why are most coupons worth 1/100 of a cent?

Question

Are there people who make a living cashing in millions of coupons? Where would you go to redeem for the cash value of the coupon?

Answer 1

The stores redeem them to the manfuacturers. As an incentive for stores to redeem coupons the manufacturers reimburse the stores the face value of the coupon plus 1/100th of a cent per coupon. Dealing with large volumes of coupons can result in lots of additional revenue for the stores from coupons.
I don't know how long the coupons have had that value but I do remember a 60 minutes type show during the 80's, where they showed grocery stores that hired people to clip coupons to redeem to manufacturers for products they never sold. Certain manufacturers got wise to this and ran ads with coupons for porducts that didn't existice. Stores that returned these coupons were investigated and that is how they uncovered the scam.

Answer 2

That is the value of the paper.

Lol....I haven't thought about cashing in the coupons. I used to work at a grocery store at night, and was the one to add up all the coupons that people had redeemed during the day. There were thousands. I can't imagine someone coming in with millions of them. The store would have to pay the clerk overtime for them just to COUNT all the coupons.

Answer 3

I remember reading somewhere that people tried to cash in the coupons for the value, like 25 cents off a widget, without buying the widget, so they printed up a disclaimer saying it was worth 1/100th of a cent so people wouldn't think it was worth their while. Then they had an incident in the 70s where people purchased groceries on food stamps, whipped out the coupons they had "forgotten" to give the cashier before, and insisted on the cash back. (You can get cash back on items purchased with cash, but the cashier is liable to glare at you everytime she sees you.) So then they printed "not for cash" to thwart that.
The people making a living off the millions of coupons would be the coupon queens who store them until they have enough to buy something on triple coupon day, catching the loss leader items. Store X marks Kelloggs down to $1.49 a box, and Queen comes in with her 50 cent coupon, and gets the cereal free. A perfect way to supplement food stamps.

Answer 4

100 Cent

Answer 5

Due to legislation you had to offer a cash value for the coupon as well as for the amount that could be knocked off the price of your product.The aim was to ensure that the system could not be artificially used to "fix" prices over long periods to get around the existing restrictive practice trade laws. The effect of the law was that people could then collect the coupons and cash them in without buying the product. This was obviously not what the manufacturers wanted and hence, they gave the cash value as a minuscule amount so that it was not worth the effort to collect them and they also gave the coupons short expiration periods. (In a similar way for "promotional competions" legislation states that manufacturers have to say "no purchase necessary" and also allow non- purchasers to enter the competions. At least they do in the UK. and I suspect it will be the same in the USA and Australia although individual states or countries may vary.

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Answer 6

you don't, you won't, but there was a time when a coupon had more worth than that, it comes down to what is a pound of paper worth, not the coupons

Answer 7

Haha I have never realized that before, but I guess its true. I think some people might actually try to redeem them for actual cash, so they make them 1/100 of a cent to try to prevent that.

=]

Answer 8

they're giving you free money (in a way), they have to be worth something

and if they're not used as coupons, they're worthless: you can't cash them in, most coupons say in the fine print "not redeemble for cash" or something like that

Answer 9

yep basically saying its worth the paper its on