For many families, the once-mundane chore of food shopping has become a challenge to keep a lid on the weekly budget, and even higher-income consumers are getting into the act.
Consider couponing, for instance. Avid coupon clippers typically spend hours each week scouring the papers, clipping and organizing their grocery list with current coupon opportunities in mind.
Clippers have been happier lately, because manufacturers have been issuing more coupons, with greater face value, than ever before, says Judith Langer, a New York-based market research consultant.
Indeed, makers of food, shampoo, aspirin and the like are sending out more and more coupons. They’re also offering fatter discounts, according to a new national study by D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles ad agency in St. Louis. But in exchange for their generosity, manufacturers want you to hurry down to the supermarket. Expiration dates are getting shorter as product-makers seek a quicker sales bang for their coupon promotions.
After taking a slight dip in 1991, the average weekly grocery expenses of a representative household rose again last year, according to the Food Marketing Institute, a supermarket trade group, which conducts a survey on grocery expenditures each January.
But experts say consumers are doing their best to make sure that doesn’t happen again by “revolting” against grocery prices. Besides increasing their use of coupons, consumers are picking up the store-brand rather than brand-name products.
In the past, only low- or moderate-income consumers tended to be fastidiously frugal about their food bill, notes University of Iowa marketing professor Raj Sethuraman. But now, high-income customers have joined the hunt for savings.
“Even families with incomes of $100,000 may not feel they have many disposable dollars if they are in debt or if they are putting kids through college,” notes Langer.
The D’Arcy study shows that manufacturers are papering America with coupons-310 billion of them a year. That’s about 1,200 for every man, woman and child. The coupon count doubled in the last decade and jumped 6 percent last year alone.
If consumers used them all every year, they would be $186 billion ahead. In fact, they redeemed only $4.6 billion worth. A bit more than 97 percent of all coupons go straight into the trash can.
But because most coupons get tossed rather than tucked beside a grocery list, manufacturers have started to rethink the strategy, says Langer.
“Coupons have become a mini-industry,” she says. “Manufacturers have found that having coupons available at the point of purchase makes life easier.”
At Dominick’s Finer Foods, for instance, machines in the aisles dispense coupons on selected items, and once you’re at the checkout, coupons spit out for items that you are likely to purchase in the future.
“The coupon can be for another size of the item purchased, or another variety, or for a related product,” explains Rich Simpson, director of public affairs.
And this past March, Jewel Food Stores introduced a Preferred Customer program, whereby customers who apply can receive a special card that they hand over at the checkout line to qualify for discounts on certain items they are purchasing.
Wendy Nickels, a Clarendon Hills mother of three preschoolers, thinks the savings from coupon clipping are worth a couple of hours of her time each week. Shopping with a purse full of coupons and taking advantage of the in-store instant coupons once netted her a 20 percent savings off her bill.
“I’ve never done quite as well since,” she says, “but I’m happy if it’s 10 or 15 percent.”
And shoppers who have ignored coupons buried in the newspaper because of the time-consuming inconvenience of clipping may not be averse to the concept if the coupons are almost handed to them in the grocery aisle.
But, says Arlington Heights resident Sue Sullivan, “I won’t buy something just because the machine is flashing at me.”
Indeed, freelance writer Rhonda Barfield of St. Charles, Mo., author of “Eat Well for $50 a Week,” says that saving on groceries through the use of coupons can be deceptive.
“Coupons are typically for convenience or foods that are just too expensive anyway,” she says.
Also, a lot of manufacturers are bumping their coupons just a tad above the 40- or 50-cent mark, says Deborah Bozsa, a vice president at D’Arcy. Those are the cutoff points at which many supermarket chains will double the value of coupons.
In effect, they’re saving consumers less by offering a bigger coupon.
Private labels vs. brand names
Coupons are one of the defenses that manufacturers have used to try to stem the growing consumer acceptance of private label or store brands.
As a result, consumers now expect a bargain on some products and they’ll switch brands if it’s not offered. For instance, 43 percent of disposable diapers are now bought with coupons-the highest level for any product.
“Better labeling allows consumers to more easily compare products,” notes the University of Iowa’s Sethuraman. “The perception of low-quality private label products is disappearing.”
In fact, consumers may be adopting the opinion that the quality of private labels is sometimes even better than that of national brands.
Consumer Reports magazine rated 25 brands of chocolate-chip cookies in its October issue. Two of the three best-rated cookies were store brands.
“I pick up private labels over half of the time,” says Sue Sullivan. “I decide to buy them either through trial and error or on the recommendation of friends.”
Instead of issuing coupons, some manufacturers, notably Procter & Gamble and Philip Morris, are lowering prices to better compete with private labels, says Sethuraman.
Notes Northbrook resident Jack Boehm: “Brand items on sale are often priced just 20 cents or so more than the private label. I don’t think that’s enough of a difference to try the private label.”
