National Consumer Panel : Your Voice - NO Reward

About two years ago during the height of the Extreme Couponing frenzy, my family and I decided to try out one of the many links that were sent to our inbox regarding "Freebies," a chance to join the National Consumer Panel operated by Nielsen.
I have had previous experience with Nielsen, as they are the ones that used to send cash to your mailbox in order to fill out surveys, test products and review television programs and viewing habits. They were a good company and the money was decent up until the last batch of television books I returned to them and after all of that time and energy spent collecting month after month of television viewing data, I never received the $100 as promised for the combined five booklets I had sent in. In fact, I never received a dollar. But that was years ago, and this is a different program so I figured I would give it a shot.
A little background. Once approved, they send you a little handheld scanner that you scan the bar codes of every single shopping trip that you and your household compile over a weeks' time. It goes by store, sale, discount, coupons used, they also give you a booklet to scan things that might not have a UPC on them, such as fruits, snacks, nuts, fast food and DVD rentals. You simply scan this information, totals and put the scanner back on its' base, which transmits data intermittently through the week. This gives you "points" that you can in time, redeem for "gifts." The amount of points per weekly scan increase the longer you are there, usually in yearly increments. There are also surveys sent to your inbox that usually give you up to 150 gift "points" if you complete them before the deadlines presented in the email, which is usually ample time.
I was a full participant in this panel for nearly a year and a half. At the 90 day anniversary I received a plastic bottle opener worth about a quarter. At the six month anniversary, I received a NCP lunch bag that has a value of about fifty cents. When I came upon the year anniversary, there was no reward at all. That's when I started taking a closer look and exactly what is going on here.
My points weren't accumulating toward much of a "gift" value at all! After a year of this, I was approaching the 30,000 point plateau and had absolutely nothing to show for it other than two things sent to me that were worth about one dollar. I see these posts on the internet regarding "cash for surveys" via this NCP program. I can tell you that they are completely inaccurate. I never received nor was offered one dollar for a survey, a scan, nothing. What these are when you see them online, are glorified "referral" links so that if you do join, the person that sent you to the NCP program to sign up, gets 1500 gift points credited to their account - you get nothing. They tried to give "better rewards and sweepstakes" but the reality is those winners are geared in the upper mid west, where there is a dense population and multiple households scanning themselves crazy.
Also, worse than the lack of a reward for scanning every purchase you make daily and weekly, was the use of the data. Over time I noticed that retailers stopped running the very sales that I had entered into my scanner weekly, stopped distributing the coupons i had used during those shopping trips, and even increased the prices in many cases of things that I purchased most often!! This happened in more than one retail outlet in my area I can assure you. So the eyebrows and awareness were indeed raised on that "voice" or use of data.
This week I ordered my Buffett Server from their "gift" catalog for 38,000 points. You can get this same item in Sams Club or Wal Mart for under $25. About 75-100 weeks of data, misuse of the information received, hours spent scanning to ensure accuracy per the inate amount of emails and newsletters reminding you to "scan everything!," I have decided it is no longer worth the time, effort, reward and effects it is having on my shopping trips on a weekly basis, it just isn't. If you break it down , the reward per week is about twenty-five cents. That's right, a quarter a week for them to take your data, let the retailers use it against you, and give you a very, very minimal return.
So the NCP glorifies "Your Voice, Your Reward" as their motto. I can tell you from first hand experience that the reward isn't worth the time and your voice will be used against you the next time you hit the store looking for that deal you got three months ago. It won't be there. Just like I don't advise anyone signing up for this Nielson National Consumer Panel offering at all.

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Extreme Couponing: Retailer's Revenge 2012

Ahh it was the summer of 2011. TLC's Extreme Couponing took off and so did the amount of people trying to imitate what went on during the program. 90-100% off (in some cases, they paid you) for hundreds upon hundreds and in some cases, thousands of dollars or groceries to feed your family. People claim to pay like $4.32 for almost $600 worth of groceries and explained to you how to do it yourself on the show. People had "stockpiles" of everything from Vitamin Water to bread, frozen items, paper goods, just a vast array or things that you just won't need to purchase for a very, very long time. Given the fact that the economy has been in the tank for what seems like forever now, despite what the "experts" claim, this idea struck close to home to so many....and led to a lot of bizzare activities taking place at retail outlets and supermarkets throughout the country. It was indeed, a full on craze.

