How come companies don't give good coupons anymore?

Factual Questions
1

Maybe my experience is unique, I dunno.

Growing up in the 80’s my mom got on a kick for a while of calling those 1-800 numbers where you can call and tell your opinion of whatever it was you bought to the company that makes it (sometimes it was a complaint, usually it was praise). As a thank-you these companies would send her really great coupons: none of those 50 cents off stuff, more like 50% off. Once Pillsbury sent her a coupon in which she got a microwave cake mix for free.

I’ve called a few companies in my time (usually to tell how much I like a particular product) and I’ve never gotten anything. Websites, if they have any coupons, have little pansy discounts on them. I wrote a fabric softener company once and flat out ASKED them for some coupons/samples and they said no.

WTF?

To me coupons should have the effect that a free hit of cocaine has with drug dealers: get the customer hooked. Give them the product for free, let 'em get addicted, and then they’ll buy your stuff for full price.

So where are the good coupons these days?

2

Sunday circulars have lots of coupons. Go to mycoupons.com where you will find professional housewives (no, not an oxymoron) exchange tips on couponing. You can still save tons of money if you shop using coupons.

3

Maybe you should take the opposite route. I got two coupons for free meals at Wendy’s by writing and complaining.

4

What annoys me is the way they now tend to offer $100 off the purchase of some multiple number of the thing. I don’t know about you, but when I try something new I don’t want to buy 3 or 4 or even 2 of it.

Plus, the local stores double coupons worth less than a buck, so a coupon for 60 cents off is actually worth more than a dollar off one is.

5

Is it worth pointing out that $100 was supposed to be $1.00?

Naw, everybody will figure that out…

6

Buy an “Entertainment” book if you like lots of bang for your buck. One might set you back $20 or so, but you get hundreds and hundreds of dollars in discounts. Mine paid for itself in less than a week. Some of the coupons are worth over $25! Most of my current book is “buy one get one free” deals at local restaurants, fast food, grocery stores, you name it. Best $20 I ever spent, and I have a ton of coupons left.

7

And Albertson’s accepts expired coupons. Trust me.

I have tons of coupons I still haven’t used, left over from the 80s and 90s, just sitting there. Back then, they knew how to give out good coupons (most came from the Sunday paper).

{For those of you in Southern California, Lucky’s used to do this, then when they were acquired by Albertson’s, I guess they just continued.}

8

AVO cigars has a good coupon.

9

The answer to the OPs complaint is that coupon users got organized. Coupon clubs, coupon internet sites, coupon exchange programs, books about how to coupon effectively. These meant that certain people got disproportionate value out of the coupon programs.

But coupons are a way for companies to get new users to try their products, not for savvy customers to get free items. Since the coupons weren’t giving them the value they wanted, companies started to cut back on their offerings so that they weren’t worth the effort for organized groups to despoil them by overuse.

10

A lot of times companies just skip the coupons altogether and send the product out free to everyone in the mail. That’s how I got hooked on the Colgate with Baking Soda when it came out.

The trick with using coupons is to combine them with existing sales; for example this week Safeway has Foster Farms ground turkey buy-one-get-one-free. I had a dollar off coupon for that brand so I got about $7 worth of turkey for $2.50. It’s not free but beats a poke in the eye with a stick.

I don’t think you have to specificly praise or complain about a product to get coupons or free samples; I once wrote to Bazooka asking why the cartoons still had a point value, but no longer offered items to buy with points. They wrote back saying the point program was being phased out but thanks for asking and sent one of those huge boxes of Bazooka with like 100 pieces in it. I was a near penniless college student at the time (which explains why I was reduced to chewing Bazooka, heh) so that was quite a treat.

11

Yes. For example, several markets in my area double and sometimes triple the value on a coupon if the coupon’s face value is less than $1.00. What you (as the consumer) really want is a 99-cent coupon so you can maximize your savings when it is doubled or tripled. The companies, of course, started issuing coupons which are either very low value ($0.15) or more than a dollar, so in the end you save pretty much the same amount you did before the markets started doubling.

So what did we couponers do? We started trading coupons. People in areas without doubling still sometimes get 75-cent coupons from the food companies. That coupon is worth 75 cents because they can’t double it. However, if you send me your 75 cent coupon, I can turn it into $1.50 or $2.25. I’ll send you some $1.00 coupons in return. Everyone (except for the companies and markets) wins.

The companies caught on and now it’s harder to do this. I used to bring home $100 worth of groceries for which I paid $25 or so. It’s a lot more difficult to do that now.

