I sometimes get receipt coupons at Target for their snack bar. I hand them to people on the snack line as I am walking out with my groceries.

Why not?

I've done this with coupons to clothing stores a bunch. Express and Old Navy always send me coupons for X% off. I'll go look, and if I don't see anything I want, I'll hand it to a person on line. Why let it go to waste?

I've used coupons left behind by someone at the store.
And if I do have a coupon that I won't use, I will give it to someone or just leave it behind.

Guilty as charged.

If I'm not going to buy an item, I'll leave the coupons behind. No point in letting a good coupon go to waste in my mind. Some people seem to appreciate them, others not so much.

Last trip, I found a granny looking at the Febreeze candles who was mumbling to herself because even though they were on sale, she was pondering if she could afford it. I had 2 coupons, so I offered them to her (between the sale and the coupons, she almost got them for free) ^_^ Warm fuzzy, it was a good deed for the day.

On the other hand, I decided against buying some tuna packets, but noticed a woman buying a few. I offered her the coupon set to expire the day after--she took it, but looked at me like I grew a third eye. =_=

Oh, I do this all the time. Assuming I notice the coupons are about to expire first, that is...

I've never done it with coupons but I do it with parking receipts all the time if there are still a couple of hours left on them.

A little off topic but one year at Disney we had managed to line up six Fastpasses to Jungle Cruise during *peak* time. We went through the Fastpass line, and when we boarded they didn't take our Fastpasses from us.

So as we exited, I walked the several blocks back to the end of the line and gave some lucky family who had decided to wait it out six still-valid Fastpasses.

Same thing for coupons. Do a stranger a good deed, and then they might feel so good about it that they do someone else a good deed, and the next thing you know it doesn't suck as much.

I do this with just-about-to-expire coupons all the time. Otherwise they get tossed away. I leave them with the products.

And you know what? I've seen them gone when I've passed by the aisle again. This is the circle of life in the grocery coupon world.

And you can't tell me that grocery clerks are throwing these away if the product exists. I imagine they get sent in to the manufacturer for reimbursement.

See, you are giving away free coupons. You think this is going to drive competition among coupon manufacturers, but in reality, it's going to drive the cost of current manufactures way through the roof. After that, illegal coupons will be here from different newspapers or websites taking our good real coupon positions away in the grocery aisles. Finally, the grocery store, struggling to maintain its financial structure from loss of several pennies, will crumble leaving many without jobs. In the end, that is what your coupons will get you. At least, that is what my republican friends say.

I always assume that it means the price is a bad deal even with the coupon, but maybe that just comes from the tendency to only want what others want

Paying it forward is great, but I'm betting stores don't like it when you pass on receipt based coupons to someone else in line - those are meant as incentives to get someone to come back another time, not give someone else a discount on what they were already buying

@humphrmi: We do this a lot. We grab fast passes that sometimes we decide not to use because we just rather go home, so we'll always find a couple adults coming in and give them the passes, people have always been grateful. I've been on the receiving end on a couple occasions so what goes around comes around.

I haven't seen it, but the idea is great.

I shouldn't- but I sometimes hand off unused event tickets (the kind you get when you buy a package), and my muni-transit card (if it has unused days on it) to tourists in need when I travel. And maps. I always hand off maps if I am not returning.

I have never seen this, but a store would not mind as it means more money for them.

@humphrmi:

Same thing for coupons. Do a stranger a good deed, and then they might feel so good about it that they do someone else a good deed, and the next thing you know it doesn't suck as much.

I don't know if you have loyalty cards in the US - I'm presuming you do. I have one for Tesco, but not for Sainsbury's so on the odd occasion when I shop there I ask ther person behind me in the queue whether they have a card.
The shop doesn't like it much, it screws up their data mining, but that's as good a reason as any to do it.

@humphrmi: My family does this with beach passes. Here in Jersey, for many of the points of entry, you get a bracelet or a pin to get on the beach. When we're done for the day, if we see people still heading toward the beach, we'll give them our pins and bracelets.

