When it comes to coupons, 2025 has been a year of contradictions. Inflation-weary shoppers need coupons more than ever, but fewer of them are being redeemed. Discounts are going digital, but one retailer made headlines by introducing more paper coupons. Lawmakers have tried making coupons easier to use, but their efforts have made some coupons harder to find.
That’s where we find ourselves as another year comes to a close. For more than 13 years now, Coupons in the News has been covering this space like no one else, and wrapping up each year with a look at the biggest stories to impact anyone who’s ever clipped a coupon. A peek at previous years’ lookbacks can be like opening a couponing time capsule.
So before 2025 gets packed away into that virtual time capsule with all the others, let’s take a moment to recap the most notable coupon news stories of the year that will impact your couponing for years to come – many of which you read first, or only, right here on Coupons in the News:
10. Many (un)happy returns?
It’s an age-old debate – if you return a product that you bought using a coupon, are you entitled to get the value of the coupon back? This year, the world’s largest retailer attempted to put that debate to rest with a definitive answer:
No.
Walmart made a rare update to its coupon policy, which now states that refunds for returned products “will not include any manufacturer coupon credit that applied to the original transaction.” That brings it in line with most other major retailers that only refund what you actually paid out of pocket. Couponers may say it’s unfair – they can’t get their coupon back to use again, so why can’t they get its value back? But fraudsters have long exploited this system, purposely returning products in order to turn their coupons into cash.
And as is true in so many cases involving coupons, fraudsters are why we can’t have nice things anymore.
9. Coupons you can actually use
Sometimes the list of excluded brands on a department store coupon can be so long, it can make you wonder what the coupon actually can be used on. At around this time last year, Kohl’s coupons would have had to be the length of a CVS receipt in order to fit all of their exclusions – a list on Kohl’s website contained an eye-popping 656 unique brands and categories that were not coupon-eligible.
So this year, Kohl’s decided to make a change, in the customers’ favor. The ludicrously-long list of exclusions “polarized our core customer,” company executives admitted. So they began reducing the number of excluded brands and categories, so their coupons are now actually worth something.
“We feel good about the progress that we’re making there,” CEO Michael Bender told investors last month, as Kohl’s customers now “have more purchasing power this year compared to last year.”
And that means, for the first time in a long time, Kohl’s coupons are finally worth more than the paper they’re printed on.
8. Long live printable coupons
At another major chain, meanwhile, coupons you print yourself are no longer worth the paper they’re printed on.
Michigan-based Meijer updated its coupon policy earlier this year, becoming the first major retailer to state that it will no longer accept “coupons printed on personal printers.” It was an unusual move to make at an unusual time, since printable coupons are both less plentiful and more secure than ever. So if the goal was to fight fraud, Meijer is a decade or two late to that battle.
And if Meijer was hoping to start a trend, it’s notable that no other major retailer has followed suit. Printable coupons are still perfectly valid and accepted at most other retailers. As a reminder, Coupons.com’s new owners launched a new effort to publicize their offerings, and for the first time in a long time, a brand new printable site launched this past summer.
So printables may be dead to Meijer. But the format itself lives on.
7. Retailers survive, revive and unalive
A major drug store chain is no longer. Several retailers are under new ownership. And a couple of stores left for dead are back in business.
Those are just some of the changes impacting strip malls and street corners in a town near you this year. First, Rite Aid finally called it quits, declaring bankruptcy and closing all of its stores for good. Dollar Tree sold off its Family Dollar chain, ALDI did the same to its recent acquisition Winn Dixie, and several regional grocery chains changed hands when a couple of grocery wholesalers merged.
But in some cases, you can’t keep a good brand down for long. Big Lots went bust last year, but new owners swooped in this year to bring it back to life, with 218 stores now back in business. And Bed Bath & Beyond fizzled out a couple of years ago, but new owners this year revived the chain – and its famous coupons – reopening six physical stores and promising more to come.
If you were a big Rite Aid fan, then, just give it a minute – the dead name of a dead chain could be coming back any moment now.
6. A coupon boom goes bust?
Tough times can be good times for the coupon industry, as shoppers who are increasingly concerned about their finances become increasingly interested in clipping coupons.
That’s been the case for the past couple of years, at least. But this year, a boomlet in coupon use appears to be fizzling out a bit. Mid-year stats from Inmar Intelligence showed that, even though affordability concerns linger, coupon redemption dipped in the first half of the year. It’s the first time since 2022 that coupon use has declined.
Final stats that come in early next year will tell the tale about whether shoppers still care about coupons, or just don’t care about the coupons they’re given.
5. Those price tags may be watching you
They say you can’t regulate what you don’t understand. But that’s never stopped some people from trying.
This is the year that a lot of lawmakers saw digital price tags for the first time – and didn’t like them. Fears that retailers could use the high-tech tags to change the prices they charge based on demand, time of day, or even the personal characteristics of individual shoppers, led many state and national legislators to propose laws banning a practice that retailers insist isn’t happening.
