After using about 20 coupons and saving about $30 today at our local Kroger who doubles any 1-50c, I got to wondering again, what happens to all those coupons?
Is there another location all these thousands of coupons are hand sorted and turned into the mfgr for store credit?
I suppose the bar code on them speeds things up a bit to verify the redemtion, but is that the end of the road for them?
When you give the checker the coupons, that is far from the end of the road for them. From working at Safeway, I found out what happens next.
The end of the day, all the coupons are collected and put in a plastic bag to be sent in at the end of the week. On Saturday night, after that night’s coupons are put in there, the bag is sealed and is sent to the Division HQ of Safeway. From there, all the stores in the division’s coupon bags are gathered up and sent on to a clearing house. There the coupons are sorted and bagged according to which account is paying for the particular coupon. The clearing house also tallies the coupon total which is sent back to HQ to compare with the sales for the particular store (the bags are identified with the store name and number). If there are pieces of paper or coupons that cannot be identified (wrong store for Catalina coupons or store branded coupons), then the company is charged for the paper by the piece.
I’m not sure what they actually do with the coupon at that point. I know it is destroyed somewhere but whether it’s by the company or by the clearing house, I don’t know. The clearing house processes the checks so that the stores get their money.