Publix is a grocery chain that operates in six southern states, and couponers in those states got some terrible news yesterday along with their newspaper coupon inserts. The chain announced last week that they’re tightening their coupon policies in some sensible ways, so master couponers will reap some less extreme bonanzas.

What kinds of draconian policies are we talking about here? Publix shoppers will be limited to eight of the same coupon for the same item per household per shopping trip. No, not eight coupons total, eight of the same coupon that a shopper might obtain by using a clipping service, by taking unwanted coupon flyers from other shoppers, or even more nefarious methods.

Another important change is that they will now enforce the “household” thing, meaning that a couple and their two children couldn’t split up at the cash registers and use thirty-two coupons collectively. Nope. A “household” is one family, and you can only have eight free bottles of mouthwash. Or whatever the fabulous coupon is for this week.

Publix said that they’re making these changes based on “customer feedback and research,” which they won’t elaborate on but probably includes complaints from fellow shoppers after a practitioner of the extreme couponing arts cleaned out entire shelves of a store.

The chain will, however, continue to accept competitors’ coupons, and their other policies are pretty fair and industry-standard.

Publix restricts coupon use to discourage extreme couponing [WPTV/Tampa Bay Times]

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