Extreme couponers . . . have you ever seen one?

[Deleted]

I posted before about Publix and the cheese snafu. As a refresher, people were getting 16 oz. blocks of cheese for 50 cents. The store managers were hiding it from them until Corporate intervened.

Last week (or maybe the week before) it was Bayer aspirin. That company printed a $10/3 that was good on the small bottles that sell for $2.39. Publix gave overage on the coupon. People were clearing the shelves for the overage.

This week it is Ziploc storage bags. With a Publix coupon for $1/2 and a manufacturer coupon for $3/2, these are basically "free." (There is always tax involved.)  People are grabbing all of this particular Publix booklet for that one coupon.

I got my two blocks of cheese, I got my 3 bottles of aspirins (I actually take these so I went to Winn Dixie), and I got my 8 boxes of Ziplocs (2 sandwich, 2 pint, 2 quart, 2 gallon). I consider myself a "reasonable" couponer.

But all the hoopla and animosity on the Facebook "Publix Couponing 101" site made me wonder if you guys see many extreme couponers. I know you pay attention to what's in people's shopping carts. You've made that abundantly clear. But do you guys have the couponers? 

TheHaitian Do you see them at your store?  Are they welcome?  Some managers seem to hate them.    Some seem to welcome them.

[flamingo]

When I lived in Central Florida and shopped at Publix, I saw them all.the.time. In fact, one Publix, would keep the coupon books behind the customer services counter and only give one per customer at a time. If the customer went through the line, paid for their stuff, then went back for another coupon book, they could have one, but only one coupon book at a time. Apparently, before this store instituted this policy, people from other counties were coming into that Publix and clearing the coupon books and the shelves of the products on sale.

It was frustrating for us as we are not extreme couponers and we had to wait behind the lottery people to get someone to help us. The lottery people are almost as bad as the couponers. Remember, this was land of snow birds. Not only were they slow, they never knew what they were doing and they always messed up the transaction the first few times through. Ugh. 

This might be the only part of central Florida I don't miss 

[Artemis Windsong]

We don't have Publix or those types of deals.

One store has some pretty good coupons in their ads.  Everyone shopping has an ad or ad book.  They also give a free item for a $30 purchase.  I have used a couple of ad book coupons for specific items and have added up purchases to just over $30 to get the free item then go back the next day.  The coupon shows the limit on the number of items. 

I also get the free Sat./Sun. coupon from another store and buy a few weekend specials there.  I am delighted to get 2 free coupons.  One from my newspaper and one from the gym newspaper.  That works out to about $4 a weekend.

The extreme shoppers here have 3-ring binders with clear sleeves and coupons sorted by category to match up with the store coupons.  They know prices. 

I am better about knowing a decent price to deep discount.  Some people have a notebook with best prices for items they use in addition to the 3-ring binder.

I have helped people in the array of cheese slices to get the best price.  Or point out the assortment of free cookies that is nearly gone when they wish there was an assortment. 

One time in my shoppers fatigue, I could not find the chicken breasts on special.  All I had to do was look up.  That also happened with 99 cent Healthy Choice soups on the top shelf.  Both times I got help.

[Sam_2.0]

I WAS one Then I had kids and had no time for such a hobby.

[Deleted]

Jan 19, 2015 9:35:29 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

I WAS one Then I had kids and had no time for such a hobby.

Listening to them on the FB site, I do think it must take an enormous amount of time!

[TheHaitian]

Lol... I personally do not hate "them" .

My issue with them is when they clear the shelves and get in your face because you don't have more in the back for them to buy.

My current store seems to have more reasonable couponers that get an "acceptable" amount of items; so no issue there.

My grocery manager on the other hands doesn't like him because they mess with his bonus. His bonus is based on "margins" . Every period he beats sales by 10-20k easy but for sure misses margins by 5k-10k and those items/sales/coupons are the cause.

Yes we register the "sale" but we make no "money"/"margins" on them, most we are basically selling at a lost.

[973beachbum]

At my PT job we have like three or four people that would fall into that catagory.   We don't give overages and I have never seen a mistake like you posted either SS.  And that includes my 18 years of shopping there.  We do get people with binders but I have never seen them use coupons to clean out the store just keep themselves organized really.   I was probably one of the more extreme couponers there actually and I never would have come close to what you are describing. 

The one sale I remember from a few years ago was schick razors, ten packs.  They were on sale B1G1F and schick put out a coupon for B1G1F for both mens and womens.   The store policy allows you to use a B1G1F coupon with a B1G1F sale.  We get three papers every week so I got six coupons, three for mens and three for womens.  That worked out to be twelve free ten packs of razors.    But I didn't see them cleaned out and the cashier acted like it was a big surprise to her that I could do it.  Then she asked where I got the coupons.

