It’s getting a little harder to use coupons for a few dozen boxes of cereal, if you were so inclined. Unless you buy them four at a time, every day. Post has become the latest manufacturer to add the fine print “Limit of 4 like coupons in same shopping trip.”
The new wording first showed up in last Sunday’s SmartSource insert, on a coupon for Honey Bunches of Oats Greek Honey Crunch cereal. They also appear on three coupons in today’s SmartSource insert, suggesting that they’re now a permanent part of Post’s fine print.
Post first added similar, but more confusing, language to its coupons last summer. But the wording “Only 4 like items may be purchased in same transaction” left many scratching their heads. Did that mean if you didn’t use a coupon, you could buy as much cereal as you wanted – but if you used a single coupon, you were only allowed to buy four boxes?
In November, Post told Coupons in the News that they’d “had very few questions/concerns from consumers” about the wording, though there had already been quite a dust-up on the Honey Bunches of Oats Facebook page. A spokesperson told Coupons in the News that “it is not our intention to confuse consumers,” so “we will be revising the text in the near future on our coupons to make it clearer for consumers.”
And apparently the “near future” is now. One small defeat for extreme couponers, one small victory for those who prefer their coupon language in plain English.
Coupons are a good idea for the individual, but a bad idea for the society. It spreads the cost saved by the coupon user to everyone not using them. Also, they can encourage people to buy things that they do not need, which can add up to waste. I’d like to see coupons banned myself.
If you use the coupon in the picture, and you have four of that coupon, you can buy 16 boxes of cereal in one transaction. That’s a pretty good amount for stocking up!
Very true – probably not the best example to have used as an illustration. Then again, it kind of points out the absurdities of some of these restrictions – you can only use 4 coupons to buy 4 boxes, unless you have this particular coupon, then you can buy 16! (You also have to find a place for 4 gallons of milk, but that’s another story.)