Once the cashier accepts the coupon, the store has a problem. It now has a small scrap of paper that is worth cash, but in order to get the cash the store has to mail the coupon to the manufacturer. On the back of most coupons in fine print, the manufacturer lists the mailing address and states that it will also reimburse the store some amount of money for processing -- typically 8 cents per coupon. Redeeming a coupon would not be that bad if there were only a few of them, but major grocery chains collect millions of them. At that scale it becomes a major headache! The whole process seems hopelessly antiquated, but coupons remain enormously popular and that is why they continue. A coupon is, essentially, free money, and free money is hard to stop...especially as gas prices rise and fall and the price of groceries go up and down.
On the show Extreme Couponing on TLC, people are spending at least 30 hours a week with their coupon clipping, sorting, list making, scoping out the store for hidden bargins and basically making it their full-time job. One woman bought over $1,100 in groceries and paid $45 for the entire purchase. She also made the store money..8 cents is 8 cents and by the customer shopping in their store and purchasing EVERY product with a coupon they made money, while of course she saved money. Now, I am not going to try to ring up a bill of that amount of money, I do, however, want to try to get my purchase as low as I can. I'm not quite ready yet, but I will most certainly share on here and Facebook about my first triumphant shopping trip and I am hoping that it will be at Romney's County Pride. One because it's very close to where I live. Two, it is a locally owned business and three it is the closest and only grocery store in town that doubles coupons up to 50 cents.
So there you have it...I am almost ready to embark on getting deals as close to free or as low as I can. If I can't, I am going learn from my mistakes and try until I do.
Please note that the last entry is at the beginning...scroll down until you come to my older posts starting with April..that is THE BEGINNING of the Blog and continue to click on the titles or dates to learn how I am writing and researching couponing in a small community. I know I sound redundant, but several people have told me that they have read my blog...one time...that's not the purpose of blogging. Blogging consists of daily, weekly or monthly entries. This site is designed differently than most, but as I say in some of my older posts, Blogger is a very easy site to monetize for me and very user friendly. By telling you this, I do not want you to miss out on important information. Please tell your friends about it, make comments and pass it along....thanks so much.
Happy Couponing and Have a Happy and Safe Sunday (:
Cindi
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