A couple more thoughts on the new wording on the P&G coupons (see yesterday's post below). There is a good side to this. We will now have it in writing that you CAN use more than one coupon if you are buying more than one product. Even though that is basic knowledge, some checkers and even managers will argue that you can only use one coupon total per shopping trip. Also, I don't think an email campaign to P&G would do anything to change the new policy. P&G really doesn't care if they lose hard core couponers as customers. In fact, they would probably be happy to get
rid of us. We are a tiny slice of the customer pie, a slice that doesn't make them any money. Every time we use a coupon, they have to reimburse the store. Someone foots the bill when we walk out the door with a
sack of free P&G products, and that someone is usually P&G, or P&G + the store. So it won't hurt their feelings at all to offend the 'professional' couponers. P&G has had an up and down history regarding coupons. In the 70's and 80's, P&G was ultra generous with coupons and especially refund offers. Couponers loved P&G. You could call them on a toll free number and request that refund forms be mailed to you. Then, when the refund fraud problems came to light in the 1990's, P&G did an about-face and even tried to eliminate coupons in NY. P&G got in legal trouble (I think for anti-trust because they were working with grocery stores behind customers' backs) and had to reissue coupons and even had to pay a penalty of some kind. My impression is that currently, P&G has a love/hate relationship with coupons. On one hand they issue the dumbest .25 coupons on multiple products. On the other hand, they issue very generous B1G1F coupons that work with B1G1F sales to net the customer totally free products. So go figure. Their commitment to coupons is solid because they have their own monthly coupon insert. But that doesn't mean they like people who stockpile and get lots of free groceries. Their target audience is the very casual coupon user, who cuts a coupon, buys the product, becomes a loyal user and never uses a coupon on it again. Their goal is not to provide us with free groceries or help us in a bad economy or make life nicer for customers -- their goal is to create brand loyalty. They realize that there is a small group of people who take coupons to the extreme (us), but as long as we stay small, they leave us alone. Adding the 4 coupon limit is a way to keep us in check. It doesn't affect the casual coupon user at all. It is targeted specifically at us, us meaning everyone who coupons as a serious hobby, not just RefundCents readers. I see this as a direct result of the explosion of blogs on the web. There are tons of people who are doing the deals. Two years ago, there was only a handful of coupon-related websites that catered to getting free stuff, matching coupons to sales, etc. Now there are zillions and it has caused P&G to take notice. That's not necessarily a good thing, but there is no turning back the clock. Ultimately, it could be worse. The wording could have said limit one like coupon per customer.
4 comments:
My local Sentry has a sign up that says they will not take P&G printable coupons because they have had trouble redeeming them with P&G. I am wondering if P&G is like this for other stores too or not. P&G puts out printable internet coupons on their site all the time, so I have no idea why they would not redeem them when stores send them in.
Some couponers wont be clearning the shelves as fast as they did in the past.. which is great news for ME.... Shelves get cleared here so fast it makes your head spin!
I wonder too if by the wording "Coupons not authorized if purchasing products for resale" might be setting up the extreme couponers who get stuff cheap or free then have garage sales or sell them at flea markets for some sort of legal issues. Just a thought.. That might also come to mean that if a store knows that you sell the freebies and cheapies you're getting, then they could refuse to accept your coupons.. Its a thought..
I wholeheartedly agree with you, Michelle. Especially, this statement: "Their goal is not to provide us with free groceries or help us in a bad economy or make life nicer for customers -- their goal is to create brand loyalty."
Though, I also believe that they sometimes take advantage of us (not unfairly). Stay with me, what I mean is that sometimes it is to their advantage to have a product sweep quickly from the shelves to maintain a larger shelf area, and/or to create interest in a new product. In those cases, they have our unwavering support by just issuing easy to get, high value coupons. LOL
How can PG say you can't use a coupon when buying something to resell? How is the store supposed to know either way? There are so many situation where one may buy a lot of something, having a party, part of some organization that needs donations for feminine items because food stamps won't pay for taxable items (that may just be in Ohio). That is putting to much on the store. I wonder if PG will know if more than 4 were used in one transaction and if so, will they refuse to reimburse the store.
Post a Comment