When a Snack Bar Isn’t a Snack Bar: The South Beach Diet Coupon Dilemma

Sometimes it turns out that a high-value coupon is only good on high-value products. But it helps when you can decipher exactly which are which.

That’s the problem many couponers are having today, after racing to print a $3 off coupon for South Beach Diet products that the company is now clarifying isn’t meant to be used on what everyone would like to use it on.

South Beach’s most inexpensive products are its cereal bars, which many stores sell for $3 or less. In fact, they’re “buy one get one free” at Publix stores in the new ad that starts this week, and $1.99 at Meijer. Free, or – if your store allows – moneymaker cereal bars then, right?

Well, no, sadly. The coupon says it’s good on “snack smoothies, meal bars, snack bars, Sweet Delights or Ready Meals.” What it fails to point out is that the cereal bars, as a reasonable person might expect, are not “snack bars” at all. Even more confusing, the cereal bars have three different names – there are still products on the shelves with the older “Protein Fit” and “Fiber Bars” labels, though the entire line of cereal bars is now known as “Good to Go” bars. And “cereal bars” only appears in small print near the bottom of the boxes. Simple enough to understand, right? No? Well, you’re not alone.

South Beach advises that the best way to tell, for those who are still confused, is that the items the coupon is good for, are shelved with the diet products. The cereal bars, which the coupon is not meant for, are sold in the cereal aisle, along with granola bars, fruit bars and other – um – snacks.

Sure sounds like the cereal bar is a snack, then. But not to South Beach. It says the Protein Fit/Fiber Bar/Good to Go bars are in their own unique category, and are neither meal bars nor snack bars. That’s even though they’re described on the South Beach Diet website as “a tasty way to make better snack choices.” Final verdict: whatever they’re called, the company says the coupon is not meant to be used on the cereal bars. “Our intention,” a South Beach Diet spokesperson tells Coupons in the News, “is to provide a highly valued consumer coupon that is used on the appropriate products — the Diet Aisle products in this case.”

It’s not the first time oddly-named categories of food caused some coupon confusion. Just last month, Publix offered a store coupon for $.55 off a “Green Giant Majors” product. Just try Googling “Green Giant Majors”, or search the Green Giant website, to figure out what exactly constitutes a “Major”. Other times, the inclusions, exclusions and limitations listed in a coupon’s fine print have left couponers scratching their heads (read some tales of fine print confusion here).

Some are suggesting to South Beach that perhaps they should list the single product exclusion on their next coupon, instead of including a laundry list of products that it is good on, and leaving it to its customers to sort out. Or maybe it shouldn’t exclude any types of “bars” at all, since it’s nearly impossible to tell them all apart. The South Beach Diet spokesperson says the company will “consider those comments as we move forward.” In the meantime, you can use the coupon on smoothies, meal bars, etc. And if you’re in the mood for a munchie, why not pick up a South Beach Diet cereal bar?

Whatever you do, though, just don’t call it a snack.

Image source: SouthBeachDiet.com