One proposal in particular goes further than its supporters likely intended, stating that any price changes must be applied to all shoppers and not be based on anyone’s “purchase history,” which would effectively outlaw personalized coupons and deals.
So if you’re in favor of regulating digital price tags, be careful what you wish for – because, in this case, the most important law could prove to be the law of unintended consequences.
4. A bit of bitter Honey
Last year at this time, a YouTuber released a video claiming to expose the PayPal-owned Honey online coupon browser extension as the “scam of the century.” Last week, he released a long-awaited follow-up, accusing Honey of “targeting minors and exploiting small businesses.” PayPal’s lawyers quickly responded, telling the self-described investigative journalist that “many of the facts stated in your videos are wrong and the accusations you make are defamatory.”
And those lawyers have been busy, as in between videos, dozens of online influencers were inspired to sue PayPal – and many of its competitors – accusing them of using the draw of online coupons to steal sales commissions that the influencers said rightfully belonged to them.
Many of those lawsuits are ongoing. Some have been thrown out. Capital One settled, but denies wrongdoing and predicts few will ever see any settlement money. And while some media outlets have interpreted a judge’s dismissal of the Honey complaint to mean that case is over, the plaintiffs have signaled that they have every intention of refiling their complaint and fighting on.
So it will be up to the courts to determine the sweetness of Honey, by judging the arguments of those who have soured on it.
3. Counterfeit customers convicted
Coupon crime always tends to make an appearance on these year-end lists, and this year is no exception. There was the Massachusetts woman sentenced for using more than 3,000 counterfeit coupons at more than a dozen Stop & Shop stores. A California woman was sentenced to nearly three years in prison for creating and selling more than 100,000 counterfeit Catalina coupons worth nearly $10 million. A Texas woman also stands accused of creating millions of dollars worth of counterfeit Catalina coupons and selling them online.
But the case that justifies coupon crime’s prominent placement on this year-end list, involves five women who claimed they were mere “coupon enthusiasts.” Each was charged, and four of the five so far have been sentenced to prison time, for purchasing fake coupons from notorious coupon counterfeiter Lori Ann Talens. Typically, it’s the sellers who tend to be charged in major counterfeit cases. But this case was unique in that prosecutors went after some of the seller’s top customers, too.
The fifth and final customer to be charged finds out her fate in February. And future buyers of counterfeit coupons are now on notice that their misguided efforts to save money could prove costly.
2. So long to SmartSource
Given its increasing rarity and diminishing size, the demise of the SmartSource coupon insert this year was perhaps not a surprise. But it was notable nonetheless, as a tangible reminder of the seismic shifts in the way we receive and use coupons.
The newspaper coupon insert was revolutionary when it was introduced more than a half century ago. And for nearly four decades, SmartSource was a constant presence in Sunday newspapers across the country. But with newspaper readership declining, demand for paper coupons waning, and clients shifting to digital-only discounts, the SmartSource inserts became so thin as to become unsustainable. Publisher Neptune Retail Solutions officially retired the printed inserts this past spring.
The competing Save insert now has the space all to itself, and the publisher plans to continue issuing them in the new year. While the roughly once-a-month publication schedule is far from the format’s peak, it keeps a tradition alive – for at least a little while longer.
1. Down with digital discrimination
Two years ago at this time, the top coupon story of the year was the then-novel idea of requiring stores to offer in-store alternatives to digital-only discounts. Last year, the top story involved retailers scrambling to preemptively comply, as it seemed those efforts might actually become reality.
This year is when one of those efforts actually did. San Diego became the first jurisdiction in the country to mandate that grocery stores offer alternative ways for digitally-disconnected shoppers to access digital-only coupons and deals.
Advocates for fairness and equity cheered the news, as retailers reacted by making their discounts more accessible. But critics warned of unintended consequences, as other retailers reacted by restricting their discounts for everyone. And conspicuous silence about a consumer complaint involving one retailer is raising questions about how strictly the new ordinance will actually be enforced.
As the year comes to an end, the debate over how and whether to regulate digital-only deals is far from over. With other cities and states still considering similar moves, it appears the effort to slow the industry’s inexorable march toward digital-only coupons is only just beginning.
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And that’s where things stand as we close out another year and get ready for a brand new year full of developments, discussions and debates about coupons. As always, you can keep up with all of it right here on Coupons in the News. So be sure to bookmark this site, become a Facebook fan, follow @couponinthenews on X (Twitter) or subscribe to the daily emailed newsletter. And please keep in touch with any news tips, comments or questions by sending an email anytime.
Thank you for your loyal readership over the past 13+ years, and stay tuned for much more in the year ahead. Happy holidays and happy couponing!
Image sources: cpyles 
/BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash
