Couponing is back with a vengeance as buyers make an effort to stretch their budgets, fueled by the proliferation of on the web social group buying coupons, coupon clubs and also the TLC cable show "Extreme Couponing," which shows men and women saving hundreds of dollars on their grocery bills, often by dubious means.
Firms that jump on the bandwagon say they've brought new shoppers via their doors, but they also run into complications if they are not ready for a rush, give an excessive amount of away or only draw bargain seekers who don't develop into repeat buyers.
Lakeland-based Publix is implementing its 1st companywide coupon policy beginning Monday. It limits using competitors' coupons, among other restrictions.
Spokesman Dwaine Stevens would only say that the intent would be to offer a constant policy, but customer bloggers have speculated that the policy is in response to extreme couponing tactics for instance "stacking" coupons - using additional than a single per item.
Publix is limiting coupons to 1 from a manufacturer and one particular from Publix or even a competitor per item.
Competitors' coupons might be restricted to nearby competitors that may be listed at each store, and coupons from competing pharmacies will only be accepted for prescriptions, not food.
Couponer Carolyn Glendening of Gainesville mentioned Publix has constantly been inconsistent from 1 store to one more but most stores are now limiting stacking.
"They will not let you use three coupons for an item. It is currently built in to the register," she stated.
Erica Rodriguez mentioned she is going to be most affected by the pharmacy rule. Rodriguez, who writes the $uper $teals weblog and has a weekly customer segment on GTN News, mentioned she routinely utilised Walgreens coupons for canned products such as Progresso soup at Publix
"There's an additional 25 cents you happen to be not saving, but there's other strategies to save. Couponers are resourceful," she said.
Coupon blogger Melissa Williams of Womantowoman magazine.com in Lakeland stated people who currently follow the terms of the coupons will not discover the modifications but a uniform policy will likely be helpful, "especially to new couponers for the reason that when you go from a single retailer to the next and they all do one thing a little distinctive, it really is confusing."
She said Publix is nevertheless much more lenient than most shops by accepting competitor coupons. Walmart and Sweetbay also accept competitor coupons, though most other shops don't. Winn-Dixie will not possess a written policy and a spokesman did not return calls by press time.
Williams conducted her Crazy for Coupons workshops to packed houses in a meeting space in the Gainesville Sun in April.
The Sun has observed an 8-10 percent raise in Sunday single-copy sales over final year and Circulation Sales Manager Peter McQuade attributes a great deal of that to couponing. The total value of coupons is printed on the front page, and McQuade stated sales are higher when the total is increased.
He also sees shoppers with multiple weekend subscriptions for the coupons, and thefts at newspaper racks have elevated on Sundays.
McQuade stated he gets various calls per week from folks who watch "Extreme Couponing" asking at no cost coupons.
Quite a few on the net social coupon internet sites expanded into Gainesville more than the past year with numerous organizations selling hundreds and even a large number of coupons that shoppers pay for in advance in return for deals that often double their dollars.
Firms contacted by The Sun reported good results from social coupons.
But Christina Harris of Penzai Options, an online marketing and advertising firm for various small businesses, said she tends to caution her clients against them.
Prior to Groupon's Gainesville launch in November, she mentioned she researched the service for her customers and discovered that some smaller organizations had been hurt mainly because they were overwhelmed by a rush of buyers - from time to time driving out standard shoppers - or lost money from paying transaction fees on best of supplying deals of half-price off or much more.
She mentioned she has seeing that heard constructive reports from local companies.
"I assume they operate for a larger brand, or restaurants exactly where men and women acquire more than the coupon is for, but not for item organizations and compact business-oriented services," she mentioned.
Bunky Mastin of the Wine & Cheese Gallery stated they learned to require reservations after their 1st effort by way of Groupon to offer wine and cheese plates. He mentioned they were never overwhelmed, but crowds varied from three to 40 on a given night.
"For six months, we had been captive. We didn't know how many individuals were coming," he stated.
For their next social coupon through LivingSocial, they required reservations for a wine tasting.
Mastin said it was nice to see new buyers but doesn't know yet whether which will translate into standard clients.
"I have a sneaking suspicion a lot of men and women just do coupons and move on to the next, but there is probably enough people that we'll get some new enterprise," he said.
A Touch of Heaven, a single of numerous local spas to offer Groupons, has currently had quite a few repeat clients, stated owner Andrea Sylvia.
They sold 233 Groupons, with more than half redeemed so far. She expects additional before the deadline is up in June.
Sabore restaurant sold 1,308 deals via LivingSocial on March ten and bar manager William Beil stated they noticed all new clientele on a recent Saturday. Based on the coupon customer ratings, he mentioned they expect to get some repeat buyers out of it.
"It's been a good advertising key for us," Beil said.
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