Recently, my wife & I went to a local eatery in our Florida hometown armed with a nice "buy 1 get 1 free" coupon. My wife ordered her normal Chicken Caesar salad while I bought a nice ribeye steak.
When the bill was presented, the waitress said "I'm sorry, we can't honor that coupon because the Chicken Caesar salad is on special today. Didn't matter that she never told us before we ordered and saw the coupon next to me when I ordered. Didn't matter that we were regulars who ate there several times every week. Didn't matter that she receives a minimum of 20% as a tip each time we're there. Didn't matter that I said, "you know, we won't be back".
On the way out, I spotted two people eating nice steaks and handed it to them and they were quite happy. I hope they were tourists!
There are too many nice restaurants in Vero Beach, Florida to just ignore this stupid policy.

@Skipweasel: Oh yeah. I think data mining has taken over the entire world. I wonder where all that data are stored?

I worked in a grocery store - it's very annoying to have coupons strewn about the shelves, especially ones about to expire as another customer will claim "but I found it in the store so it has to be good".

It's tough enough for grocery stores to keep shelves fronted and price tags correct - don't make it harder for them.

@Alys Brangwin can't stop the beat: Ugh, my brain is a puddle. All those data!

Just last week my wife was buying some clothes on a clearance sale, only $7. The woman in line in front of her received a $5 off her next visit coupon, saying she was on vacation and would not be coming back, she turned around and gave the coupon to my wife. The cashier took the coupon and my wife got her clothes for $2. No one complained.

@morlo: That's usually the reason I leave a coupon on the shelf - I've found a better deal on something else. There are people who are brand loyal and they might appreciate the coupon, though.

@Skipweasel: My loyalty card also donates a certain percentage of my purchases to the school that my kids attend so I have no problem letting people "use" my card.

@abucsfan:

Didn't matter that you felt entitled to use a coupon that wasn't valid for your purchase.

@sean98125: Ditto. Whenever I have at least 15 mins left on my parking stub, I always try to find somebody to give it to (usually its when I'm dropping off/picking up friends and family at the ferry terminals or airport.) People always seem surprised! I think its just a good thing to do.

More clutter is a good thing. In this economy, we need more people working more hours, and stuff like this can only contribute to that effect. It may not make much of a difference, but if little things add up...

@Skipweasel: i shop at a grocery store called lowe's foods. and i always have my card out ready to go while i am waiting in line.
on many many occasions the conversation in front of my goes like this:

cashier to person at the checkout: 'do you have your greenpoints card?'

customer: "no, i don't have one"

cashier: 'do you want one? you would save about $3 right now"

customer: 'no, i don't want to sign up'

cashier to me, seeing card in hand: "you want to scan your card for her so she can save?'

me: 'sure, i could use the rewards points'

too bad the rewards program is being discontinued in 3 days. but i don't mind letting them run a piece of plastic over a scanner so someone can save a couple of bucks.

My parents visited the Woodlands in Texas to go house hunting and stopped to buy a case of bottled water for their hotel. In the store, the young man checking them out said you got a free bagged salad with the purchase of water. My mother explained they were visiting and had no way to keep salad in the hotel room. The man persisted, saying they HAD to take the salad, because it was part of the special. Apparently it got very comical. My mother turned to the woman behind her, asked if she'd like some free salad and gave it to her.

I was in a Costco in the SF Bay Area a few years ago and I happened to overhear a man who was asking an employee where a certain product was. The employee said she didn't know. So I butted in and said, "Excuse me.. I just walked by them - three isles down and to the left." He thanked me and started to walk away. Then he turned back around, said thank you and handed me a stack of about 8 business cards - each one was a coupon for a free drink of any kind at Peet's! Hello free lattes!

@mistifi: wait....what...you have to pay to use a BEACH?

@coren: Well, what if a customer was on the fence about buying something, then saw the discarded coupon and decided to buy it? I don't think they'd mind that.

