The coupon depicted here on the left offered a free sample of Coca-Cola; it was back in 1887, when the idea of the coupon was just invented by the Coca-Cola Company. Since that time the offers have not changed much; free giveaways and deep discount coupons became standard marketing practice. However, the methods of distribution and the science of collecting and clipping coupons made marked progress. Looking beyond the Sunday Paper and the Value Pack mailer; or even the highly targeted digital dispensing at the point of purchase we venture into online dispensing and super smart shopping carts. With so many coupon dispensing websites and technologies; you would think that high technology is going to work for your bottom line. Not so fast! it appears that coupons are designed to lure not to save, to entice, remind and create awareness but not to cut your grocery bill. Coupons, like so many marketing tools have one purpose – to create maximum return at minimum expense. They are not meant to be redeemed, not so easily. Marketers purposely build friction into the coupon business, and for as long as they don’t jeopardize their original goal of getting the bigger share of your dollars, they don’t really want to save you any money.

It is only natural that as consumers we should try our best to outsmart marketers by finding ways to redeem coupons efficiently. As it goes, necessity is the mother of all inventions; and thankfully we have some real examples of attempts at injecting efficiency into the process. Living on a tight budget makes you think creatively about shopping and about ways to save money. Joined together, necessity and creativity, sparked the creation and proliferation of many online services claiming to help you get the most out of your money while requiring the least of your precious time and effort.

In this series we will examine these services and claims, starting with the Coupon Mom and the Grocery Game. We will try to focus on Grocery and Food to be loyal to our domain. It will be interesting to see who got the upper hand, we the shoppers or the marketers. Also, we hope to shed some light on the questions: “is it really worth my time?”, “do I really need this stuff?” etc.

Your comments and requests are most welcomed.