(Image credit – Flickr – Mr. Smashy)
WARNING: In case you don’t share my dry sense of humor, some of the advice may or may not be in jest. Huge grains of salt may be required for swallowing with this post. Follow this advice at your own risk!
Last week, a concerned couponer left a rather interesting photo on my Facebook wall. It was of a woman in a grocery aisle – a “peeler.” The concerned couponer said that if more people called her out, this thing would stop. While I agree that clearing all the peelies off products (or worse, hawking them on ebay) is a no-no, I wondered if this was the best way to address this situation. If nothing else, I thought it was a topic worth talking about, and I thought I’d share additional ideas for dealing with crooked couponers.
If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I’ve got some rather strong feelings about coupon etiquette and ethics. I believe that the actions of one can impact many others. I believe in befriending stores and manufacturers, and not treating them as our opponents in a game of strategy. I believe in sharing deals that will work for the majority of the folks, the majority of the time. I believe in sharing deals you can feel 100% good about – and that my store partners can feel 100% good about too. Etc, etc, etc. You feel me.
But what happens when you catch someone “in the act?” “Doing the deed,” so to speak? Rifling through unopened product for coupons, snitching coupon inserts out of unpaid Sunday papers, ripping off one-too-many peelies, or some other couponing no-no?
As I see it, you have four options. Let’s explore these, and the possible outcomes of each.
1. Confront them, head on. In this scenario, you let the crooked couponer know in no uncertain terms you’ve seen what they are doing and it’s wrong. This is what you might call the Direct Approach. If you are truly concerned about calling people out on their misbehavior, well then, this is probably the best way to do it. If you have some furry handcuffs laying around (*ahem*), you could tackle them to the ground and put them under Couponer’s Arrest and then phone up Bud from the CIC. There are a few possible outcomes for taking this approach. First, the person could become quickly apologetic and/or embarrassed and/or put on sackcloth and ashes and pledge to reform their ways. Second – and probably far more likely – the person could become cantankerous, defensive, and you’ve just found yourself in an argument somewhere between the pet food and paper product aisles. And I have a feeling it’s an argument that you may not win. (Unless you’re really quick with those handcuffs.)
2. The subtle “I caught you” glare. This might be the best option for the passive aggressives out there. No, you don’t want to engage this person in a battle, but you do want to let them know that you know what’s up. You have a few different ways you could do this. You might saunter past them and do a very loud sigh, or you could call your friend on the phone and say within earshot “wow, funny I can’t seem to find ANY of those peelie coupons you told me about!” You could shoot a few glares, or cough, or accidentally bump into them with your cart. Hard. This might help relieve the angst you’re feeling in the moment whilst avoiding a cat fight.
3. Out them publicly. Too scared to confront them directly? No problem, that’s what the camera feature on your phone is for! While pretending to grab a jar of pasta sauce, take a picture of the couponer mid-coupon theft. Now, what do with the photo? Of course you could share it on your Facebook’s wall, but what is that going to do, really? Particularly if you’re only one of a few friends you know that coupons. Most people won’t care. You could pass it around some forums or blogs, but even that may not get you the bang for your buck. My advice is to purchase billboard space and plaster that sucker all up and down the I-5 corridor. Imagine the shock and horror as the crooked couponer is commuting to work one morning and BAM. Probably the outcome you should be most wary of in this scenario is a lawsuit. So, you might want to have a lawyer on standby just in case.
4. Do nothing – or do something positive. Of course, after weighing all the pros and cons, you could decide to take a breath and just keep walking. You won’t have to fear getting produce hucked at you, getting sued, or worse. Here’s the other thing you could do: you could play by the rules, and maybe if you’re so inclined, tip off a cashier or manager (particularly if there is theft involved). You could also teach someone else to use coupons and make sure they understand how coupon policies work. You could also consider that what you thought you saw may not be really the full truth of the matter, either. (For instance, that person rifling through the Sunday papers may just wanted to be certain all the inserts were there before buying it.)
So before you take the Coupon Police oath, grab those furry handcuffs and hit the aisles in the name of truth and Coupon Justice, consider the cost first. Maybe in the end you’d prefer to be a couponer that plays by the rules yourself and encourages others to do the same. The possible outcome of that scenario? A whole lot of money saved and a big smile on your face.
Ever catch a Crooked Couponer? How did you handle it? Any other ideas you’d add to my list?
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I almost always get my papers from the same corner store. When they see me looking for all of the inserts they know that I’m just checking to make sure that they are there. If I go to a different store, I let the nearest cashier know what I’m doing and make sure I stay in their line of site. As for the peelers, I’ve calmly let them know that the store could view that as theft since those were meant for those actually purchasing the product. Most of these ladies didn’t realize that they could be in trouble for that. I say something because I’ve seen store management ask one lady to leave the store and was asked not to come back for “peeling”. What they do with the info is their own business. If the continue, I let a cashier know. Same thing, what they do with the info is their business.
