Kroger plans to stop doubling coupon amounts...

[Phentex]

I admit I hardly use coupons anymore. When I did shop at Kroger regularly, they'd send me Kroger coupons on items I frequently purchased. I'd say in the last six months or so, I began to choose Publix over Kroger for a variety of reasons, so my Kroger coupons stopped coming.

I don't get the paper anymore so I don't get the Sunday coupons. Even when I got them, I found I was using less and less. Just didn't have products that I needed. Also, I am too lazy to shop for electronic coupons although I know many people like doing that.

Anyway, I am not too surprised Kroger will stop the doubling. I guess others will follow suit.

What's your experience?

[Curmudgeoness]

1. In the area that I live, no one doubles coupons.

It used to be that they did on one day a week----probably the slowest day. We have not had a Kroger here for 40 or 50 years.

I also rarely use coupons these days. I used to use them all the time, but that was when there were many more coupons for things that were necessities, and there were no such thing as generic brands. I also do not use prepared foods, and almost all the coupons I get are for some strange new prepared food. Occasionally, I will use a coupon for a cleaning supply or personal hygiene, but I use so many generic brands that I cannot tell you when the last time I bought a brand name.

[onestepforward]

2. Kroger stopped doubling and tripling coupons

about 2 years ago here in Houston. It was right before that coupon show started on TV. I quit shopping there because of that. Their prices are high without coupons.

[IrishAyes]

3. Coupons? What are coupons?

At least locally in this tiny town in RedNeckLand, we're dang lucky even to have a medium-size grocery and one dented-cans outlet. Neither take coupons; the grocery doesn't even pay for ads in the local weekly (or anywhere else) because they know most people have nowhere else much to go anyhow. To help normal people picture this, the nearest Walmart is about 60 miles away.

Oh well. I grow a lot of my fruits and veggies anyway. If anyone else has false fantasies about retiring to smalltown America, realize there are many trade-offs for what you get. This place imagines itself Mayberry but Peyton Place would be closer. The rates for violent and property crimes are pretty low, but the main recreation around here seems to be character assassination. Because my house is a hundred years old, the property tax is a whopping $184 a year, but when the residents aren't chewing up each other, they're also xenophobic as geese, especially regarding liberals.

I'm just saying there are tradeoffs for affordability, and people need to remember that. I had 3 different people ask me who's Bob Dylan when the subject of music arose. If you engage at all, your jaw will often drop to the floor. That is, if someone doesn't knock it off first. Your jaw, I mean; not the floor.

[No Vested Interest]

4. Kroger headquarters are in Cincinnati

where I live. Kroger is the predominant supermarket; my son worked in one of the stores until recently.
Kroger stopped double coupons here about a year ago. They contended they were lowering prices everyday, but that doesn't seem to be the way it worked out. I guess prices are going up at the wholesale level as well.

I do use coupons, though not a slave to them. I try to couple the use with a sale on a given item for a good saving. I will frequently try a new product if it appeals and the coupon offers a good enough overall savings.

OTOH, a smaller local chain often gets my business, and they still double coupons, though their prices might be a little higher overall to begin with. However, the smaller store is easier and more pleasant to shop in and to maneuver around in; the staff is more pleasant. Hope they aren't driven out of business by the busier Kroger.