You can do tons of searches for this information on the internet. I won't bore you with the history of this, or the show itself. I'll leave that to the self-serving pundits to weigh in on. But you know what? No one ever, ever speaks of the reality on the ground. If you look at postings and comments, its virtually amazing to see the vast majority of people just don't admit to being an "Extreme Couponer." You see the self boasting people talking about "not clearing shelves" and "leaving some for someone else" and "making it harder for everyone else." This tired old rhetoric isn't practical today. I mean, if all of these people feel this way, then who's the ones clearing the shelves that they complain about? Never hear that point of view. Someone has to be, right? in 2012, this is a eat-or-be-eaten world. That's the reality. The morality levels and sense of "community" are one step above in-the-gutter. You mean to tell me if you have children that eat peanut butter and jelly, and have 20 coupons that can get you either for free or for pennies on the dollar, and that will be consumed before they expire, you're not going to stock up and "clear that shelf" before someone else does because "you want to leave some for someone else?"
Right. We believe you. And no one else should either.

With all of that being said, retailers were hit en masse with coupons, real and fraudulent, during the summer of 2011 and the months following. Needless to say, supermarkets and retail outlets weren't able to handle this. Due to improper training and knowledge of coupon policies, and large amounts of "shelf clearers," the combination led to what anyone that knows anything about retail would have expected. Policy changes and retailiation by the retailers. And if you notice, like United Supermarkets week of 6/6/12-6/12/12, putting 16 oz. NOS Energy Drink on sale 4/$5.00 immediately after the $1/1 16 oz NOS coupon expired on 5/30/2012, retailers are starting to work their ads around the coupons that are actually out there for any given week. Target and Albertson's have had Ragu sauce on sale for .99 for two of the past three weeks now. This price was unheard of when there were Unilever Coupons available - now, since there aren't any, they can put the item on sale. This is happening in every retail outlet, all over the country. Just watch your expiration dates of your coupons and the sales that are posted for these stores any given week and you will see the same trend.

Target struck first by eliminating coupon stacking (they have since reversed this after the popularity of the show waned), Walgreens also wouldn't let you use two buy one get one coupons two get two items for free. This Walgreens practice has also been reversed in recent months, but only in certain stores, in certain areas of the country apparently. Kroger completely eliminated the use of double and triple coupons. Funny, they were one of the most prolific stores profiled in TLC's Extreme Couponing, being featured on more than one occassion. Publix changed theirs as well. Albertson's and CVS also on many occassions. KMART redid theirs from unlimited double coupons once a month, to some ridiculous members-only double coupons everyday but you have to spend a fortune to get your (5) coupons doubled up to $1. The only one that made it better or didn't change it at all was Walmart. But Walmart is a completely different topic for a different day.

Those are the most posted and prominent changes you will see on the internet. But what no one talks about, are the realities on the ground. That's where the underlying retaliaton and most effected items are. This is what we shall discuss.

The biggest offender in the non-retail market is Unilever. Unliever as a company, produced many, may items that people use every day, from shampoo, to body wash, butter, sauce, salad dressing and ketchup. Even Q-Tips. They were featured also in TLC's Extreme Couponing. Their response to getting slammed with over a 400% increase in coupon redemption? Stop making them. That's right. They have just stopped making coupons for the most part. When was the last time you saw a Unilever insert in your Sunday paper? I know in my area, it was January of 2012 and saying that, those coupons never even scanned and were not accepted at most retailers. The Better Business Bureau was contacted regarding this and was met with no response. If you look on ebay, (you know, the place where you're not supposed to sell coupons?) there are only a few listed from random Family Dollar stores and yes, an insert for "summer 2012" that was issued on 5/20/2012. Don't get too excited though, based on the locations of the sellers of those inserts, it appears they were upper midwest/Detroit area exclusives. I guess they get a pass because those people in those areas really do need to save every penny they can because their economy is impossible up there. But for the rest of us ? Screwed. Don't take my word for it, check your Sunday papers weekly and let me know where and when you see a Unilever insert. You won't . They even changed the coding on a printable Yosicle coupon last week from being able to scan under any Popsicle/Yosicle product for .50/1 to the 1.00/1 that only scanned for the expensive Yosicle only items. From a company that used to produce inserts 4 or 5 times a year (about once a quarter) , to nothing (except limited quantity printables that no one seems to ever be actually able to print)- makes Unilever the leader in the retaliaton against Extreme Couponing.

The next biggest offender is K-Mart. In the summer of 2011, they often offered "double coupons up to $1.00 with no limit" monthly. Now how awesome was this? I remember waking into my local Kmart with a stack of .55/1 Vitamin Water coupons and walking out of there with 110 of them for under $7.00. Sure I had to pay sales tax, but the retail value of these was upwards of $125. This is probably one of the only posted "yes I Extreme Couponed in real life" postings on the internet other than the show itself.
I wasn't alone - I saw another adult female with a shopping cart full of them also. And another. This is what so many claim to want - their extreme couponing moment. I also walked out of there with 45 boxes of tic tacs for under $2.00. Candy also. Well, once this caught on, Kmart saw what was going on and promptly retailated later in the summer of 2011.

