By Quentin Fottrell
- TLC
- J’aime Kirlew is glad she won’t be on Season Two of “Extreme Couponing,” which starts tonight.
Get your scissors ready: It’s time to start clipping coupons like you’ve never clipped before. Or maybe just wave them in anger and disbelief at the television.
“Extreme Couponing” returns to TLC tonight for a second season. The show, which follows shoppers who have a magnificent obsession with coupons, has made waves in the couponing community since its debut for the massive stockpiles its experts generate, and the over-the-top tactics they use. The result? A seismic shift in how manufacturers and retailers issue and manage coupons.
Companies have taken steps to curtail the most extreme of the extreme couponers. As Pay Dirt reported, Rite Aid, Target and Publix have restricted their coupon policies so that couponers can use fewer per transaction. Stores are also using a more sophisticated barcode system to prevent shoppers from using coupons meant for other items as “Extreme Couponing” star J’aime Kirlew did, and removing self-checkout registers so store employees can keep a watchful eye on coupon use. Manufacturers are also limiting the amount of times a coupon for a category of product can be used by one customer.
Kirlew, who talked to Pay Dirt about how the show changed her life, is unrepentant about some of the tactics that have made viewers gasp. But she’s made some changes, too. Newspaper theft has increased with the rise of extreme couponing, and Kirlew – who used to get free extra coupon inserts from her news carrier – now buys all her papers. “My discount is still 75% to 90% on my grocery bill,” she says.
As the extreme couponing craze continues, couponers should keep things in perspective. Coupon expert Jill Cataldo says the show has given novices unrealistically high expectations. “Shoppers feel disappointed if they walk into the store and their bill isn’t $5,” she says. Dustin Smith, a spokesman for TLC, says the show only endorses legal and responsible coupon use. “TLC has made the couponing conversation a national topic, and that dialogue helps anyone who is looking for ways to stretch their dollar,” he says.
Kirlew says she hopes some stores will eventually come back around in the rough economy: “It disappoints me to see a cashier huffing and puffing because we walk in with a coupon binder or a box full of coupons.”
Hello. alex
Coupons may offer discounts, but they’re also a form of advertising for companies. Whether you clip coupons from the Sunday circulars or print them from “Printapons”, you’ll see ads for hundreds of products in the process
I only watched one episode of the show and I never need to watch again. The fact that they stage so much of it and the stores go along with it (for what I might add they aren’t even getting great publicity) turned me right off. If you want to learn about couponing, shut off the t.v. and turn on your computer. I help out at HotCouponWorld.com and the owners there are very careful to promote ethical use of coupons and adherence to store policies. Check it out!
Those of us who coupon honestly and responsibly have NO problem with stores removing self-checkouts from their establishments. Self checkouts equal higher profits for the company, while placing jobs at risk. And we need jobs in this country, not more machines. We also don’t have a problem with better bar-code systems that prevent fraud. TLC and fraudsters like Kirlew give honest everyday couponers a bad name! What we DO have a problem with, however, is stores that participate in the TLC series, and help to create a negative public opinion of their normal, everyday couponing customers, while also encouraging a whole new breed of greedy copycats — only to turn around and use the show as their scapegoat to end double coupon programs, set extreme limits to “likes”, tighten coupon policies, and set up roadblocks to savings that severely affect their loyal couponing customers. Families will suffer because of this. What you see on television is not reality. It’s staged sensationalism. And if stores are using it as a way of hurting their most vulnerable customers, they should be ashamed.
TLC will be the downfall of the entire coupon industry and ruin everything for the everyday couponer who follows the rules of both coupon etiquette and store policies.