I don’t know if this is ethical, but I would rather calmly give info to them, then have someone who hasn’t been told what’s ok and what’s not to be reamed in the aisle by an angry shopper ( I’ve seen this too ). Any thoughts?
Wow – props to you for handling it so calmly! I’m going to take a gander and guess you pointed it out to these folks in a gentle, kind way that gave them the benefit of the doubt. Way to go!
I didn’t realize I should have someone watch me look through the paper but I do look through them at the begining of my shopping trip. I take 4 of the coupons from tear pads and the machine if it’s something I buy for the family because I have 4 people in my family and only peel coupons off the item if I am buying something that I can use it for that trip. Sometimes Morning Star will have a peelie on one item but it can be used for another or recently it was pizza. i haven’t seen anyone do anything to call them on but I agree that letting people know is the considerate way to handle that.
Two weeks ago there was a special display by the pharmacy at 312th Federal Way Albie’s. Each P&G feminine product had a peelie, making it totally free! I took the first package from the display, thinking how nice it would be to let The Coupon Project know of this great find. After getting to my car, I thought I’d go back and get one for a friend who works day shift. No more than ten minutes had passed by, yet when returning to the display, it had been wiped out! Immediately going up and down every aisle, I could not find the guilty person so I shared what happened with the head cashier. Manufacturers will stop being generous if actions like this continue. Thank you, Angela, for teaching people to coupon with integrity.
Thanks for sharing this story, Melodee. I was chatting with my husband about this post yesterday and his feeling was that the stores & manufacturers can always change things up. Your story reminds me that this is true. How hard would it be for manufacturers to put a coupon “code” on the product that couldn’t be taken off?? ITA, if behavior like that continues, stuff could change.
Since I learned from you, I will even leave the peelie there if I have a better coupon or if it’s for something I don’t normally use. For example, there were California Cheese coupons on my eggs and I don’t use that brand of cheese so I made sure to take the eggs that didn’t have that coupon on there so that someone else could have it instead of it just going to waste. So glad that you are here to help people learn how to coupon the right way
I usually go to my neighborhood and ask the if they use they’re coupons and they usually don’t so they give them to me!
And there you go – proof that this can be done in a respectful, beneficial way! Thanks for sharing, Stacey!
We buy 5 Sunday papers at our local Dollar Store. They cost $1 per paper. They carry all 3 papers issued in the area. I always check my papers right in front near the cashier just make sure the inserts are inside. When I first start buying papers there, I wasn’t checking and coming home to find no inserts in many of them.
My husband made a few runs to grab the papers. After going there for a few weeks, he noticed a woman there with her son week after week. My husband observed her(knowing papers were always missing inserts) for several weeks. He watched her take papers, head to the back of the store, come back & return those papers and grab a few more. She would repeat this a few times. One day he had enough and called her out in front of everyone! When the manager said she wanted to search her purse, so the woman stormed out. Now that woman is no longer allowed in the store!
I think my husband did a wonderful job by watching & waiting to make sure he was right, then busting her. Now every week when we check for inserts there are never any missing!
WOW! That’s one heck of a story! I’m glad it had a positive outcome!
I’ve never seen anyone doing anything unethical, but that’s probably because I’m the one who’s snagging peelies. (Kidding!)
I’ve only ever seen someone buying out an entire stack of Oregonians at a 7-11. That drives me nuts!
There, in my opinion, is a HUGE difference than taking a peelie coupon (which are often on one product and good for another) and STEALING the inserts out of a newspaper! Taken the inserts out of the paper is like opening up a box of cookies, taking a handful and putting the package back on the shelf. Peelies are a little more gray although some of them clearly state “when you buy this package” (which means, to me, it is not ok to take unless you buy THAT package) but many do not have wording like this and are good for products other than the one they are attached (which would seem like they are ok to take off to use for another product). Also I see absolutely nothing wrong with buying the entire stack of Oregonians (711probably appreciates it) because the Oregonian is widely available and costs th same no matter where you get it. It is not the same as clearing out the shelf on a good deal making it imposible for others to score the same deal. I have never had a problem not bing able to find the oregonian anywhere even if it is sold out at one place…
Hi Kelly, I agree that some of these things may vary in their definition of what’s right or wrong. The question in my mind when someone takes an entire tearpad of coupons, all the peelies off products, or even buys an entire stack of papers is this: is the intention to sell/resell them?
Even still, you’re right. Unless a store restricts how many papers you can buy (and they can – that’s their prerogative), this isn’t the same as stealing. Thanks for pointing that out and adding to the conversation.
The peelies are going 2 b used on any item any store take as many as u like just leave a few for next shopper…don’t resell them its against the law not for resale most coupons state this on the single coupon