New Kmart Double Coupon policy - limit of (5) per day with your member card and only can be used with a $25 grocery/household item purchase. What?? If anyone has been to Kmart, you know their grocery prices are outrageous. Sometimes 200% of Wal Mart or competing retailers. With this new policy, it makes it completely impractical to shop for any deals at Kmart using double coupons. I know I haven't touched it once since they made this change, and I strongly recommend people doing the same, as it really isn't a deal at all. Any savings you gain from the double coupons are eaten alive by the huge markups you are paying on everything else. So stay away. When you see this and go to your local Kmart. It might just open your eyes. Joke of the month - Spend $250 in a month and get a free picnic. With Bar-S hot dogs. Could the quality get any worse?

United Supermarkets - Ability to stack Store Coupons from monthly circulars with MFR Coupons. Now their monthly store inserts focus mostly on United brand only products.

CVS- People swear by CVS due to register rewards. Great if you can actually find the sale item in stock. Rare if you do.

Walgreens - See CVS above. They've gone back to an entity in the overpriced market. You can still stack their store coupons with a MFR Coupon but they also, have changed the amounts in the store coupon book dramatically.

Dollar General - Remember when they had a good sale you could stock up on? Or even put an ad out weekly?

Family Dollar - Rare good deal, but bring a gun if you go to one of their stores, they usually aren't in the nicest of areas. Kudos to them though, alot of their stores are focusing on deals to bring people in and are adding 1,000's of food items. There's some hope. Just hope that they don't follow the leads of the stores above.

Here are some other examples of retaliation/coupon devaluation:

- Rayovac - coupon used to be $1/1 any batteries AA/AAA. This would make them free at Wal Mart with a 2 cent profit. Good thing I stocked up. Now the coupon maxes out at .55/1.
- P&G. Used to be a .50/1 or $1/1 toothpaste. Now that same coupon maxes out at .25/1.
- P&G. Used to be a $1/1 Crest Mouthwash. Now that coupon maxes out at .25/1.
- Advil coupons. Gone.
- All Univever Coupons including Country Crock, Q-Tips, Ragu and more. Gone.
- Tear pads for Smart Water .50/1 and Vitamin Water .55/1. Gone.
- Kraft BBQ sauce (good tripler I paid nothing for a ton of these) used to be a .25/1 coupon tear pad. Gone.
- Kraft Salad Dressing $1/1 peelie on the Kraft BBQ sauce with purchase of BBQ sauce. Gone and replaced with a $1/1 Velveeta Cheese item (that retails at least $1.99) Joke.
- Monster Energy Drink tear pad coupons, used to be .50/1, a good doubler - Now $1.00/2. Joke.
- KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce, Used to be $1/1 or .50/1 depending on your region. Now, $1/2 BBQ sauce insert. No thanks.
- .50/1 Tradewinds 16oz Tea Coupon is out there. Good doubler. Too bad the stores that actually double coupons discontinued it once these came out.
- Pillsbury and General Mills coupons. Non existent since March of 2012. Used to be .50/1 or $1/2 General Mills cereal coupons. Gone. Haven't seen them in months either.
- Kellogs cereal. Used to be .50/1 or $1/2. Now you are lucky to find one for $1/3 depending on your region.

..I could go on and on with the devaluations and availibity of these coupons. I have a coupon binder that used to barley close - now it's about 1/5 of the size it used to be. I buy the same papers, look for the same sales. They just stopped doing it. All of the above and more.

I'm sure this is a very small amount of what's going on out there. You know, there are stories out there about people being prosecuted for fraud that were on the show "Extreme Couponing." My personal favorite is the one where someone purchased 34 packages of paper products for "free" using coupons. The "free" amount was over $600. Turns out the person actually purchased them off of ebay and spend $400 on them and guess what - they were fraudulent. That person had to repay the store in restitution or face prosecution. That goes with the stories of stolen newspapers and vending machines pilfered of them from last summer.

You don't see many of those stories anymore. I mean, why would people need to actually steal the inserts when there isn't anything in it anymore worth stealing? Why look for deals that don't exist anymore? The Unilver and P&G "members" access is nice to look at, but they both offer you no savings in reality you can't get in the paper , if at all. Why watch this show anymore when over half of the people on it have been prosecuted? People can't get enough of reality TV. It really needs to come to an end overall. But as we have seen here, reality television is completely different than the reality on the ground.

