Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1992 TAG: 9201080067
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
CLIP IT!
Every Sunday without fail, Tom Myers searches the newspaper for inserts and painstakingly clips selected coupons. Then he organizes them according to the layout of the supermarket where he shops.After that, he pulls out his trusty coupon file - a little plastic card box, really - and files new coupons among its labeled sections: soup, soap, personal products, frozen foods and so on.
"It's sort of a science," said 33-year-old Tom Myers, a corporate writer who has been snipping away for five years.
All this was once unthinkable for Myers.
"I used to laugh at people with coupons. I would think, `It's so silly. What a waste of time,' " he said. "But here I am in my 30s, and I'm doing it too."
It's worth the hassle, Myers thinks. At stores offering to double the value of coupons, he can easily save 25 percent off his $200 monthly grocery bill.
Brenda Mitchell of Vinton, Va., says she saves up to $50 a week on groceries with coupons. She looks for double coupons and other ways to get maximum savings. "I try to normally wait until an item's on sale and use a coupon with it," she says.
But what Mitchell does with coupons now is minor league compared to her system of the late 1970s and the early '8Os. That was the era when Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent Charlotte Kidd visited Mitchell's home and dubbed her the coupon queen.
"Her full-time job was couponing and her house was full of everything," Kidd recalls.
Mitchell says she did take couponing pretty seriously. "My husband didn't want me to work," so refunding and couponing became an occupation of sorts.
Mitchell devoted 15 to 20 hours a week to the task. She estimates that she and her family saved up to $5,000 a year by taking advantage of coupon, refund and rebate offers.
Along the way, Mitchell also learned a lot from couponing. She had to set up a filing system, be organized, meet deadlines. "That type of thing led to the position that I have now," she says. "I've been a purchasing agent for the last few years."
At a time when money is tight in many households, coupon clipping has become more than a hobby - it's an economic necessity. While supermarket chains are reluctant to quantify any increase in coupon redemption, there appear to be more coupons out there than ever before.
This year, 306 billion coupons are projected to be issued, compared with 280 billion in 1990, according to Carolina Manufacturer's Service Inc. of Winston-Salem, N.C., the largest manufacturers agent in the country that keeps track of coupons.
There is no average coupon user. "We've got young people, old people and in-between people," said Vicki Sanders of Vons supermarkets.
Another California-based supermarket chain, Ralphs, recently began a campaign that featured actual customers from varying backgrounds who saved through double coupons, check-out coupons and sale items. Testimonials from men and women were put in ads, shopping bags and on big signs hanging from supermarket ceilings.
There are some common characteristics, based on interviews with several local shoppers. First, most coupon users are not brand loyal, figuring that one brand of paper towels is more or less the same as the next. Also, nearly all save at least 10 percent off their grocery bills and wouldn't do their major shopping without coupons.
Hal Rodman, a suburban Newhall resident, clips coupons for candy items, so he can bring them to the movies instead of paying the theater's higher prices.
Despite the savings, it sometimes isn't easy being a coupon user.
Rodman acknowledged that he felt cheap the first time he used coupons four years ago. "I felt kind of embarrassed at first, being a male walking around with all these coupons," he said, adding that he likes to shop at night to avoid the crowds.
His feelings of being cheap have changed. "Once you look at savings, you can rationalize it," he said. "I think, `If I save $25, I can fill up my [gas] tank.'
"If I don't save one-third off the original price, then I'm doing bad," he added.
Myers also felt embarrassed at first. But that quickly changed the first time he saved $50 on his grocery bill. He shops only once a month, and usually fills up two shopping carts. And he always brings his coupons.
"It's no fun at all," said Virginia Olson, 75, a suburban Glendale resident. "I just do it because it saves money."
Olson puts her coupons in 20 envelopes labeled according to product groups. "You have to keep them separate so you don't go crazy trying to find the one you want," she said. These were put in a shoe box at first, but transferred to a bigger box when the coupon file grew. She clips often, hardly missing a day.
Mitchell's lifestyle has changed since those years when clipping coupons was nearly a career. Her husband has died, and her children have grown up. Now coupons typically occupy 15 minutes of her time per week rather than 15 hours, she says.
But she's still convinced of their value. "You can gain a lot more per hour [with coupons] than you can with just about anything else.
"I think it's a great way for people to supplement their income or to provide a higher standard of living than they might be able to have otherwise."
Staff writer Tracie Fellers contributed to this story.