Extreme couponing - is it possible?

terryw

I often buy newspaper coupons. Not coupons printed in newspapers, but coupons for the purchase of newspapers sold in bulk by the newspaper itself to enable subscibers to buy newspapers at a substantial discount.

For some reason, the proprietor/manager of my local newsagents/general dealers does not like taking these. One day, he turned to me and snarled,
"I can't pay my staff wages with these, can I?"

I replied, "I don't know, but I see from reading the coupon, that it will be accepted in payment from your wholesaler at the full price plus an additional handling fee, so it is to your financial benefit to accept these in preference to cash. But if you do not wish to accept these coupons (as is your prerogative), then I regret that I shall no longer have a need to enter your store to purchase my newspaper (along with the other odd items that I invariably purchase at the same time) and instead use the services of the Tesco Express which I pass en-route to your store.
I do try very hard to shop at local businesses but if you wish to make my shopping difficult, I regret that I shall have to use chain shops"

He was a little taken aback at my reply, but he has been uber-polite to my face ever since, inquiring daily of my well-being. In his mind though, he probably (quite correctly, I hasten to add!) considers me me to be a cantankerous old sod!

Middy

Sometimes at Sainsburys, the coupons from the Catalina printer often give vouchers out for money off things that are already half price or on special offer. For example, 75p off Sure roll-on when it was 80p, £2 off Ariel stain remover stuff when its £3.

My mum always gets a mov for Fairy dishwasher tablets when they are on offer.

she_who_can_not_cook

anna_p86 wrote: »

I find the co-op always good at accepting vouchers, never have a problem (only ever have 1 or 2 at a time though!).

I used a coupon recently in superdrug & the assistant looked so put out & angry. Like I was trying to get one over on them or something :eek:

I think that's what shocked me most about the US prog, how the store managers & assistants were so friendly & encouraging about the coupons, maybe because they're on TV....

yes i was surprised

halojones

My local Co-op have been mean in the past...a couple of years ago I had loads of Uncle Bens Rice coupons and they were often on Special Offer and then I would try and combine the Half Price Coupon I had with the Special Offer, but the Co-op would only manually discount the price down to the half price mark....mean I felt so I had to use Mr T's.

antrobus

terryw wrote: »

I often buy newspaper coupons. Not coupons printed in newspapers, but coupons for the purchase of newspapers sold in bulk by the newspaper itself to enable subscibers to buy newspapers at a substantial discount.

For some reason, the proprietor/manager of my local newsagents/general dealers does not like taking these. ...

It's my understanding that all newsagents hate newspaper coupons. Yes they get the money, but they face the manual exercise of sorting, counting, and bundling them up, and then waiting for the money to come in. It's a major pain in the posterior as far as they're concerned.

terryw

antrobus wrote: »

It's my understanding that all newsagents hate newspaper coupons. Yes they get the money, but they face the manual exercise of sorting, counting, and bundling them up, and then waiting for the money to come in. It's a major pain in the posterior as far as they're concerned.

You may well be right. But surely anything which gets customers through the door should be embraced rather than refusing to accept coupons or accepting them with bad grace so that even more trade is lost to the large chains.

Sharon87

I remember my time as a checkout operator... I'd always be ok about coupons, until I came across ones I didn't recognise. Like the luncheon vouchers, when a C/O reads coupons it's not always to catch the customer out it's because they've never seen them before. Also with the milk vouchers new mums on benefits got as well. I remember one teenage mum tried to buy the pots of baby food with them, well that's not on the voucher, she was very rude and said she had no money to pay for them so I had to get the supervisor to cancel the transaction! If she bought her kid milk and fruit/veg and made her own baby food she could have used the vouchers.

I sometimes got annoyed at people using loads of coupons, but only on the busy days. If it wasn't busy I'd be more than happy to help the customer out, one time this women was using loads of vouchers for products she hadn't bought but we stocked, so Asda had a 10% limit. I made sure I used the vouchers with the most recent expiry dates until the 10% limit was reached.

I haven't used coupons much these days, only usually those ones from Sainsburys for extra nectar points or certain amount off a product or money off when you spend a certain amount. I remember using one for oreos when they were on special offer, but the checkout operator really made sure it was the right packet of oreos that was on the voucher, trying to find it on the coupon when it was in an obvious place!

boltonangel

I find sainsburys to be the worst, they refused my voucher last week because the product was already on offer, a checkout supervisor even agreed.

xxjaxnexx

I used coupons in Asda a while ago for Pampers newborn nappies. I think I had 2x50p off. It did say you couldnt combine them, so bought two packs. Ive got a baby on the way, so would have bought them anyway. Got the coupons through the post after signing up with pampers ivillage. I acutally got a whole booklet of coupons, but only needed those, so gave the other ones to my friend who is also expecting soon.
I thought the lady at the checkout was very polite, and just scanned them and that was that. Then again, I didnt turn up with a truckloads of coupons like the ppl on the show lol

traceya89

on extreme couponing all the managers are watching and laughing at what is achieved. i am sure it is for the cameras. i know when TEsco was taking all coupons whether you bought the stuff or not i was classed as a regular user of coupons, am sure i was being watched, so i went to different supermarkets all the time. if i lived in the USA i would definitely stock pile everything. i love the idea of doubling the price of the coupons in the USA. if anything is on offer in the UK i usually buy loads, especially if i have a coupon off that product. i have loads of 40p coupons off comfort with a long expiry date. once it is on special offer in the shops for £1 I will buy as many as i have coupons for. instead of stockpiling all the stuff in the USA they should have a car boot sale and make some money. think paid to shop had a thread a few years ago about some of the stockpiles by the americans.