Entertainment Books
As you've probably heard, Entertainment Books just declared bankruptcy and closed their headquarters. There was no warning. Just a coupon days ago, I received an email from them about their latest Entertainment Book sale. The big concern now is about the books people have in hand. Will the coupons be honored by merchants? The answer should be yes for a couple different reasons.
1) The merchants participate in the Entertainment Book free of charge. They don't pay to have their coupons in the book. They do it because it's a free form of advertising. Their only cost is giving you the discount when you show up with a coupon in hand.
2) Merchants don't depend on Entertainment Books for any kind of reimbursement. In other words, once a merchant accepts the coupon from you, it can go in the trash, unlike traditional manufacturer coupons which are returned to the manufacturer for reimbursement. So it doesn't matter if the Entertainment Books company is viable or not; the merchant isn't expecting anything back from them.
3) The original intent of participating in the Entertainment Book program for merchants was free advertising to get people into their businesses. If they now reject those customers, they are harming only themselves.
Of course, there are going to be a few merchants who are tired of honoring the coupons. Perhaps they were overly generous and now have remorse and would like to stop giving the discount. They will see this as a golden opportunity to reject the coupons. They can blame it on Entertainment Books for going out of business, but in reality, the bankruptcy has nothing to do with the valid coupons that are currently in the book. 1) The merchants participate in the Entertainment Book free of charge. They don't pay to have their coupons in the book. They do it because it's a free form of advertising. Their only cost is giving you the discount when you show up with a coupon in hand.
2) Merchants don't depend on Entertainment Books for any kind of reimbursement. In other words, once a merchant accepts the coupon from you, it can go in the trash, unlike traditional manufacturer coupons which are returned to the manufacturer for reimbursement. So it doesn't matter if the Entertainment Books company is viable or not; the merchant isn't expecting anything back from them.
3) The original intent of participating in the Entertainment Book program for merchants was free advertising to get people into their businesses. If they now reject those customers, they are harming only themselves.
If you are in doubt about an Entertainment book coupon being accepted, call ahead. All this will go away on Nov 1, when the current coupons expire.
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