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The supermarket shopper: United States is coupon saver of the supermarket world

Web posted April 22, 1998

By Martin Sloane
Universal Press Syndicate

I urge my readers who will be taking summer vacations -- especially if they will be traveling abroad -- to check out supermarkets. I guarantee it will be an interesting experience. Although you will find many familiar brand names -- like Procter & Gamble, General Mills and Kraft Foods -- on the shelves of foreign supermarkets, you will not find shoppers turning in manufacturers' coupons at the checkout counters.

The good news is that the checkout lines move faster. The very bad news for the smart shoppers in these stores is that they don't have the savings we enjoy in the United States.

According to Brian Husselbee, president of NuWorld NCH Promotional Services Ltd. (the Chicago-based firm that keeps track of couponing in the United States and around the world), approximately 2,500 coupons per household were distributed in the United States in 1997. By comparison, only 273 coupons per household were distributed in Canada. In Europe, shoppers receive coupons far less frequently: Last year, the household coupon-distribution figure for the United Kingdom was 193, but only 21 coupons were distributed per household in Italy, and just four coupons per household were distributed in Spain. In other countries, manufacturer grocery-product coupons don't even exist.

It's not that shoppers aren't interested in clipping coupons. Smart shoppers in Spain would love to receive more coupons because the typical coupon value in that country is the equivalent of 91 cents. In the United Kingdom, the average coupon value in 1997 was a hefty 82 cents. Compare these values to coupons in the United States, where the average face value of a coupon was 74 cents last year.

Why hasn't the coupon craze caught on abroad? It depends mainly on the manufacturers, but also on the supermarkets. The manufacturers must be convinced that couponing will sell more products and will be especially useful in getting people to try new ones. The supermarkets must be convinced that despite all the work involved, it is good business to redeem coupons.

According to Mr. Husselbee, couponing can easily get off-track. For example, the distribution of coupons in the United Kingdom was expanding several years ago, but it took a serious blow when supermarkets decided that coupons were as good as cash, and since the manufacturers were foolish enough to give this new kind of money away, the supermarkets would assist their customers by redeeming every coupon that shoppers turned in, regardless of whether or not the product was purchased. So shoppers began clipping out all the coupons and redeeming them against any grocery purchases. As soon as the manufacturers realized this, they stopped issuing most of their coupons.To make coupons work in other countries, there must be supermarkets that are willing and able to participate. In Spain and Italy, supermarkets are not enthusiastic about redeeming coupons because the coupon handling fees they receive only reimburse them for half of the actual cost of redeeming and processing the coupons. In these countries, manufacturers pay supermarkets a relatively low handling fee, the equivalent of about 3 [1/2] cents per coupon. They see redeeming coupons as work for which they are not adequately compensated. Here in the United States, supermarkets receive a handling fee of 8 cents per coupon.

The coupon industry in the United States started in the late 1890s and developed slowly for half a century. It only began to experience real growth in the 1970s. By then, both the manufacturers and the supermarkets had developed the systems and the important trust and confidence needed to make coupons work in a very big way -- creating more than $3 billion in savings for smart shoppers. How lucky we are.

Send questions and comments to Martin Sloane in care of United Feature Syndicate, 200 Madison Ave., fourth floor, New York, NY 10016. Mr. Sloane will respond to letters of general interest in the column.