During lean times, more shoppers reach for coupons

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - Gwen Martinez is buying more groceries and health and beauty products than ever before _ but spending less.

Like a growing number of Americans in this economic downturn, 29-year-old Martinez is a relatively recent convert to clipping coupons from newspapers and in-store circulars and finding them online.

"I am saving about 69 percent overall," said the Arlington, Texas, medical secretary, who began in August after a fellow customer at a Walgreens checkout gave the cashier a handful of coupons, immediately saving her $10.

Martinez was hooked, and she's far from alone.

"Coupon clipping is definitely up," said Mark Adamcik, 45, an Albertsons store manager who's worked more than two decades for the chain and its predecessor, Skaggs.

"As the economy tightens up, it makes coupons more appealing."

Coupon use rose 15 percent in the last three months of 2008, compared with the same period of 2007, said Charlie Brown, vice president of marketing at NCH, the redemption unit of Livonia, Mich.-based Valassis, which invented the Sunday newspaper coupon sections and owns Red Plum, one of two big coupon companies.

And in a typical year, Americans redeem $3 billion worth of coupons, with fewer and fewer finding themselves too embarrassed to pull out wads of coupons or lug in baseball card albums choked with coupons for breakfast cereal and canned soup.

"There's less negative stigma attached to coupon use during slower economic times," said Ron Larson, a marketing professor at Haworth College of Business at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

A recent survey bears that out.

Nearly 57 percent of 3,013 consumers surveyed nationwide in December admitted that they were once self-conscious about handing over grocery coupons but no longer care because of the money they're saving, according to a study by ICOM Information & Communications, a provider of marketing data. Twenty-two percent said they were still uncomfortable using the coupons.

Forty-three percent said they've used coupons more in the past six months, it said.

Manufacturers of brand-name food products, under pressure from supermarket chains' cheaper private-label items, bought about 5 percent more coupons in the fourth quarter of 2008 to promote their goods at a time when cost-conscious American families are eating more home-prepared meals, said Suzie Brown (no relation to the NCH executive), chief of marketing at Valassis.

On a recent Thursday evening, Martinez entered an Albertsons in Hurst, Texas, with a shoebox-sized, purple plastic box containing more than a thousand coupons sorted by category, and picked up the weekly store circular with a front-page of more coupons.

Less than 30 minutes later she wheeled her cart toward cashier Cinda Atkins' checkout lane with $103.08 worth of groceries.

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After her coupons were scanned, Martinez said, "This is my favorite part."

Atkins calls out that the cost was reduced to $61.49 _ a savings of $41.59 or slightly more than 40 percent. The customer next in line, who waited patiently as 40 coupons were scanned, shook his head in amazement.

Martinez does even better on health and beauty items at two major drug chains, CVS and Walgreen, bringing her monthly average overall savings close to 70 percent.

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On Jan. 10, a receipt showed that she paid just $1.05 for $45.45 worth of goods at Walgreens, having combined store coupons providing credits for the entire price of an item with coupons clipped from the newspaper for the same product.

The savings allow her to spend more on food and healthcare goods than before, and to pay down some credit card bills.

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Stephanie Nelson of couponmom.com claims that a family of four can save $100 a week on groceries by clipping coupons. Since 75 percent of grocery coupons come from the Sunday newspaper, she recommends buying two or three copies to save dramatically, then scan the Internet for more.

And some manufacturers are sweetening the deal.

Last year, multiple-purchase requirements on health and beauty coupons dropped to 6 percent, from 11 percent in 2007. Moreover, expiration dates were lengthened, the average period rising to 2.8 months from 2.6 months, said NCH's Brown.

But the opposite was true for grocery coupons, which saw expiration dates reduced to 2.3 months in 2008 from 2.4 the year before. Multiple-purchase requirements decreased, but only by a tad, to 35 from 37 percent.

The average value of a coupon distributed today is $1.29, NCH's Brown said.

Coupon use and private-label purchases tend to rise during tougher economic times because many people look for ways to save money, said Larson, adding that consumers might also have more time on their hands to clip and sort.

Larson rattled off the grocery coupon's various effects: They draw attention to a product, lower its price for past buyers and attract new ones, generate consumer "pull" during soft sales periods, remind even nonclippers of the product's existence, create a marketing synergy benefit when coupled with in-store specials, and they limit growth of private-label competitors.

Despite the manufacturers' desire to snare a steady buyer with a coupon offer, Martinez says she no longer becomes loyal to a particular brand.

"I'm a sale kind of girl," she said.

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Her grocery cart included a mix of national and private-label brands, including a loaf of Albertsons budget Good Day sandwich loaf.

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The Minnesota-born Martinez alternates between Kroger and Albertsons, depending on the weekly specials. Both are convenient on her commuting route. And both double and triple the value of many coupons. Typically, the big-box discounters like Wal-Mart and Target discount only the face value.

Although some coupons carry fine print saying they cannot be combined with other offers, she learned from Internet couponing forums that most stores don't mind.

On Thursday, Albertsons staff said they had no objection if the computerized scanning system accepted them.

"Cheese was a really good deal," Martinez said.

Combining offers allowed her to apply an in-store flier coupon putting a $5 sale price on three 8-ounce packages of Kraft-brand cheese along with a newspaper coupon and another won in an online contest.

The combination reduced her cost to 50 cents apiece. The usual retail price of an 8-ounce packet at Albertsons is $2.50.

While few supermarkets make much, if anything, on savvy coupon users like Martinez, she wouldn't be there without the tiny slips of paper.

Before August, most of her groceries were purchased at Sam's Club.

"But I stopped after I began couponing, and find I get better deals at supermarkets with coupons," said Martinez, noting that coupons don't help much in the large bulk quantities at a wholesale club store like Sam's.

"Frankly, I used to hate grocery shopping," she went on. "It was my most dreaded chore until I started coupon-clipping.

"Now it's an adventure and a challenge."

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TIPS ON SAVING BIG WITH COUPONS

Savvy shopper Gwen Martinez shares some of her strategies for saving big:

_ Double up. Purchase multiple Sunday newspapers for extra coupon insert sections.

_ Join reward programs at all the stores and learn how they work.

_ Read the fine print. A coupon may exclude trial sizes or you may grab an item not included in the offer.

_ Don't toss that coupon. You never know when that item will go on sale and become a great deal.

_ Stock up. Buy multiples when items are on sale.

_ Be adventurous. Don't stay loyal to a brand when you can get a far better deal on something new.

_ Share the savings. Think of a neighbor or someone in your community and pick up the item to donate.

_ Ask. Even veteran coupon users get useful advice from others, so join an online forum or a local coupon club to maximize savings. (Martinez is a member of www.hotcouponworld.com.)

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© 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.