[973beachbum]

The only couponers not "liked" at my PT job are a family that owns a store. So they are using coupons to get food for free so they can sell it at their store.   When we have sales for things like bottles of coke or pepsi for like $1 a bottle he used to come in and buy like 100 bottles.   Corporate came down on them because of the vender agreements and how this violated them. He technically should be buying from the vendors direct and is going around the vendors to get sales aimed for actual customers.  They say the store could get in trouble and they are not getting in violation of a vendor contract.

So now when he or his kids/brothers/wives come in with a fist full of coupons for fruit loops they are allowed one transaction of whatever the limit is, most times 4, and then they are cut off. They are allowed to use the coupons for that one transaction up to the limit allowed period.    Most coupons now have a 4 like coupons limit on them. and our store technically has a limit per transaction and only one transaction per family per day.

He isn't happy.

[ArchietheDragon]

Jan 19, 2015 10:57:20 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

The only couponers not "liked" at my PT job are a family that owns a store. So they are using coupons to get food for free so they can sell it at their store.   When we have sales for things like bottles of coke or pepsi for like $1 a bottle he used to come in and buy like 100 bottles.   Corporate came down on them because of the vender agreements and how this violated them. He technically should be buying from the vendors direct and is going around the vendors to get sales aimed for actual customers.  They say the store could get in trouble and they are not getting in violation of a vendor contract.

So now when he or his kids/brothers/wives come in with a fist full of coupons for fruit loops they are allowed one transaction of whatever the limit is, most times 4, and then they are cut off. They are allowed to use the coupons for that one transaction up to the limit allowed period.    Most coupons now have a 4 like coupons limit on them. and our store technically has a limit per transaction and only one transaction per family per day.

He isn't happy.

Loony?

[973beachbum]

Jan 19, 2015 11:05:37 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Jan 19, 2015 10:57:20 GMT -5 973beachbum said:

The only couponers not "liked" at my PT job are a family that owns a store. So they are using coupons to get food for free so they can sell it at their store.   When we have sales for things like bottles of coke or pepsi for like $1 a bottle he used to come in and buy like 100 bottles.   Corporate came down on them because of the vender agreements and how this violated them. He technically should be buying from the vendors direct and is going around the vendors to get sales aimed for actual customers.  They say the store could get in trouble and they are not getting in violation of a vendor contract.

So now when he or his kids/brothers/wives come in with a fist full of coupons for fruit loops they are allowed one transaction of whatever the limit is, most times 4, and then they are cut off. They are allowed to use the coupons for that one transaction up to the limit allowed period.    Most coupons now have a 4 like coupons limit on them. and our store technically has a limit per transaction and only one transaction per family per day.

He isn't happy.

Loony?

No I don't think so.  First of all they are mostly the men of the family.  Second they don't ever buy melons.

[HoneyBBQ]

I've only seen it once, over toothpaste. I just shake my head. Who the hell wants 50 tubs of toothpaste? I don't think they are donating it.

I just bought my one tube (which I actually needed) and moved on.

[The Captain]

My mom was pretty damn good.  She'd average about 40-45% off her grocery bill when she was working it.

When I was in a zone I could average about 30-33%.  That was years ago.  I just don't have time for it now.

Probably the best I ever saw was one time around Thanksgiving a few years back.  I groaned as I saw the woman in front of me pull out a coupon organizer.  It took the cashier forever to ring her up and she had coupons for almost everything and in some cases stacked store and mfg coupons.  She then took her cart to the food depository donation box and unloaded most of her cart into the box.

I was very humbled and hope to be able to do more of that myself someday. 

[bobosensei]

I tried to get into couponing about 9 years ago when we had a very tight budget.  The problem is we couldn't afford any newspapers and most of the stuff we purchase is not something that you regularly find coupons for like fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs and dairy.  I would look for printable coupons online, at all the store circulars, and if I saw something on sale in the circular I would look for a manufacturers coupon to stack.  Sometimes the printable coupons would not work and ended up being a waste of paper and ink.  I could never get the kind of deals that extreme couponers could get, but part of it was that I wasn't going to buy stuff I couldn't use.  I eventually found that it was cheaper to shop at walmart and/or buy off brand stuff if I am in a situation where I have to save money above any other preference.

The days of most extreme couponers have come to an end.  A few greedy people ruined it for all, which is why stores had to put so many rules and restrictions in place.

