Coupons are not a new invention. They are not something that just came on the scene a few weeks ago. Coupons have been around for years as a way for companies to promote their items. Fact is if you have a coupon for a product you are more likely to buy that product. So, why is there this sudden hatred toward coupons?
As a Mom and a Wife, I take on saving my family money as my “job”. If I can buy my weekly groceries at 50-75% off by shopping wisely and clipping coupons, why wouldn’t I?! It just seems irresponsible of me not to save my family money if I can. I have the time, the resources, and the knowledge to do so. I would never use a coupon fraudulently, because that is just wrong and immoral. I only use coupons for items I have, and would never try to cheat the system.
Why is it that when I go to the grocery store and hand the cashier my coupons I am given looks; Looks from the cashier, bagger, and other customers. People begin to mumble under their breath, go to other checkouts. I get the eye rolls, and comments. I don’t understand why my being smart and saving money on things my family needs takes on such a negative response.
I admit that I have scouted out the friendliest cashiers, and have begun to warn people who get behind me in line, but why should I have to? Why should I have to apologize and feel guilty for something as innocent as using coupons? Why should I have to teach the cashier about their store’s coupon redemption policy and argue to have $1 taken off my bill. I shouldn’t! It comes down to poor customer service and training. What happened to customer service being a priority? The customer is not always right in our country anymore.
I had a cashier at CVS tell me one time, “My husband says we aren’t poor enough to use coupons.” Really!? Do you think that I am poor, and that is why I clip coupons? I actually have more money because I clip coupons! Yesterday the customer service manager at Winn Dixie told me I was trying to steal by using a coupon! Honestly?! I am paying them $65 for my groceries but I am trying to steal by using the coupon intended for the items I purchased. WOW! Has it come down to calling people thieves for getting a good deal?
Why do cashiers feel it is their duty to question the wording and the validity of every coupon and sale in the store? If I begin to save “too much” money, why does the cashier take it on as their own personal responsibility to find out how I am “stealing” from the store? Is it that hard to believe that there are smart, honest people in the world that have couponing down to a science? I have had cashiers that make me dig in my already bagged groceries for items I purchased to prove that I bought it, with my 3 small children with me. That just seems like a bit much!
With today’s current economy, more and more of us are trying to save money any way we can. We clip coupons, look for sales, clearance racks, etc. If there are so many of us having a hard time financially, why are people so negative about others saving money? Are they jealous? Do they not understand?
I am on a mission to make couponing positive; to make people understand that we aren’t doing anything wrong by saving our family money on groceries. I give people I don’t know in the store coupons, and try to hand the cashier my coupons first so they don’t need me to pull my items out of my bags. I even have been known to give the cashier a coupon or two for her own groceries. I smile and try to be friendly.
So, next time you are at the store, try to make your shopping experience positive, maybe it will rub off on the cashier, and other customers. Maybe we can change people’s notions about Couponers, and eliminate all the stares and the looks. Maybe just maybe, more people will start to coupon and realize we aren’t crazy after all, and the stores will appreciate our business.
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Well said Amanda! I have switched stores where I shop, just so I’m not treated like a thief. The store I shop at now, welcomes couponers and never makes us feel bad about saving money. It is beyond comprehension that a person thinks they don’t need to use coupons. It’s a fact that most people who use them, make over $75,000 in their household!
I once heard a story on the radio about a man who was disputing a $2 charge on his bill. The customer service rep on the phone, said to his co-worker, “he’s a millionaire, why does he care about $2?” His co-worker responded, “How do you think he became a millionaire?”
I will always remember that story when I’m fighting (with a smile) for my $1 coupon at the register.
Karen
Very well written article. I just had a bad experience and negative looks from people. It really got me down when I started to think about it. I came home to my husband saying “Shame on them for doing that I bet they spent 3 times as much as you because they paid retail on every item.” It gave me a new perspective. I now know which store I prefer to shop out due to the way the customer service was towards me. It sure is a shame when it’s not just from the people in line behind you, but all the store making an example of you as if you had the plague.