12

I have to agree with the OP premise. It isn’t like it was. I took a HORRIBLE trip on Amtrak. I wrote a letter, complained and the response I got verbally and in writing was next time take a plane. I did. (I got over my fear of planes quick). Today, Comcast cut off EVERONE in my building. I counted 40 tags thrown out. I called and asked why they said “We are auditing and we don’t know who is hooked up illegally so we cut everyone off, and when they call in we arrange to be put back on cable tv.” I had to call again and get a credit for today and tomorrow.

When I was little I bought a lock for 25¢ and it broke I wrote a letter (back in 73) they sent me a lock worth about $2.00 and an aplogy. I used to always get things. I wanted to own a TV station and when I was 12 I used to write letters to GM of TV stations and say “How do I go about owning a station.” They all would send me back a nice letter and I got hats and key chains, and all sorts of paraphanlia(?)

My friend was short on money for her last baby in 1989 and she wrote Pampers and told them. They sent her a bunch of coupons for free and so much off for their products.

I tried that with the makers of a drug that I can’t get generic (it is over 100.00 a month) and they sent me a photo stat on why I should vote for politicans supporting national drug coverage.
I believe it is a different world. Customers just take it.

13

Depends where you look what coupons you get.

Who can forget having to do those green stamps? That was another bonus.

This week I got some coupons, 20% off at Borders, $20 off a $20 purchase for Brecks bulbs, $20 coupon no min for Park Seed. I got $40 worth of bulbs for about 75 cents plus shipping ( about $11 together), thats a hot deal, better than half off.

14

We get $5 coupons for Bed, Bath, and Beyond all the time, or sometimes 20% off any single item coupons. Not too shabby, me’thinks.

The other coupons I see are crap anyway – it’s always for stuff we don’t use. I count my blessings that my wife and I use fresh ingredients for just about everything and not the boxed and frozen crap that my mother brought me up on. What’s neater is that it comes out cheaper.

Of course I’m only talking about food. It’s just that I never see coupons for the pharmacy things that we buy or other non-food items. I do, though, really like the Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupons.

15

I really enjoy using coupons. I think it’s my hunter-gatherer instinct kicking in. I love the feeling of getting a good score. On my last shopping trip, I got 4 tubes of Colgate Total and 3 quarts of Silk soymilk for free. And those are items we like and use all the time.

Like Balthisar, we use mostly “fresh” ingredients. We shop from the perimeter of the store, not the produce aisles. And it’s true that most of the coupons out there are for packaged and processed foods, or cleaning products that I’d never use. But if you look past all the coupons for Go-Gurt and Hamburger Helper, you’ll find coupons for all sorts of good stuff. I just redeemed 2 coupons for Horizon organic milk. I regularly use coupons for Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt, organic soy milks, organic and free-range eggs, Cabot cheeses, and eco-friendly cleaners and household goods. I also use coupons for all those everyday condiments and seasonings that we use with our fresh foods, like Tabasco, Grey Poupon, and Hellman’s Mayonnaise.

There are are a lot of good coupons out there. And if you combine the coupons with sales, you can get a lot of stuff for free or less than 1/2 price–and that includes high-quality perishables. And I never settle for a brand I don’t like just because it’s cheap. There are some things that I just never buy without a coupon/sale combination, because both the coupons and the sales are common enough that I can always get the items that way before I run out of what I have.

I definitely disagree with the OP’s assertion that there are “no good coupons” out there. But there are certain annoying trends on the part of the manufacturers that are reducing the savings that you can get:
–As SBS notes, the fact that so many coupons require you to buy multiples to get the discount.
–Some coupons are marked “no doubling.”
–The 55 cent coupon.

The 55 cent coupon is the worst, because my favorite supermarket doubles coupons only up to 50 cents. I do make special trips to my less-favorite supermarket to redeem coupons between 51 and 99 cents–especially if they’re having a sale on a bunch of items that I have coupons for.

The supermarket by my mom doubles $1 coupons, but it’s so incredibly overpriced in the first place that it’s usually not worth the bother. If I do have time, I’ll stop in and see if they have items on sale that coincide with $1 coupons that I have. I got 6 boxes of Cheerios for free that way.

Of course, Exapno Mapcase seems to be right on about why the manufacturers are cutting back on savings opportunities. Too much couponing de-values their product.

16

I sometimes work for Kraft Foods, and they have free $5 dinners.
But the coupons are only given in the test trial areas, just to find out which flavors people pick most.
Not surprisingly, Texas and the Southwest love anything with the word Mesquite. The East loves any flavor with Deli in it.