# Florida man notices 61-year-old coupon and mails it. Company says "a deal is a deal." **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 8, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200 "2004-03-08T23:08:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/1 "2004-03-08T23:08:03Z")
> [@](#): > > [http://www.s-t.com/daily/04-97/04-02-97/b02ho045.htmHow](http://www.s-t.com/daily/04-97/04-02-97/b02ho045.htmHow) long is a coupon good for?" The customer-relations department at Jones Dairy Farm of Fort Atkinson, Wis., had a good customer-relations response. Fred Simpson, a retired auditor from Jacksonville, Fla., was looking through an old magazine from 1935, when he spotted an advertisement from Jones Dairy Farm with a mail-in coupon offering the fixings for a sausage-and-pancake breakfast. The cost, including shipping, was $1. > “There was no expiration date on the coupon,” says Mr. Simpson, so he sent it in. Not long afterwards, a delivery truck pulled up to his home. The driver handed Mr. Simpson’s wife Marguerite a package containing a cooler stuffed with ice packs, Jones pork sausage, a box of buckwheat pancake flour and a jar of Wisconsin maple syrup. The Simpsons were delighted. > Ed Baker, national sales director for Jones Dairy Farm said the unexpected arrival of the Simpsons’ coupon caused a lot of excitement in the company. Mr. Baker says if the Simpsons are not 100 percent pleased, they can get their dollar back, because Jones Farms’ consumer offers always include a guarantee! Has this been used in a _Simpsons_ episode yet? ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/2 "2004-03-08T23:48:30Z")
That’s great, everytime I loose my faith in business, I read about a company that actually goes the extra mile for their customer. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/3 "2004-03-09T01:13:20Z")
According to this site, [www.aier.org/colcalc.html](http://www.aier.org/colcalc.html) that $1.00 in 1935 was equal to $13.52 in today’s dollars - quite a bit for a breakfast! It was cool of the company to actually send him the products after all these years. Now if I could only find a coupon that would let me buy 10,000 shares of Microsoft at the old price… ---
**Author:** ![Never\_to\_be\_Queen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Never\_to\_be\_Queen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_to_be_Queen)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/4 "2004-03-09T01:30:01Z")
I found a circa 1950 coupon for a ten cent refund in an old Bible. It was from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL. I looked up their current street address. It actually had not changed that much over the years. I wrote a nice letter with the coupon saying I had been wanting to send it in for some time but had never gotten a chance. I also asked if they could send back more than ten cents due to inflation. Well, I don’t know if they good people at the Moody Press knew I was joking. They sent a letter saying those coupons had not been used in some time. They also sent a book that I could use to evangalize. ---
**Author:** ![hightechburrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f6c823/32.png) [@hightechburrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hightechburrito)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/5 "2004-03-09T03:14:00Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > Has this been used in a _Simpsons_ episode yet? There was one where they find the metal animal in the box of animal crackers that was really old, and they win a trip to Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/6 "2004-03-09T03:27:40Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > According to this site, [www.aier.org/colcalc.html](http://www.aier.org/colcalc.html) that $1.00 in 1935 was equal to $13.52 in today’s dollars - quite a bit for a breakfast! A lot of that probably would have gone toward packing & shipping. They would have used dry ice and a wooden crate. I haven’t been able to verify it but I heard Fred Simpson’s breakfast ingredients + S&H costed Jones Dairy $30. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/7 "2004-03-09T05:54:28Z")
That $30 was the best use of their advertising budget this year! The cabinetry company I work with does similar stuff, e.g we had a client call us and told us their brass knobs were getting old and worn and that their pull out garbage can didn’t operate well anymore on their 25 year old kitchen. Customer Service contacted the servicing dealer, got the info on the original kitchen and sent the woman a complete new set of polished brass knobs and a new mechanism (vastly superior to the old one) for her pull out trash. We directly linked more than $225,000 worth of cabinet sales to her recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/8 "2004-03-09T07:02:31Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > Has this been used in a _Simpsons_ episode yet? [Pretty much, yup](http://www.snpp.com/episodes/CABF13) From 4-2001 ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/9 "2004-03-09T13:37:59Z")
If 300,000 old coupons are found in some wharehouse, expect the next breakfast to be from the company’s lawyers. I give no props to the company. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/10 "2004-03-09T15:02:16Z")
Why are these kind of stories so surprising anymore? It seems to me that we hear a story like this about once a week. Not that I’m bad-mouthing the business for doing this, but you have to realize that the business is getting an enormous amount of good publicity for a very cheap little stunt. The business is not by any stretch of the imagination “going the extra mile” - the people in charge of the company are probably thrilled about this. They provide about $10 worth of food to one guy, and they get a hundred thousand bucks worth of media coverage in exchange. And furthermore, if the coupon didn’t have an expiration date, they were obligated to do this anyway! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/11 "2004-03-09T15:06:10Z")
My guess is that the company is not legally obligated to honor a 70-year old coupon, but any advertising guy worth his salt would conclude that this is marketing gold. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/12 "2004-03-09T15:16:33Z")
I am a sap for stories like this. Kudo’s for the man to send it in. Kudo’s for the company for honoring a 70 year old coupon. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/13 "2004-03-09T18:56:35Z")
I sent in a subscription card from a 1971 issue of _National Lampoon_ once. They just sent my $5.00 cheque back with “Nice try, wise guy” written on it, and added me to a direct-marketing mailing list. ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/14 "2004-03-10T19:57:32Z")
Their public relations coup was well worth the net loss of the coupon. Speaking of old magazines, my mom was recently digging through some old crafts magazines. For kicks she called their 800 number. It’s now a phone sex/escort service thingy. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/15 "2004-03-10T20:54:56Z")
In the early 1980s, possibly '83, I had a birthday party at a mini-golf course. As the guest of honor, I received a pack of coupons from the golf course and area businesses. Most of the coupons expired a few months after the party. One coupon, for a free ice cream cone at a nearby shop, had no expiration date. Since I had never used it, the coupon stayed in my room for several years, gathering dust. Every now and then I’d find it again, verify that there was no expiry date, and think about going over and cashing it in. In 1996, I got my big break, and received my first real job offer. I went over to the post office to send back my acceptance by priority mail – and took the ice cream coupon to the shop, which was just around the corner from the post office. The shop honored the coupon. That was one of the best ice cream cones I’d ever had! 🙂 So like the man in Florida found, a deal’s a deal, and an open offer can be claimed at any time, even years later! ---
**Author:** ![Jerrybear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@Jerrybear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerrybear)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-man-notices-61-year-old-coupon-and-mails-it-company-says-a-deal-is-a-deal/233200/16 "2004-03-11T01:14:40Z")
I have an unused ticket from the 1962 Michigan v. Illinois football game at Ann Arbor. It is in section 2 which is not far from midfield. The original price of the ticket was only five bucks! The tickets for the 2003 games I attended were $46 for the Central Michigan/Michigan game, and $51 each for the Michigan/Notre Dame and Michigan/Ohio State games! (Michigan has for the last few seasons been charging more for the games against “bigger name” opponents like Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Michigan State) I wonder if my 1962 ticket would get me into the next Michigan/Illinois game…no, I don’t think so!!!