The slow death of super couponing?

It’s a conversation that often comes up on the online coupon boards–“Is it harder to get deals now?” And then you’ll see a whole chorus of shoppers chime in “No, you can still get lots of free stuff!” Which is true. If you’re diligent, there are lots of freebies to be had. But they don’t remember when the deals used to be so much easier and better.

It was the Coca Cola company who first invented the idea of a coupon. They gave them away so that you’d get to try a free Coke, and then the idea was, that you’d be loyal and continue to purchase it again in the future. This idea is largely the reason that Coke is the mega-giant it is today. Post Grape Nuts were next, offering $0.01 off of Grape Nuts. By the mid-1960s, more than half of American households were regularly clipping coupons, until the early 90s–it’s been on a decline since then. Depending on what you read, anywhere from 2% to 10% of all coupons printed are redeemed today.

But, technology has changed and so has the economy. Us supercouponers were once thought of as quirky and weird, now we’re smart shoppers. Five years ago, you wanted to report us to mental health professionals for hoarding. Now you want tips from us on how to build your own free stockpile. Media outlets are reporting on the trend and profiling supercouponers. Disgruntled unemployed job seekers are having no luck finding jobs, so they have time to clip coupons and chase deals.

Technology has made it easier to track us. It used to be solely anecdotal information. A cashier could exclaim “This woman came in here and bought like 50 tubes of toothpaste, for FREE!” but stories like that were just stories. Now, with shopper cards and computerized everything, stores and manufacturers can actually track how much free merchandise is walking out the door. And in this economy, they don’t like it.

Like the idea invented by Coke, the idea was to build loyalty to a product. The company would give you a discount for the product, you’d like it, return to purchase it at full price. Now, research shows that coupons actually work against brand loyalty; that shoppers will frequently switch brands to purchase a cheaper item.

I think deals are harder to get. Several years ago, CVS ran an Extra Bucks on Playtex tampons. You would get back the same amount in ECBs as you had paid for them. There was NO limit on this, and it was a month-long deal. So you could make an initial investment of about $5, then roll those Extra Bucks over and over to get as many boxes of Playtex as you wanted, over the course of a month. I think if I look deep in my shelving, I bet I still have some.

Even just a few years ago, there was a sweet deal at CVS where you went back to the pharmacy to pick up your coupon booklet for  a free glucometer. Paid for the glucometer with the coupon, and get $20 back in Extra Bucks. Limit was 5–so basically CVS paid me $100 just for a few moments of time and effort. And I happily donated the glucometers to a school that teaches Medical Assistants how to use glucometers.

Kmart used to do superdoubles and there was no limit. Then they brought the limit down to 50, then 25, now it’s 4! Expiration dates used to be longer on manufacturers’ coupons. Some of the manufacturers have caught on to supercouponers. Many items that I used to routinely get for free with a $1 coupon–Kotex, Smart Taste pasta, Johnson & Johnson Buddies….they all stopped that practice with the wording on the coupons. Target used to give you unlimited prints of their store coupons, now cookies are there to prevent you from printing more than two.

But this weekend, I think we may have been given one of the final nails in our coffin. Procter & Gamble, in my opinion, was always one of the most generous companies with their coupons. Their coupons are higher value, very slack rules on rebates, very generous with their catalina deals. With this weekend’s coupon inserts, they dealt the supercouponers a big blow. The wording on their coupons now states: “Limit 4 like coupons in same shopping trip.” As a supercouponer who just yesterday went to Walmart and handed over 12 coupons for free Gain detergent, all I can say is “Ouch.”

If I think back over the summer, of the deals that I’ve done, I can think of several situations when I’ve used many more than four of the same P&G coupon. The $2 Pampers wipes coupon, when they were $1.99 at Superfresh. The bogo Olay coupon at Kmart, when there were overlapping catalina deals plus a rebate. The $1 Crest coupon when Crest was $1 at Acme. The $0.97 Gain at Walmart combined with the $1 coupon. The Venus and Fusion giftpacks that are routinely clearanced to $4 at Walmart and Target, combined with their $4 coupon.

I don’t know how it will work. I don’t know if registers will be programmed to not accept more than four, or if it will be up to cashiers to read the fine print. But I like to play by the rules. As it is, if you put $300 worth of merchandise on the belt, then pay $5, you’re already at times treated like a criminal. And I’ve long argued that there are plenty of great deals to be had without breaking the rules.

It may not be a big deal, I can go on without donating as much as I have in the past. I don’t need to purchase 18 or 20 tubes of Crest at once, four would suffice. But in some cases, like the Pampers/Superfresh and Kmart/Olay, I was trying to reach a spending threshhold for a catalina. So breaking up my purchases into quantities of four just would not work.

Clearly, P&G has caught on to two types of their coupon users–supercouponers like me, and supercouponers who then go on to sell the merchandise at flea markets or little inner-city ethnic markets. (There is also wording on the coupons about resale of items.) And they want to stop it. At the end of the day, yeah, it’s just coupons and I can keep it in perspective. But if P&G is tightening the reins, I definitely take that as a sign. As I said, I always have found them to be extremely lenient and generous with their promotions. It’s very bothersome to me that an actual manufacturer has done this. There are many stores that limit the number of coupons you can use, or like coupons or whatever. A national manufacturer doing this, thus limiting it on the national level–not allowing the stores to take as many as they want, wow. With this new wording, P&G can deny store reimbursements of the coupons, if not redeemed according to the rules. That’s big.

I think slowly but surely, the days of just getting tons of merchandise for free, with little effort, is over. Yes, there is still free stuff to be had. As retailers come up with new rules, smart minds will find ways around those rules. Me? I’m not going anywhere. Bargain hunting is in my blood, came from my grandmother. When Target became too much of a hassle, I stopped going there. Same with Walgreen’s. Now Rite Aid is looking more and more promising all the time, as is Superfresh. I’ll evolve.

But what this means is that when we do find an easy-peasy, no brainer deal like the free Kellogg’s this summer, we have to jump on it. Because those gimmes are getting to be harder to find. I’m just glad I have dozens of Buddies bars to last me through this crisis.