Everyone knows the feeling of buying something for a great deal. Whether it’s groceries, shoes, computers, cell phones or a car, finding something you need or really, really want for an astonishing discount is exciting every single time. Even seeing a favorite toothpaste flavor on sale can brighten someone’s day.
And people like to tell anyone who’s willing to listen about their big steal. “You’ll never believe what I got this for,” or “Oh, this? I got it for next to nothing!” or my personal favorite, “Don’t tell me you paid full price for that. I saw it on sale at another store.” Thanks.
Don’t get me wrong, I like to celebrate a good find (usually by using it as an excuse to buy more), and there’s definitely a rush that shoots through me when the check-out person says my purchase total. However, there’s a popular practice out right now that takes sales, steals, deals and discounts to a whole new level – extreme couponing. Almost three-quarters of women and moms say the trend is on their radar.
The cable television channel TLC even has a reality show based on this massive savings phenomenon. Consumers carefully strategize a combination of retailer and manufacturer coupons, in-store promotions, rebates and any online deal they can find. The result: hundreds of dollars of groceries for $5 to $10 per trip. The savings add up to thousands of dollars each year. Sounds complicated, yet rewarding, right? Others must agree, because this trend is growing, and businesses are wary.
A report from Nielsen concluded that while coupon redemption is down from 4.4 billion in 2000 to 3.3 billion in 2010, the percentage of consumers who are heavy users (defined as those who bought at least 188 items in a year using coupons) is increasing. In 2010, 13% of consumers claimed to be heavy users (“enthusiasts”), up 2% from 2009. “Enthusiasts” redeemed 70% of coupons in 2010.
The amount of savings from this practice of couponing is at times unbelievable, and I can only imagine the rush these shoppers feel. However, some shoppers take extreme couponing too far and sometimes cheat the system. Retail chains are reviewing and changing their policies by adding more restrictions and rules to their coupons.
“One of the reasons why retailers have been posting their rules is because there has been fraud, there has been misuse of coupons [and] they want to control that,” said Todd Hale, senior VP-consumer and shopper insights at Nielsen.
What kind of misuse? A woman in South Carolina extreme coupon-ed so many boxes of rice that she would clear the shelves, leaving no rice for anyone else. The store believed she was turning around and selling the rice at a flea market for a profit, so they intervened and asked her to stop. Some shoppers buy obscene amounts of groceries and products for practically free just because they can, only bringing it home to more mass quantities of the same products hoarded away. Maybe their rush is more of a high – and addicting.
Retailers have to be careful, because this small percentage of coupon-abusers can’t ruin all of the fun for others. With more than two-thirds of shoppers claiming coupons influence their decisions to buy grocery items and people of all income levels using coupons, retailers’ restrictions must be fair and aim only at keeping out the abusers. Coupons and promotions are vital during a recession and will increase customer loyalty. Retailers must keep giving their customers the little joys of saving.
What do you think? Is extreme couponing hurtful to a retailer’s bottom line or a great way to encourage customers to shop in their store?
Source :http://www.ls-unscripted.com/index.php/2011/09/01/extreme-couponing-on-the-rise/