[Tiny]

I've never been an extreme couponer - but I do use coupons - especially in combination with store sales. I only purchase stuff I need... so even if I have a coupon that will net me some free hair care or food product I don't use - I don't bother with it. Actually, I've never seen anything available for free in my area after coupons/etc. Non of the stores double coupons and store coupons rarely have an overlap with manufacturers coupons.

Back in the heyday of Walgreens coupons/rewards - I gave up shopping there - they never had the products I wanted on the shelf and I didn't want to have to wait 20 minutes to get a 'rain check' - not to mention the stuff for sale where there was no coupon was outrageously expensive (even if it was "on sale"). I also really hate Walgreens policy that if their sale is 2 items for $2.00 you HAVE to buy 2 - you can't by 1 for $1.00 (it's the regular price of $1.39 for one). None of the other stores that do the x items for x dollars does that.

I made a strategic Ninja Shopping Run to Meijer's last night after going thru the mPerks website to put coupons in my account. I saved 30% on stuff I actually need and use. The cashier took notice that just about every item I bought registered with a coupon discount. So, yeah I do coupon just not to the extreme.

[Sam_2.0]

The days of most extreme couponers have come to an end. A few greedy people ruined it for all, which is why stores had to put so many rules and restrictions in place.

Agreed. Even most of the extreme couponers followed certain rules - don't completely clear shelves, let others check out first, and donate your excess to those in need. I would run all over town when I had the time to do my 1-2 transactions at each store instead of clearing out one whole store. I would get things that we didn't need in order to use the rewards on things that we did need. When they would have the big diabetes monitor money makers, I would buy them up and use the rewards to get diapers or groceries. Then I donated all of the monitors to a local shelter.

[weltschmerz]

I very rarely see people using coupons. Ther'e usually a limit of 3 items youi can buy on sale, and you can't combine them with other offers.
I used a coupon for dish soap about two years ago. Usually, the coupons are for highly-processed crap food anyway. Never fresh fruit, fish or veggies.

[jinksd1]

I pretty much don't use coupons at all (maybe once a year), but I do often buy a LOT of one thing if it's on sale.  A few weeks back, I bought 72 (80 oz.) bags of shredded cheese for $1.25 each.  It was the store's own brand (which I have used before and tastes good), and I got probably 10-12 varieties/flavors/blends.  The checkout clerk seemed surprised and asked me if I was a caterer or something.  But I have a huge freezer, and shredded cheese freezes/thaws like a dream and keeps for a long time without freezer-burn. 

While I did take a lot, I didn't come anywhere near clearing them out.  I could have filled 5 shopping carts to the brim before I came close, as the store knew it would be a popular sale and had a lot on hand.  If there had been a more limited amount, I would have probably taken less.

I shop this way with most things that freeze well.  I usually try to get enough to last me until the next sale if it's something with a regular sale-cycle (but not so much that it will get freezer-burned).  A decent brand of bacon was on sale this week, and I got 10, each for $2.50.  That should last me until it's on sale again in a few months. 

I do the same with things like pork roast/loin (I slice a long loin into chops and smaller roasts before freezing), beef chuck roast, whole chicken or chicken pieces, ground beef, etc.  One place around here often has sales on bone-in chicken thighs, sometimes for as low as $0.59/lb., and I'll buy 20-30 pounds at a time.  We don't love them cooked up plain, so I mostly roast them and then shred the meat to put in casseroles, pasta, soups, etc.

Anyway, yeah, I get funny looks and sometimes questions about how much I buy, but I don't care.  It saves me a lot of money, which is how I keep my monthly grocery budget for two adults at about $160-180.

[andi9899]

My mom uses coupons in multiples. Nothing like on the tv show though. She is retired, so she has the time. I have even thought about giving her money and letting her do my shopping this way. She doesn't walk around very well, so I don't really want her bringing in more groceries than she has to on account of me.

[Ombud]

My store has an app and you download them to your 'account.' So I do it that way ... fast & easy ... usually save about 20-30% but don't buy multiples. Except on nature valley bars. 4 at a time there. Actually that's the only processed food I eat

[Deleted]

Jan 20, 2015 9:35:25 GMT -5 Ombud said:

My store has an app and you download them to your 'account.' So I do it that way ... fast & easy ... usually save about 20-30% but don't buy multiples. Except on nature valley bars. 4 at a time there. Actually that's the only processed food I eat

Publix has digital coupons, too.  In fact, they have almost too many ways to save!  They even accept other store's store coupons to be combined with manufacturer's coupons.  Their Buy One/Get One Free offers are really half-priced and can accept two coupons.  They put out four or five monthly sets of their own store coupons.  They have a Wednesday senior discount (5%) and a Wednesday penny item.

