Coupons are a great way to save money when shopping, especially when you have to support more people. Coupons can be deadly in the wrong hands though. Those deadly hands to which I am referring to are extreme couponers. These couponers aren't like the average couponer. They buy items in mass quantities and use so many coupons that they either pay very, pay nothing, or we pay them for their spandings.
Now, I can't speak for other stores, but at Publix we use a lot of coupons and even accept competitor coupons. Some extreme couponers are really nice, know what they're doing, but are still good people that we love to see. There are a lot of couponers that we just can't stand though. They try to cheat the system we have set in place, get away with bad coupons, use coupons on items they don't apply to, etc. In the cases where we pay them, the remaining balance is put on a gift card. They stock up on these gift cards and use them to pay for the other times where their coupons didn't cover the entire bill. They then sometimes turn around and get a refund by returning some of those items, without the receipt. They then get another gift card for those and the cycle continues.
There is also often an issue of resale. Some couponers turn around and sell the items they got at flea markets and whatnot. I also had one of my regulars tell me she gets "paid to coupon." I'm not sure if she meant it as in she sells them at flea markets or what, but there is some sort of business in couponing. That same regular also gave eight of us an entire box of Popsicles each, but I digress.
Sometimes when it comes to extreme couponers versus the cashier/store, I will call it a battle of ethics. A lot of couponers are not very ethical people, but sometimes to combat this, a cashier will do something that may or not may be ethical in return. The ethical thing to do when dealing with a couponer who isn't being ethical is to double check their coupons match with the items they got, politely decline coupons that don't match up and explain why, etc. I have had cashiers in the past notice coupons that aren't able to be used in our store or with the items they got, so when the couponer wasn't looking they hid the coupon behind another, scanned the one they hid it behind and threw the coupon away after the order. Is this the most ethical thing to do? No. The proper thing to do would have been to just tell the couponer that you can't accept the coupon and get a manager involved if necessary.
I do have to say it is rather impressive how much people can save by couponing, how much people can cheat the system and how much effort is put in to this in either case. I don't agree with the morals and ethics of a lot of the extreme couponers, but for those who are respectful, kind and do couponing well and ethically, I fully support your decision to do what you do.
