Growing Coupons & Shrinking Sizes
Posted By Esscie on April 26, 2009
There are two inserts in this week’s newspapers: one Smart Source and one Red Plum. I just finished typing and uploading the database, which you can view here (opens as a pdf file).
I noticed last week that values have increased on some common coupons, with some now valued at $1.25 or more. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. There is already a trend to issue higher-valued coupons in the north eastern states. This is possibly because our cost of living is higher than many other regions, but it does work against us when the grocery stores limit double coupons to a value of $0.99 or less.
Another trend I noticed is that many manufacturers are specifying smaller sizes on the coupons, such as 13 ounces for items where a pound used to be the standard size. I suspect this is to initially soften the blow for consumers, however a) once we become acclimated to the smaller size they’ll likely stop issuing those coupons and b) having to purchase more frequently increases the amount of packaging that will wind up in our landfills. It’s a trend I don’t like.
Incidentally, it was an odd experience typing up these coupons because many of them expire on 6-30-09. My oldest son was born on 6-30-90, so my fingers had a mind of their own and wanted to type his birthdate out of habit.
Enjoy the sunshine!
Esscie
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