That's a lesson that everyone should learn. Until people start waking up and shopping the real deals and with their wallets, this retaliation will continue until all of the coupon manufacturers and retailers recoup their losses from the Extreme Couponing frenzy. It's time to wake up and see this issue for what it really is - retaliation- and not what some idealistic posters on the internet claim it to be.


*content also posted on the Yahoo! Voices of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, 2012.

The Great Economic Numbers Lie.

Hey kids, been some time out here on this one. Anyone watch the news? You see these numbers that baffle the mind as they have absolutely no sense in reality. Unemployment down to 8.1%. But what is that 8.1% of? Hmm? You see, the true unemployment number is closer to 20%. For adult black males, that number is closer to 50%. The issue is is that after people's unemployment benefits run out (after 99, yes, ninety-nine weeks) they just stop counting them toward that unemployment number, whether or not they actually have a job. With an average weekly first time jobless claim number now hanging weekly over 300,000 easily, its safe to say that for every 300,000 plus people that actually file first time jobless benefits, There are about 200,000+ people that are actually FALLING OFF THE ROLLS and are no longer counted in the bigger picture. So sure, unemployment appears to be going down, but in reality the only thing that is going down, is the actual number of the people counted, or so they say the word, "workforce." So is unemployment actually going down? No, just the number of people actually being counted into this "fraudulent" 8.1% number is the only thing going down.

Stock market is up too. Very much so over the past couple of years. Let's think about this: what are stock prices driven on? Profits, Dividends and Margins. Hold that thought while I address the next part here, another aspect that neither the Liberal or Conservative media take the time to address. 

Let's keep this simple. If you own stock in a bread company per say, and the bread maker is raising the price of the same bread that was $1.09 not too long ago to about $2.18 (this is a real number people.) That is a 100% increase in the "margin" that this company is making. We'll give about 20% of that to increased food production costs (another unheralded issue altogether) so that leaves about an 80% "margin" now. And where do you think that profit/margin actually goes? It sure isn't going to hire more workers. You see because the actual number of units being sold is substaintally less at $2.18 a loaf as 

compared to $1.09 a loaf. But on paper, the profit "margin" is so much higher, that the earnings and balance sheets of the company look so much better. Better balance sheets entice more investment, hence driving the actual stock price up much higher than it would be if this same bread company continued to sell as many loaves of bread at $1.09 a loaf. Because people have to eat and are too ignorant to use coupons and comparison shop, the big corporations are raking it in. They are making big profits while the 99% everyone claims to care about so much, are getting slaughtered every time they go into a supermarket, car dealer, retail outlet, clothes store, etc. This is the entire premise that today's economy is built on in 2012.  

People need cars, and GM (Government Motors) are also posting massive gains and profits much more so than before they were on the brink of Bankruptcy. Anyone see sticker shock on a Dodge lately? Chevy? Pre-bailout , these cars could be had brand new for under $12,000. Now, today these same vehicles, 3/4 made in China mind you, are retailing for a base brand cheap barley functional $16,900 off the lot. So, sell less cars, give everyone a $500 car payment, but hey, you're making an extra $5,000 profit to go toward your margins. So of course, it looks wonderful on the portfolios of the 1% now doesn't it. Once again, this same measure applies across all aspects of the retail arena in today, 2012. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. All you have to do is go shopping one weekend and actually look at the price compared to what it was a year ago on everything you buy. What you actually find will not only startle you, but scare you to death.

Another amazing scam is the credit card companies that offer "cash back" on purchases. Bank of America offers these amazing advertisements with "1-3% cash back" depending on the items you purchase. Capital One has those wonderful baby advertisements offering up to 5% cash back on certain cards that they offer. Well how can they do that you ask?

It's the simplest form of math in the books, let people once again are too ignorant to see it. Base Capital One cards offer 19.99% APR. Bank of America anywhere from 16.99%-33.99% APR. This of course excludes the extreme minority who qualify for (with 750+ FICO Scores) those low introductory APR's , etc. We are talking about everyday people. So BOA or Capital One gets you to sign up for a "cash back" credit card. Safe to assume they have a $45 annual fee. Safe to assume your APR after the first year will rise. So in actuality, sure they are giving you this cash back option for purchases, but as you ring up your charges, and happily see that "cash back" reward on your statement, you of course, will not notice that your normal APR has gone up by double the amount of your "cash back" percentage. And guess what? That APR does not care whether or not you fed the baby cheerios with it or used it to "fill this baby up." Nope, you are getting hosed and probably don't even realize it.

That's what today's economy is built on people, ignorance and lies. The 1% is always happy to take advantage of the 99%. It's just a matter of time before people are going to actually wake up and realize what's really going on out there. If they ever do.