You get a standing ovation for this! I don’t understand the coupon hatred either
I will very politely insist that even .50 is taken off if that is the case. I had a cashier tell me one time “yeah, some people just live for those coupons…” as she rolled her eyes. Yes, I do. I am a full time working mother, and I still manage to find the time match coupons with sales. And darn it if I’ve taken the time to match the coupon to the sale, I want it to be used!
Until everyone is coupon friendly, I just keep on smiling anyway. Maybe you are right. Maybe our smiles will eventually rub off on them.
I don’t need to take up space saying….agree with every single thing you said and have experienced every single thing you describe. I will not tolerate this treatment by store employees and will not shop at “those” stores
Your superbly written “editorial” should be sent to every sin.gle national grocery and drug store corporate office.
Thanks for all you do
Bravo! I couldn’t have said it any better. I love my Publix, but I’ll have to admit that there have been a couple of cashiers who have not been coupon friendly. I always make it a point to tell the cashier up front that I have coupons- out of courtesy for those that are “in a hurry” behind me. I do think, however, “Why is their time more valuable than mine?” In fact, it’s NOT! I’ve spend a lot of time (mostly away from my family) planning menus and cutting coupons. We have every right to be in line with our coupons just like those poor other souls who have not been “enlightened”!!
See, I don’t understand why people think it’s going to take up SO much time if a couponer is in front of them. All they do is scan them like they are additional items. Would they complain if you simply had more items? I don’t use a pile of coupons in the express lane but I’ll be darned if I’m not going to use them at all either. It seems so ludicrous to me.
Well said! I think the negative attitude stems from jealousy and disbelief. They are so jealous of couponers saving money and disbelief that they had to pay so much more than us.
So far the only negative experience I have had while shopping was at Target-I was supposed to get a $5 giftcard when I bought x # of SoBe Lifewaters…and the system there was set up to indicate the gift card be given only if certain flavors shown in the ad were bought, and that particular branch didn’t have ANY of the flavors shown. I complained via their guest survey about it, and got both an email & a phone call from Target Corporate apologizing up one side & down the other…and my gift card arrived in the mail a few days later.
)
But if anyone gives me trouble about coupons, I intend to say, “Are you willing to help pay my mortgage, other bills and contribute to two college funds? No? Then you need to be quiet.”
D
Great post! This is why I do the majority of my shopping at Publix, because the employees at the store I go to are well trained and friendly. I have never had a problem there. Kroger, CVS, Wal-Greens…I have to have my game face on for these stores!
People can be so rude these days. For the most part I have had good responses from the cashiers, some have even asked me how to do this. People in line are not as nice. I do not understand what the difference between scanning 10 food items or 10 coupons is. Why do people need to be opinionated…….
We live in the same city and while I probably don’t have nearly the amount of coupons you have (I am jealous), I’ve never received negative feedback. I often times have coupons for products that are FREE. I place my pile on the belt right before my groceries and if there’s a free item, I try to place it up front so there’s no question. If I received negative feedback whatsoever, I’d give ‘em a piece of my mind because that’s the kind of person I am.
I love looking at my receipt and seeing the total amount saved. I think it’s great. I suppose the manager at Winn Dixie also believes you are robbing them by taking advantage of their BOGO sales too? Silly!
well said Amanda I couldn’t agree with you more especially since I live in a small town whose stores seem a coupon in their lives. I consider myself a coupon rookie and still have a lot to learn to be able to save the amount of money that I want to save on groceries so I use about 4 or five coupons each trip because sometimes I can’t find the items that I have a coupon for but I have goten the looks from all the cashiers. my two local walmart’s and two local krogers won’t take printed coupons I assume its because they fear coupon fraud. I also agree with another poster that you should send your wonderful editorial to every store chain in the country to try and persuade the companies to train their employees on coupon policy because I have come across bery few employess that actually know what they are doing when it comes to coupons.
Amanda, the next time you are in front of one of those people. you should look at them, tell them how much you saved, as cheesy as it sounds i usually tell them how much i love publix and their coupon policy, and tell them about your site. the only way to really get understanding is to educate others on the couponing practice.
