these

coupons, the manufacturer can refuse to reimburse the store for

them. As a result, the store will have to absorb the cost of this

shopping trip, because the terms of the coupon were not followed.

Should that occur, the store can then mark up other items to offset

the loss, which affects other shoppers. Or the store may rethink

its policy on coupons.

Some grocery stores have revamped their policies on

coupons. Price Chopper in St. Johnsbury, VT, recently ceased

doubling coupons up to $1.00. Now they cap it at $.99. Kroger

stores in Houston have also stopped doubling or tripling coupons as

of April 2011. Stores like Kroger have stated that since the stores

— and not the product manufacturers — absorb the cost of doubling

and tripling coupons, many can no longer afford to do so.

Many stores do not allow the use of multiple

coupons for one item as well, which is a rarity at some stores.

That means a person will have to have one coupon per each item to

realize a discount.

Coupons remain a way to save money when used in the

correct way. There are Web sites that will publish store sales and

match coupons to those sales so shoppers can shop smartly. By

shopping legally, coupons continue to benefit to many communities.

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