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.