Custom coupons are coming to a grocery store near you! Via Shutterstock.
Grocery stores are starting to offer customzied coupons to you, but not the next gal. Individual coupons mean you may get a lower – or higher – price than the next shopper depending on your spending history, according to a recent New York Times story.
Safeway and Kroger employ custom coupons and I’ve seen a similar program at Stop & Shop. The way it works is that stores track what you buy through your loyalty card. Your grocery story may snail mail you coupons, or if you shop online, digital coupons may pop up that others don’t see. Some stores have a kiosk near the entrance where you can scan your loyalty card for instant coupon printouts.
The story says:
Now grocers like Safeway and Kroger are going one step further, each offering differing methods to determine individualized prices. Hoping to improve razor-thin profit margins, they are creating specific offers and prices, based on shoppers’ behaviors, that could encourage them to spend more: a bigger box of Tide and bologna if the retailer’s data suggests a shopper has a large family, for example (and expensive bologna if the data indicates the shopper is not greatly price-conscious).
The goal is to improve profit margins. No surprise there.
I’ve received custom coupons from Stop & Shop, where we buy our groceries. The pamphlet they come in says “coupons just for you.” (I agree, not overwhelming evidence.) But what makes me believe they are customized is that they ALWAYS contain coupons for a few products we have recently purchased, and a few that we have never purchased. Seems a bit strange, no?
As consumers, we’ve seen custom pricing for other goods we buy – airline tickets, car rentals, car repair, contractor repair jobs, and more. But is it different for food? Should everyone be allowed to pay the same price for a loaf of bread?
Are custom coupons fair? Does it even matter?
Are you concerned about privacy – or do stores already have access to your spending info and this is just one step further?
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
I like getting coupons for the items I buy every week or almost every week. I’m obviously going to buy them anyway. The coupons that annoy me are the ones where every time I get a new coupon it’s for one added item (ie the first coupon will be for one package, the next off two packages, the next off 3.) They usually come when I checkout, from the register. I don’t use them if they require me to buy too many items. Overall, I don’t mind the store paying attention to what I buy. They give me coupons and are more likely to keep the products I like in the store (and maybe get similar products.) No one is forcing anyone to use the coupons for items they don’t normally buy or for larger amounts than they usually buy. The store doesn’t have to give anyone coupons! I’m glad they do!
I agree with a point that Paula made. I like that the store sends me coupons for products that I regularly buy, every cent saved counts. However, I try to be smart about it. I look through the sale papers and store prices to make sure I’m getting the best value out of those coupons. It’s obvious they are trying to get you to buy more, and to buy new products they suggest. But I’m not going to overspend just because I have a coupon or buy something I don’t need.
Vons (one of the Safeway chains) has a program called “Just for U”. Each week I get an email reminding me that there are new coupons. I log in; my Vons card is linked up to the account. I click on the deals and coupons I want to use. It’s clear that the “Just for U” deals are meant to encourage me to keep buying things I usually buy at Vons and to try out different (read: more expensive) brands of the same items. That is, if I usually get store-brand milk, I get a deal for name-brand milk (say, $2.49 instead of the usual $3.19). It only applies if I actually click on it and load it onto my card and then present my card at checkout.
Companies have been datamining our shopping habits for years. Target is especially good — or bad, depending on your point of view– at this. Charles Duhigg’s new book _The Power of Habit_ has a scarily informative chapter on how Target tracks its customers’ buying habits.
@Lee Thanks for the book recommendation. I just added it to my list of what to check out from the library!