The ironic part is that they are practically the only grocery store around. 

[Value Buy]

Jan 19, 2015 9:45:58 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Lol... I personally do not hate "them" .

My issue with them is when they clear the shelves and get in your face because you don't have more in the back for them to buy.

My current store seems to have more reasonable couponers that get an "acceptable" amount of items; so no issue there.

My grocery manager on the other hands doesn't like him because they mess with his bonus. His bonus is based on "margins" . Every period he beats sales by 10-20k easy but for sure misses margins by 5k-10k and those items/sales/coupons are the cause.

Yes we register the "sale" but we make no "money"/"margins" on them, most we are basically selling at a lost.

Are you talking vendor coupons?

If so, not really true.

Your grocery mgr receives credit eventually for the value of the coupon in your store. There may be a time lag, but it usually is a line item in the quarterly results showing the amount debited to you plus the pending amount.

Don't forget your company is getting the handling cost also, which adds up. That's what, about seven cents a coupon now. Whether that goes to corporate, or back to store level, I could not tell you.

I notice many "in store" coupons also have vendor participation now.

Maybe not on the milk or soda coupons, but many times you can see right on the coupon, the vendor is kicking money back on the redemption of the coupon. I notice this on Kellogg's or Nabisco, and some hbc, cleaning item coupons that are store coupons rather than vendor coupons.

[chiver78]

Jan 19, 2015 14:30:32 GMT -5 Tiny said:

I've never been an extreme couponer - but I do use coupons - especially in combination with store sales. I only purchase stuff I need... so even if I have a coupon that will net me some free hair care or food product I don't use - I don't bother with it. Actually, I've never seen anything available for free in my area after coupons/etc. Non of the stores double coupons and store coupons rarely have an overlap with manufacturers coupons.

I find that I use more coupons for HBA, paper products, cleaners. I rarely find coupons for foods I buy. when I do, it's for the nonperishable staples. I'll do my best to match those up against sales, and buy in bulk, but I don't make myself crazy about it.

I'm about to move to a place where Market Basket is my closest grocery store. I keep hearing good things about their prices, I guess I'll be finding out for myself soon

[xia]

I don’t mind extreme couponers, honestly I have maybe only seen two who really deserved the title and I kind of admired them, very organized, very efficient and they saved an impressive bundle.

What does get on my last nerve are the people who have multiple coupons on their smart phones. About a week ago I was in register line behind a lady who had maybe only six coupons but all were only on her phone and I guess each one was send to her in separate e-mail and it took bloody forever and a half for her to pull each coupon so the cashier could scan it from her phone. Plus of course there was an issue with one of the items so she was arguing.
I think there should be a limit on how many coupons one can have on the phone or time limit how long they should take to open each coupon because it was ridiculous.
Personally I only use coupon on my phone in Khol’s and then it is only one and I always make sure the coupon is opened and ready to be scanned before I get to the register.
Anyways… sorry for whining but reading this treat reminded me of the crazy lady with slow phone & multiple coupons.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jan 19, 2015 14:30:32 GMT -5 Tiny said:

I've never been an extreme couponer - but I do use coupons - especially in combination with store sales. I only purchase stuff I need... so even if I have a coupon that will net me some free hair care or food product I don't use - I don't bother with it. Actually, I've never seen anything available for free in my area after coupons/etc. Non of the stores double coupons and store coupons rarely have an overlap with manufacturers coupons.

Back in the heyday of Walgreens coupons/rewards - I gave up shopping there - they never had the products I wanted on the shelf and I didn't want to have to wait 20 minutes to get a 'rain check' - not to mention the stuff for sale where there was no coupon was outrageously expensive (even if it was "on sale"). I also really hate Walgreens policy that if their sale is 2 items for $2.00 you HAVE to buy 2 - you can't by 1 for $1.00 (it's the regular price of $1.39 for one). None of the other stores that do the x items for x dollars does that.

I made a strategic Ninja Shopping Run to Meijer's last night after going thru the mPerks website to put coupons in my account. I saved 30% on stuff I actually need and use. The cashier took notice that just about every item I bought registered with a coupon discount. So, yeah I do coupon just not to the extreme.

We've got a Meijer's coming in near us in a few months.  It may be the 1st in the state.  So tell me about them please! 

As for coupons, like @tiny said, most of the stores sales and coupons don't match up well. 

[siralynn]

I use coupons if I have them, I remember, and it's something I would have bought anyway. I've never "extreme" couponed and I've never seen one in person. I don't think my area of California was ever a hotbed anyway, because the grocery stores around here don't double/triple coupons and certainly don't pay overages.