I totally agree with everything you have said. 95% of my shopping is at Publix. Most of them are quit friendly and I have even had the manager ask me before how much I saved. I have had baggers ask me how I save so much and I gave him some pointers and wrote down some websites to use. There are a few cashiers that I avoid. One cashier will go through my stack of coupons as she rings up each item. Can you imagine being in line she scans and items then shuffles through 30 coupons to find it, then scanned the next item, went through all the coupons etc. I think i was in line checking out for like 15-20 minutes. That was a bit embarrassing and really unnecessary. I have found walmart is a nightmare with coupons especially with competitor coupons. You can’t get a straight answer from anyone as to what they take or don’t take its extrem;y aggravating. I love it when people tell me they are broke and can’t pay their bills or can’t afford their cable but yet they “Don’t have time” to clip coupons. I love couponing but what I ultimately love is how much money i save. This week I got $161 worth of Groceries for $65. That $100 savings just bought my gas to get to work for 2 weeks.
The cashier I go to always prints out an extra receipt (which is always a mile long because of coupons). I could believe he’s checking on me or I could choose to believe he’s trying to educate himself…I think he’s trying to save money too.
I have had cashiers do that to me before too, and then wrap my receipt in it like they are going to check it later. Whatever!
I absolutely agree with all of you here! I started couponing for my household since I was 12 years old and was a darn great bargain hunter! I would purchase $400 worth of groceries at Ralphs and have the cashier hand me $8 in overage change! I loved helping my parents with the groceries. However I was turned off from couponing by the dozens of dirty looks I got from cashiers, customers and other store employees who saw me in the store for up to a couple of hours at a time. I could feel my face turn bright red when the cashier grunted or rolled her eyes at the sight of my stack of coupons making me feel like I was doing something wrong when I wasn’t. I’d spend my entire Sunday morning clipping and organizing every single coupon in my binder and my Tuesday afternoon matching up my coupons to the specials in the store ads. 13 years later, I have found these amazing sites and have started couponing again
My only question is, where is this Publix everyone talks about? I wish there was one in L.A. Vons and Ralphs no longer double coupons so I have to settle with the deals I can get at Walgreens and CVS.
I work for a major supermarket chain and I apologize for the attitude of all cashiers at ALL supermarkets! I work in Customer Service and I train my cashiers to scan each and every coupon. If it’s accepted, no worries. The only time I tell them NOT to accept a coupon is if the register recognizes it as “unauthorized”. That means the manufacturer did not grant permission for the coupon to be printed off the Internet. I’m sure several of you have been turned down for printing coupons off of the internet. I can assure you that stores HAVE to accept them unless that specific message pops up on their screen.
I personally clip coupons, too. Who doesn’t want to save money?! I find it ridiculous that people think you have to be poor to clip them. You’re stupid if you don’t…..lol! I even tell my customers all the good deals. For example, I had a customer purchase 4 Pepsi twelve packs. I informed her that she got a 5th one for free! She had no clue and said “Well I don’t have time to go grab it”, so I asked her which flavor she wanted and I went and grabbed it for her.
And I also agree that you should forward that letter to every major supermarket chain. They always talk about “customer service being first” so that would open their eyes!
I’d appreciate it if someone please politely respond to my post. This is just me wondering. I don’t mean to offend any of you. Please don’t take this the wrong way. No hard feelings, ok?
The thing is, I am new at using coupons. I’m still learning the game. I clip coupons from the newspaper, take advantage of store circulars, and use in-store coupons. I can’t use internet coupons until my printer is fixed.
Then I got to thinking…There are hard working farmers (my grandparents and some of my uncles, for example) out there that are paid next to nothing for their crops. There are hard working people who work in meat factories in the worst conditions imaginable. They inhale toxic fumes, are exploited by their superiors, break their bones, chop off their fingers, have no health insurance, have no sick leave, are physically and mentally exhausted when they come home from work, can’t make time for their families, can’t join unions to protest harsh and unfair working conditions, and THEY ARE PAID NEXT TO NOTHING! I just feel that if we, as individuals, use too many coupons, then we are not only cheating the system but we are cheating others. People work hard to grow the crops, slaughter the cows, bake the goods, check out your items, put products together, come up with the products, come up with ideas, stock the shelves, manage the store…etc. There is a whole ECONOMY involved. I just feel guilty if I get the items for more than half off or get items for free if they are not BOGO deals. We aren’t really paying for it. We are not honoring their hard work and dedication. These people have feelings and families, too.
