Electronic Coupons

          Any Coupon Queen worth her salt knows that electronic coupons, or e-coupons, are important weapons in the battle to save money on groceries.  Many stores have e-coupons that you can load onto your shopper card or cell phone, such as Kroger, Target and Meijer.  This certainly makes it easier to save money because the coupons automatically come off your order when you check out with your shopper card or cell phone. 

            Although most every store says that they will only accept one manufacturers’ coupon per item, up until recently, you could use an e-coupon and a paper coupon on the same item at Kroger.  Obviously this saved many a Coupon Queen a ton of money!  However, all good things must come to an end, and this was no exception.  Kroger has changed their system so that it will now deny your use of a paper manufacturers’ coupon (MQ) if you’ve got an e-coupon for that same item.

            I am not upset that I can’t use two manufacturers’ coupons on one item anymore.  I knew it was a matter of time before stores disallowed this.  However, I am a little peeved that I can’t choose which one to use at the register.  If I have an e-coupon for something, it will automatically come off my order and I’ll be denied the chance to use my paper MQ.  If my paper coupon is higher value, that’s too bad for me.  What does this mean for us couponers?  It means we will have to more closely manage our e-coupons.  Before going to Kroger, I will need to check my list of e-coupons and see if I have a superior paper MQ.  If so, I’ll delete the e-coupon from my Kroger card so I can use my paper coupon.

            One thing that did upset me on my recent trip to Kroger, was that I got denied the valid use of one of my paper manufacturers’ coupons.  Here’s what happened.  Six-packs of Jello pudding cups were on sale for $2.28 each.  I had two paper MQ’s for 50 cents off, which would double to a $1 off, making the two packs of pudding $1.28 each.  When I went to check out, the cashier gave me my two paper coupons back, saying that I had e-coupons for those items.  When I got home, I noticed that I only had ONE 75 cent e-coupon for Jello, not two.  Clearly, the second paper manufacturers’ coupon should have been accepted.  I will be going back to Kroger tomorrow to see if they will grant me an adjustment.  I hope they will get this fixed in their system so I don’t have to argue over it with the cashier in the future.

            What would be nice is if the cashier would say, “You have an e-coupon for this item.  Would you like to use it or is there a paper coupon you’d rather use?”  Maybe if enough of us ask for it, the stores will comply.  So, should we give up on e-coupons in the mean time? Definitely not!  However, it looks like there will be a little more maintenance of our e-coupons for the time being.