The recession has caused many individuals to lose their jobs, and others have seen their wages decrease with hours cut from shifts. A result of this loss in income is the rise of coupons, with many families turning to these handy cut-outs to save a quick buck on readily used household products. Freshman Stephanie Yuan said that she doesn’t use coupons often but, “Only when they’re on hand because usually we leave them at home.”
Not only has clipping coupons from the Sunday paper become more popular, but high-tech sites have also begun to cater to the increased demand for coupons. The most famous of these social networking coupon sites is Groupon.com (a portmanteau derived from “group coupon”). The company is a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies. Groupon’s business model is based on the fact that if a certain number of people sign up for an offer, the deal becomes available to all, but if not enough people sign up, the deal is given to nobody that day.
Unlike traditional advertising, there is very little risk on the part of the merchant because of the fact that it is free to post coupons on Groupon. Many consumers find Groupon convenient because it gives targeted coupons for local businesses, rather than overwhelming amounts of coupons for huge businesses.
Apart from online deals, there has also been a rise in “extreme” couponers – people who spend as little money as possible in the grocery store due to their diligent coupon clipping and saving habits. One internet site that chronicles the doings of an extreme couponer and teachers others the methods is thekrazycouponlady.com.
On her website, she includes guides to individual stores and the types of coupons that these stores accept. She also includes coupon databases for the people viewing her site and indeed, hopes to help people “become coupon krazy.” Junior Tatiana Anthony said, “I think they [extreme couponers] have the right idea, and it’s admirable of them for trying to save money, but once it starts getting in the way of shopping regularly or they start spending more money on the magazines than they save, they’ve gone too far.
Although this couponing behavior may largely be the result of belt-tightening due to the recession, the shift in consumer habits could also portend the fact that the American consumer is becoming more responsible in their shopping habits – spending less and looking to save more. Indeed, sophomore Alex Chen said, “We use coupons fairly often save money on stuff, but they can be a real hassle for the cashier to check and for us to cut them out,” just going to show that clipping coupons can still be a hassle, but one that many families are willing to overcome.