I've never frequented CVS/Walgreens, etc, so it's possible I missed seeing some couponers in action at those stores.

[murphath]

An extreme couponer to me is one that 10 or more of a sale item using coupons. I was never in that category because I did not have access to that many coupons. But I did use the methodology and was able to get most, if not all, our health/beauty and cleaning items for close to free for many years.  The rules have changed as a result of the TLC television show, "Extreme Couponers".  I do still use coupons when possible.  Raley's had Raisin Bran on sale for $1.49 when you buy 4 so I bought 4.  It's my favorite cereal.  I used 4 $1 coupons I had gotten from the Kelloggs rewards program so paid .49 each.  Believe it or not, for produce items (many organic) I can find great deals at our local .99 store.  Bananas are .39lb (as opposed to .79 at Safeway).  They usually have some sort of berry for .99--last week it was 1lb containers of strawberries and they were beautiful.  They always have fresh veggies and organic romaine.  I can go in there and spend @ $8-$10 for produce that would cost well over $25 at either of our two big markets.  I also combine manufacturer coupons with Target coupons (both printable and mobile) and the Target Cartwheel program.  I'll pay with my Target red card for an additional 5% off and I always bring my own bag/s (.05 discount per bag).  Just last week I bought 3 bags of Gevalia coffee and 2 bags of Seattle's Best for $11.40 ($2.28 per bag).

Right now we're about to run out of mouthwash so I'm keeping my eye out for a deal on that.

[Tiny]

I can't really speak to the Big Box Meijer's experience.  There's no place to put a Big Box anything in my city (it's old), but we did score a "Meijer's Marketplace" concept - which has a smaller footprint (it fit nicely into an existing structure in our biggest 'shopping' area.    There's no clothes, no hardware, a small "kitchen gadget/small apliance section", a small "baby" aisle, and a small "pet care" section.     It has all the other typical grocery sections:  pharmacy, HBA section, alcohol section, deli counter, bakery,  produce, frozen foods, etc.

In general, the 'everyday' prices at Meijers are lower than the other big name grocers (across the street in other Cities).  

Meijer's has captured the dollars I use to spend going to the other Big Name groceries.   Aldi (also in another City) is my first stop and then usually Meijers or one of the Mom and Pop Groceries in my City.

I'm glad the Meijer's is there - it was part of a plan to help revive a 'shopping center' that had been at less than 50% occupancy for 20 years.  The shopping center will hit nearly 100% occupancy this summer when another set of new stores takes up residency in the newly renovated/reconstructed existing space.      

[Sam_2.0]

Target often has coupons available for produce. And I can usually find some grocery NBPR rebates floating around (I have to buy the forms on eBay, unsurprisingly the forms aren't readily available in NBPR states). I get back about $200/yr on our groceries when I remember to look for a rebate form. Not bad.

[Sam_2.0]

As for coupons, like @tiny said, most of the stores sales and coupons don't match up well.

That's on purpose. Typically, a coupon will come out one week to entice a person to try a product. Hoping that you like it, they go on sale a few weeks later. Once you've bought a product a couple times in a row, then you are more likely to keep buying it. Saving coupons back for several weeks to align with a store sale is when you get the best prices. That's why some couponers will carry binders so they have all the coupons with them.

[dancinmama]

I've been one - twice.

The first time was between the late 80s and 2003.  I had access to multiple coupons (a dozen, sometimes more) and had two stores that offered doubles.  I created my own coupon database using Microsoft Works and did my own matchups.  The best coupon deals in those days were for food products.  Getting anything non-perishable for free was extremely rare.

The second time was between 2006 and 2012 when I realized that the drug chains were offering in-store rewards for buying products.  This time in addition to freebies on food items (mostly pantry staples, soda, and snacks), there were also freebies on non-perishables (paper products, soaps and cleaners, toiletries, razors, etc.).  How awesome was that?!!  Being able to get stuff for free that would not "go bad".  I started to build stockpiles. 

In 2011, the deals started to decline because extreme couponers had been outed by TLC.  I could see the writing on the wall and had a gut feeling that the days of weekly, abundant freebies would come to an end.  I continued to stockpile non-perishables until the end of 2012.  I retired my scissors because there was no reason to pay out of pocket for something I had plenty of in my stockpile.  

These days, thanks to my stockpiles, I don't have to think about buying non-perishables, so I only have to focus on food.  I have a couple of small chains where I shop regularly that don't accept manufacturers' coupons, but generally offer better prices than Safeway's sale prices + coupon discount.  They also offer great clearance prices on meat and dairy that is close to its "sell by" date.  I stockpile and freeze.