@abucsfan: I can't make any sense out of the restaurant unless that chicken Caesar salad cost more than the steak normally.

I usually leave the Costco coupon book in the store when I've used the few that I want!
There are a lot of people that don't get the booklet in the mail for some reason or another.

'litter' that the employees have to 'clean up'? What?

Where I see the most litter is where they have those store installed coupon dispensers next to the product, and the floor is covered with Officially Dispensed coupons because some kid apparently got bored and started pulling them out.

Same. I was in CVS, has a $4off$20, and $5off$25. Used the $5, and gave the $4 to person behind me, she was very appreciative.

@Whtthfgg: In some areas, sadly yes.

@Whtthfgg: Yes, welcome to New Jersey. Home of the beach tag.

Want free beaches? Atlantic City - somewhat gross or Wildwood - really far and it's where all the sand that's been eroded from towns like Ocean City washes up, so takes like 3 days to walk from the boards to the water.

Or go to another state.

I actually work in a grocery store were on the one day I go around the whole store and pull 2 of everything to the front (exciting right?). I see a couple coupons like this during the night so what I do is see if its expired and if its not I leave it there for the next person. I'm not sure if the other guys do this though they seem really lazy and I can see them just throwing them away.

I receive free product coupons all the time, especially for baby food items. My kids are older, so I pass them on to others. It's a great thing to do for others. My last shopping trip, I got 8 boxes of cereal for free using coupons and the store sales. I left the other coupons ( which I could of used myself ) for the next shopper. What parent is going to complain about free cereal??!

@changed my name: Me too. Sometimes I think I might want it and clip the coupon, only to find that it's not such a good bargain or that I don't really want it. Someone else might be going to buy it anyway, so why not leave them the coupon?

I've done this and benefited from coupons left by others. I've left unused postage stamps in foreign countries (no good here) for the hotel staff or another tourist. I also once received a pair of symphony tickets from a man who said he wouldn't be able to use them. Lots of lovely people out there!

@Stephmo: Same here. I do this all the time--and have done it for a few years now.

I've noticed at the grocery store I go to, that others are doing this as well. :)

I am a certified crazy coupon freak. I have 3 coupon wallets (drugstore, food, and a "go wallet" with my coupons pulled - I cherry pick weekly sales and don't really wander the aisles with my coupons. it would take frickin for-ev-er). I don't really leave behind coupons, because I don't shop that way much [although i did do this on 9/30 on my end of month half my coupons are expiring trip what can I get for free at the commissary]. But I am friendly and sometimes I strike up little conversations with people. Today I was hitting double Qs at Kmart, some lady was puzzled by the disinfectants. I talked to her, turned out her grandson had swine flu. I hooked her up with some coupons for lysol wipes (I had about 15 of them) and she was thrilled. I saved her 7.70 right there. It's small, but it takes maybe 20 seconds of my time to give coupons away when I won't use them. But wandering the stores and placing them on the shelves? Um, no.

And if you're wondering, I spent about 40 dollars at Kmart today and brought back about $500 worth of goods.

I don't clip coupons, but whenever I'm in one of those restaurant/arcade-type places, I always leave my game tickets behind for some nearby kid to "find". I like the games, but don't care for the candy or cheap plastic toys.

I used to hand the tickets to kids on my way out until I realized how creepy that might look to their parents (I'm a middle-aged man).

Yep, I do it too. If I'm at Costco and decide that I don't really need the item, I'll leave the coupon there on top of the pallet. Does anyone ever wind up using it? No idea. But it's no skin off my nose.

The Walgreens near me has lots of coupons actually taped to products. They are usually pretty new ones, too. I think the store actually pulls the coupon inserts from the leftover papers on Sunday night and tapes coupons to selected products.

Why would this not be anything but a good thing for the next shopper? Who cares what the employees think? I must be missing something.

@pervy_the_clown:

Me too. I *never* leave a store with a coupon unused -- either by me or by someone I give it to.