A lot of people find TLC’s new reality show “Extreme Couponing” horrifying due to the at times obnoxious behavior and extremely organized hoarding of the show’s subjects. But fellow (less extreme) couponers are upset for a different reason: they think that one woman featured on the show got some of her fantastic deals by using coupons fraudulently. [More]
coupons
Kroger To Stop Doubling, Tripling Coupons In Houston
By 4.6.11
Houston coupon clippers have only a week to bask in double and triple coupon glory at Kroger, which announced it’s doing away with the discount multipliers April 13. [More]
Beware The Many Pitfalls Of Daily Deal Sites
By 3.31.11
In the latest craze of daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, we’re already learning pretty darn fast that not all is what it seems when it comes to the offered discounts. Caveat emptor and all that, right? Let’s take a look at some of the things you should consider before you plunk down $17 for $34 worth of bacon-flavored lollipops at that place you never would’ve gone to otherwise, shall we? [More]
CVS Doubles Down, Surpasses Rite Aid With 41" Receipt
By 3.29.11
A mere twenty-one inch long receipt? CVS isn’t about to sit back and let competitor Rite Aid soak up all of the ridicule from the Internet for comically long receipts. No way. The retailer brought its A game when reader Chris stopped by recently to pick up some things for his upset stomach, showering him with a 41-inch long receipt consisting mostly of coupons for junk food, cosmetics, and vitamins. [More]
Man Buys 1 Powerade At Rite Aid, Gets 21 Inch Receipt
By 3.28.11
Josh bought a singular Powerade from his local Rite Aid. He handed over one dollar and thirty-six cents. In return, he received not only his Powerade, but a 21 inch-long receipt. [More]
Gap Wants You To Haggle Over Some Khaki Pants
By 3.15.11
In what we can only assume is a desperate attempt to make shopping for the world’s most boring item fun, the Gap is running a one-day-only promotion where you, the internet-savvy shopper, can haggle over khaki pants while potentially not even wearing any. [More]
Connecticut Governor Wants Coupon Users To Pay Tax On Full Price Of Purchase
By 2.28.11
Got a coupon for 30% a Blu-Ray player? If the Connecticut governor gets his way, you’d still be paying sales tax on that player’s full price. [More]
How To Shop For Free, Extreme Couponer Shares Her Secrets
By 2.28.11
Uber-couponer Kathy Spencer isn’t satisfied with just having a low grocery bill. She only considers it a success if she gets everything for almost free, or even make money off the transaction. She does this by looking for loopholes in the system, like “rolling.” This is where say toilet paper is on sale for $1 but buying it generates a $1 store credit coupon. Use that to buy another roll, get another coupon, buy another roll and pretty soon, you’ve got yourself a year’s supply of toilet paper and you’re handing it out to strangers in the parking lot. [More]
When Couponers Don't Know Math, Hilarity Ensues
By 2.25.11
You would think we might be enemies with a site called “The Customer Is Not Always Right” but we are not. Especially when we find among their collection of reader-submitted anecdotes from the frontlines of retail a little gem like the rude customer who insists on bad math and losing money. [More]
Shopper Sues Department Store Over 80 Cents
By 2.17.11
A woman in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against Century 21 (the department store; not the real estate agents) because she claims she was short-changed by 80 cents. [More]
Groupon CEO Responds To Super Bowl Ad Fracas
By 2.8.11
In a blog post responding to the furor over their Super Bowl ads, Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason says that “the last thing we wanted was to offend our customers.” Hm, maybe you should have showed the ads to a few of them first. [More]
Were Groupon's Super Bowl Ads Tasteless?
By 2.7.11
Groupon spent several million dollars offending a lot of people last night with a series of Super Bowl ads that started off as philanthropic pitches, then quickly segued into how you could get a great deal on the endangered entity with a Groupon. The online backlash was immediate and left many viewers wondering if Kenneth Cole was moonlighting as a Groupon ad copywriter. [More]
Do Gift Card Laws Keep My Groupons From Expiring?
By 1.25.11
As Groupon continues to expand across the country into more and more markets, consumers are finding they’re not quite sure how to deal with this new beast when it comes to state laws governing coupons and gift certificates. [More]
Buy And Sell Unused Groupons (And Other Daily Deals) On Lifesta
By 1.21.11
So your BFF work friend cc’d you on that super cool Groupon and you bought in with everyone else and then a little bit down the road, regret sits in. Maybe you remembered you hate fondue. Maybe the restaurant was closed for rats when you got there. Maybe you realized you would much rather have the money for your upcoming cross-country skeeball championship. Well, you’re stuck, right? Not so. Enter Lifesta, a clearinghouse site where you can buy and sell unused Groupons, coupons, discount packages, or vouchers. [More]
Doing Extreme Coupons At Walgreens? Check Out At The Beauty Counter
By 1.4.11
Let’s face it. One of the hardest things about using a lot of coupons is the shame factor. You’re worried that you are going to get the rules wrong, that people in line will get mad at you, that the manager thinks you’re stealing their time, and so forth. But one coupon aficionado recommends that when you’re rocking the extreme coupons at Walgreens,
you can help contain your embarrassment by checking out from the beauty counter instead. [More]
Macy's Won't Let Us Use Coupon
By 12.21.10
An anonymous reader said she and her sister weren’t able to use a Macy’s coupon they found in a newspaper. The women stood their ground until the check-out clerk cut them a comparable deal. [More]
Pitfalls And Advantages Of Coupons
By 12.13.10
Coupons are like horses, in that depending on how you handle them, they can either take you on enjoyable, smooth rides or buck you off and leave you trampled and broken. [More]
HP's Idea Of Fixing A Coupon Is For You To Buy A 2nd Laptop
By 12.3.10
Talk about buyer’s remorse. Hours after David bought a new laptop from HP with a $150 off coupon, they rolled out a $200 off coupon. HP’s first suggestion to solve this was that David should buy a second laptop at the reduced price and then return it. Excuuuuuse me? [More]
