Can someone explain how coupons work?

[Tentacle]

If just watch some silly show about coupon hunters. They went to some place looking like Walmart and collected goods for 640 Dollars but ended up only paying 17. In my country we only have stuff like 3 for the price of 2, percentages off on a certain product type of deals. So I wonder of the coupon system works in America - it looks like the deals are stacking. And why would the super markets allow this to keep going?

 

[John Wang]

You print them out of those little coupon printers in grocery stores, but make sure you print out a bunch because it's fun to pull them out and watch more come out. Then you bring them to the front cashier and give them to the cashier (make sure you have whatever the coupon is for in your cart)
Have the cashier scan the shit and the coupon for it and you'll receive a discount.

 

[Organic Damage]

I think the premise is that you usually get a coupon in some publication advertising something, so your eyeballs on some company's marketing is being enticed with nominal compensation.

There's probably also an element of brand loyalty tied it -- you get to like and continue buying something for full price after you get a taste at a discount.

 

[Hans Gercmiov]

 

[Hans Gercmiov]

You print them out of those little coupon printers in grocery stores, but make sure you print out a bunch because it's fun to pull them out and watch more come out. Then you bring them to the front cashier and give them to the cashier (make sure you have whatever the coupon is for in your cart)
Have the cashier scan the shit and the coupon for it and you'll receive a discount.

Coupon brahs gtfih

 

[Ikuza]

Coupons are tiny bribes that lure customers to buy particular products.

Extreme couponing is using loopholes, preferable language and double/triple/more dipping to increase the bribes to where you pay very little or in crazy cases, the store pays you.

 

[Pwent]

I had a whole month in business school where we learned about coupons.

Lots of people know coupons work as advertising, in getting people to try your product but the more interesting use is to use coupons as a way to raise the price for everyone who isn't poor but still allow poor people to buy your product. This is unique to coupons and not promotions where you get "buy 2 get 1 free"without a coupon etc

Let's say I wanna raise my price from 1$ to 2$, and I know that 80% of people will just pay the increased price but 20% of people won't be able afford it. I still want the poor people to buy my product, even if it means selling it at $1. But if I lower the price for poor people, then I lower the price for everyone

So what I do is raise the price and then put out coupons. It's usually poor people who will spend the time to actually go out of their way to search for, and clip coupons, whereas other people don't bother. This artificial time waster makes sure that the only people who get the cheaper price are poor/stingy people who are the most sensitive to my price increase

 

[JAEGERX]

its like a Steam promo code but IRL for nutrient supplies, its the best explanation i have

 

[ralphc1]

It's like rebates. Why not just lower the price instead of offering rebates. It's because a large percentage of people forget or don't bother to redeem them.

 

[TheNinja]

You cut coupons out of newspapers and magazines, take them to the store and use them to get discounts on certain products.

Btw, solid post to like ratio!

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

If just watch some silly show about coupon hunters. They went to some place looking like Walmart and collected goods for 640 Dollars but ended up only paying 17. In my country we only have stuff like 3 for the price of 2, percentages off on a certain product type of deals. So I wonder of the coupon system works in America - it looks like the deals are stacking. And why would the super markets allow this to keep going?

in the vast majority of situations, extreme couponing like this does not work.

 

[ElderTitan]

There seem to be two common extreme couponing trends that make the habit brilliant, and that is saving money, but also the ability to give products away to charity. People really do save hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Still, I’m not sure I want to spend my time taking couponing to extremes. I know some people get a thrill buying and owning, but I just don’t. For those looking for places where you can get discounts, at DontPayFull you can find the best possible discount offers and coupons available online. Therefore, you need to pick a product that you want to get, and find the best discount offer available.

 

[TheTickG]

If just watch some silly show about coupon hunters. They went to some place looking like Walmart and collected goods for 640 Dollars but ended up only paying 17. In my country we only have stuff like 3 for the price of 2, percentages off on a certain product type of deals. So I wonder of the coupon system works in America - it looks like the deals are stacking. And why would the super markets allow this to keep going?

3 for the price of 2, 20% off, etc. is how it usually works. But, if you're really good at it, know how to game the system, and time it right, you can get those 95% discounts.

 

[Renard]

The thing with these coupons hunters is that they spend literally 30 to 40 hours a week doing nothing else but preparing coupons, often housewives taking care of children in parallel. It's literally taking up the same amount of time that a job would. Houses only receive 1 pamphlet of each, so they have to go through elaborate gymnastics, for example stealing them from other houses or making deals, to procure huge quantities of pamphlets. Then they have to spend hours cutting them out, plan out every detail of what they'll buy at which store and in which quantity, etc.

Let's say the lady's previous job was secretary, and she was making a modest $25 an hour. By doing couponing 30 hours a week, she's literally missing out on $750 of gross income a week, or $3000 a month. Now imagine the amount of income you would be missing out on if you made MORE than $25 an hour. The money she's "saving" by couponing is less than what she would make anyway, and if she worked she could spend that money on whatever she wanted - not whichever crap happens to be on sale.

These people are nuts. It's a compulsion; they feel compelled to do these things, they get a high out of it, but it's not rational or efficient in any way.

 

[wlu.29]

If just watch some silly show about coupon hunters. They went to some place looking like Walmart and collected goods for 640 Dollars but ended up only paying 17. In my country we only have stuff like 3 for the price of 2, percentages off on a certain product type of deals. So I wonder of the coupon system works in America - it looks like the deals are stacking. And why would the super markets allow this to keep going?

It's fake

But in reality coupons come from manufacturers, retailers are going to get reimbursed

 

[Renard]

To answer your question, I believe it comes down to the fact that manufacturers know they printed X number of coupons, let's say 1M. Whether the 1M coupons end up in the hands of 1M different customers, or 300 out of the 1M end up in the hands of one couponer, the coupons are "costing" the company the same amount of money. Of course it's not really a cost, it's an investment. They're hoping those 1M coupons make people try the product for the first time, love it, and make it a habit of purchasing it = more sales and more profit in the long run. That won't work on couponers, but it might work on normal buyers.

 

[Andy Capp]

Coupons are tiny bribes that lure customers to buy particular products.

Extreme couponing is using loopholes, preferable language and double/triple/more dipping to increase the bribes to where you pay very little or in crazy cases, the store pays you.

It's also worth noting that each time you use a coupon, the product manufacturer knows what you bought, when, where, and where you--or someone else--got the coupon from and they can track the success of their marketing. It's like putting a tracker on your ad and your product and being informed when they come together at the cash register.

 

[IloveTHIS]

I remember when I was a teenager I learned how to modify and fake coupons.

Went to Walmart and got 24 Monsters and 2 packs of cigarettes for literally 12 cents. Still absolutely cracks me up the cashier didnt even question it or find that the least bit strange

Dont think you can still do it these days. Stores caught on after some retarded kid got a ps3/ps4 for like $5 lmao

 

[kahiljabroni]

Ok sk first you have to eat the coupon...I recommend frying them with a little salt and pepper. Then you'll eventually poop out a little coupon turd nugget. You plant that in the ground and the following year you'll get a crop of whatever the coupon was for.

Thats how the complicated system of coupons work.

 

[MusterX]

And why would the super markets allow this to keep going?

A lot of grocery stores won't allow it but the ones that do don't have a problem because almost nobody goes through the trouble. You would need to collect stacks and stacks of certain coupons, organize them, plan your trip to the store, generally take someone with you because you need multiple carts, and then stand in line for a LONG TIME. Some hardcore coupon women do it as a 40 hour a week job. So yes, you can get $700 worth of stuff for $31.50 but you might have to put in a lot of hours to do it so how much did you really save or lose?