Coupon People — by Steve Nadis
I ran into a neighborhood friend at the Star Market (or is it Shaws?) near MIT yesterday. Sensing in me a kindred spirit, he mentioned that being Sunday it was a good day to shop because of all the coupons in the paper, as if there was little doubt I knew just what he was talking about. Although I had not seen the circulars that day, I let on that I did clip the occasional coupon too, so he wouldn’t feel bad. He told me that on one historic day he saved more than $22–a personal best, if you will–and felt pretty proud of it.
I have, in the past, written about the dream of every coupon clipper, ”zeroing out,” so I know the territory better than most. Unlike me, who needs to “scrimp and save” (to borrow a line from Shelly Winters in “A Place in the Sun” long before the Beatles got there), my acquaintance friend is a lawyer who is not hard up financially. But we both share the New England trait of thriftiness, despite the fact that I’m from the Midwest and he’s from who knows where.
Posted by
at
14:30:47
Coupons have the magic power of making me spend more money than I otherwise would. If I receive a coupon that gives me say 20% off all of my purchases at a particular store, then I immediately head over there and buy something(s). My point being that if the coupon had never showed up, I would never have gone into that store and spent money. Instead of saving me 20%, it’s costing me the price of the items less 20%.
It’s a good thing nobody at the stores knows about this.
Years ago, I clipped coupons. I’d gleefully stuff them into my coupon envelope, thinking how much money I’d save next time I went to the store. But what I discovered is that 99.9% of the coupons stayed in that envelope. Why? Because a) the products that were being promoted were not ones I usually buy or even wanted to buy (i.e. they were unhealthy, didn’t taste good, etc.); or b) the savings were illusory (i.e. I was getting 20% of a product that had been marked up 20%).
Since then, I’ve put more effort into just finding stores that carry the lowest prices on things I actually want. Because when you think about it, why would a store or manufacturer keep issuing coupons week in and week out if the practice didn’t ultimately INCREASE their profits?
Thanks Gatemouth, you & Roses have surely opened my eyes. If I ever manage to equal my friend & save $22, I won’t feel as good about it as I would have.