Please don’t get me wrong. I’m all for stretching a dollar and using some coupons, but when it comes LITERALLY at the expense of others when someone is getting multiple items for free or nearly free every time they shop, I’m more than a little concerned. Plus, I wonder if it makes it that much more expensive for everyone else. Then it takes away the “I’m poor. I can’t feed my family” reasoning because according to some coupon users you can get lots of items for half off or less. I feel like those women who want to pay the “tag” price on a car because they are afraid they will hurt someone’s feelings if they try to haggle.
Maybe you know something I don’t know. Will someone please shed some light on this for me? Thanks!
Marita,
The coupons are not taking money away from anyone. They are released by specific manufacturers to promote their products. The stores are reimbursed by the manufacture for the coupon and in fact make money when coupons are used. Think of coupons as a form of advertisement.
Just like the sales or bogo sales are a way of promotion for the store. They are covering the cost of the sale. They know you will come in and purchase things that are not on sale.
As for farmers and meat factory workers, there are very rarely coupons for produce and meat, and when there are they are attached to a product. So that amount is being reimbursed by a manufacturer. As for the care of employees and payment, that is not something couponers should be made to feel guilty about. That is an issue for the Labor Department.
Amanda-
Please Respond.
Okay. Thanks! I do feel some better about using coupons. I had my first experience with a slightly upset store clerk yesterday. I have heard stories about cashiers getting mad at heavy coupon users. I am starting to understand how some of you feel. Well, I felt like a criminal yesterday at Walgreens when a store clerk saw me tracking prices. I had been keeping track at 2 stores for 3 or 4 weeks and before then no one said anything. Yesterday a worker saw me and told me that I wasn’t allowed to do that because the store manager gets mad. She told me that I had to have permission or something and that the store manager makes them take up the customer’s prices, but that she wouldn’t do that. I certainly didn’t want her taking away all of my hard work in 2 seconds, so I politely left. Before then, I was tracking prices at a different Walgreens and no one said anything even though I probably stay about 15+ minutes tracking about 15 items each time, and I stay well over an hour at HEB tracking 80- 100 items (most are the same items just different brands).
Am I doing something illegal Amanda? I felt very ashamed yesterday, but the coupon mom book advices shoppers to do this. I’m so confused!!!!
Oh yeah. One more thing. I used to be a cashier to a department store. Please don’t take the cashiers personally when they question your coupon use. There is probably at least one of the following things going on in his/her head:
1. “Is this legal? I don’t want to lose my job over this, and I’d feel guilty if I let him/her slide.”
2. “One more thing management did not train me on (or well enough on). Now I feel like an idiot not only in front of the customer but in front of my boss and all of the other people behind you.”
3. “I’m still new here. Please don’t get offended if I don’t know something. I’d be happy to ask the manager about the coupon policy.”
4. “I’m not angry at you. I’m angry at the people behind me who feel perturbed. I’m going to hear about this from the people behind me after you are gone.”
5. “I’m so sorry. I made a mistake. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
6. “I’m sorry I’m frustrated that I have to ring up everything again and void the transaction. I feel incompetent when this happens (or I’m tired or I’m scared of the people behind you. Don’t worry. They’re after me, not you!)” It’s not usually you that cashiers are mad at. I promise.
7. “I’m jealous. I wish I thought (or could think of) that!”
8. “I’m ready for my thirty minute (I mean thirty second) lunch break.”
9. “You used a credit card, and I forgot the discount? That’s the fourth time in 2 days. I’ve got to call management now to void the transaction, and I’m scared what they might say.” (If you’re new and it’s your first time in retail, of course).
10. “They trained us not to act weak. If someone is trying to get away with something illegal we have to stand strong and say no. I’m sensing this is illegal, so I’m either going to say no or ask management, depending on your attitude.” Of course, many times it is okay, but sometimes we don’t know and we have to check.
11. “Please give me a break if I did not know that the swimsuit is supposed to be 30% off. We have hundreds of items, and they go on sale all the time. It’s not my fault. The communication line of the pricing broke down long before you and I met.”
12. “Will you please make my day and strike up a friendly conversation with me while I bag your items?”
13. “You’re buying a new wardrobe because you lost 30lbs? Way to go! I wish I could do that!”