Coupons save US shoppers 10% a year
Pick up any newspaper in the US, and it will be full of money off coupons. On the internet, online coupons are offered on most sites. In fact loyalty schemes in America play a huge second fiddle to paper-based incentives when it comes to saving money.
Put the two together and the savings are impressing. A poll conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center for ShopSmart magazine, shows that people who use coupons and store-loyalty cards save over 10% a year on groceries, the equivalent of $678 a year.
“In the past year, the cost of eggs rose nearly 30 percent and prices of juices and dog food climbed nearly 15 percent, making coupon clipping more important than ever,” says Lisa Lee Freeman, editor-in-chief of ShopSmart.
The Coupon Poll is part of ShopSmart’s feature on hidden savings at the supermarket. The feature includes four secrets to reduce grocery expenses, the best coupon sites, and the pros and cons of online food-delivery services.
The Coupon Poll finds:
* Brand loyalty often takes a backseat to money-saving offers as 55% of female coupon clippers have bought a different brand than usual because of a coupon offer
* 30% of respondents made a special trip to the store just to use a coupon
* >65% of women have at least one store loyalty card at a place where they grocery shop and 56% use coupons at least occasionally
* The most commonly used source of coupons, weekend newspapers (73%), was also considered the best source by women who grocery shop
* On average, a woman who uses coupons will collect seven and use four.
* The average female grocery shopper estimates spending $116 in a typical week amounting to over $6,000 per year
* 75% of female grocery shoppers always or often watch the price scanner at checkout
* 19% of those watching the scanner frequently find errors.
The Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a telephone survey of a nationally representative probability sample of telephone households. 1,014 interviews were completed among women aged 18+. Interviewing took place over Nov. 15-18, 2007. The margin of error is +/- 3.1% points at a 95% confidence level.