Lauren Greutman started clipping coupons three and a half years ago when she and her husband discovered that for her to quit her job and be a stay-at-home mom, they would have to cut their monthly grocery bill from $700 to $200.
Greutman, who will turn 30 in a few weeks and is pregnant with her third child, was like many consumers who head to the store without much regard for how much money they spend.
“I had no clue about coupons at all, it was a whole new thing for me,” Greutman said. “I thought I was a young hip mom. I was kind of embarrassed.”
There’s a stigma around using coupons, she pointed out. At least, there used to be.
Coupon queens
Greutman, whose Oswego-based blog “I am THAT lady,” (as in, that crazy coupon lady), is dedicated to sharing coupons and savings with readers as well as tips on how to most effectively use deals.
“This is my passion, to help people save money because it saved me so much,” Greutman said.
Another site, North Syracuse mother of four Andrea McCarthy’s My CNY Mommy blog, offers the same.
“Groceries seemed to be the only way to cut costs,” McCarthy said. She got serious about using coupons, and blogging about the experience, last April. Since then she’s managed to cut what was once a $60 bill at the drug store to $5.
“The economy has played a big part in it, but I also personally think it’s becoming the new sport,” McCarthy said. “People say, it’s not your grandmother cutting coupons anymore.”
Fitting for the new social sport, couponing comes complete with its own terminology: “stacking,” for example, means using both a manufacturer’s coupon and a store coupon on the same item to multiply discounts.
What it means for a business
Both a sign of a healthy new trend and a strengthening local economy, social coupon powerhouse Groupon added the Syracuse area to its list of locations in November. A similar site, Living Social, followed suit a month later.
“Syracuse has a wonderful stable of local businesses and a diverse consumer base of families and students,” said Groupon Consumer Marketing Manager Julie Mossler. “In other words, there are enough high-quality businesses to support offering one different deal each day, and there is a high quality of potential customers for Groupon to connect with these merchants.”
The daily deals offered by both sites generally focus more on activities than goods — yoga classes at a local studio or a lift ticket at a nearby mountain, for example — and are always at least 50 percent off regular price.
For consumers, deeply discounted deals like these offer an inexpensive way to try something new, often with an emphasis on local business. Those businesses, on the other hand, get a shot at attracting new customers without spending a fortune on advertising.
Dustin Czarny, Not Another Theater Company organizer, has used Groupon twice to offer deals to different theater events.
Last weekend, Groupon helped Czarny bring 63 new faces to the “Unnecessary Farce” dinner theater.
“All of these people were new to our business, they’d never come to our theater before and they all said they were going to come back,” Czarny said of the experience, which he called “tremendous” for the theater company.
At fitness center Strength in Motion, Business and Marketing Manager Maura Donovan said she had similar success.
Through Groupon, the gym recently offered half-off the cost of four fitness classes, a $60 value at $30.
Donovan said she would have been happy if 20 people bought the deal, but they ended up selling 55.
“The way I look at it, it’s 55 new names we never had before,” Donovan said.
The drawback?
“It’s our job to keep them,” she added. A service like Groupon, while free to use, only allows a business to make back a quarter of the profit it normally would on the given offer: the deal is at least half off regular price, then the profits are split between Groupon and the business.
Discounting a brand is a great way to get people in the door, but the task of turning that into a regular profit increase lies on the business.
“It’s not meant to be done every month,” Czarny said. “But we’ve already talked about doing it again sometime in the next six months to a year.”
‘It’s not who you think’
Services like Groupon rely heavily on social media to gain exposure to its key demographic: which is surprisingly younger and wealthier than most people expect.
Greutman said at her coupon seminars she sees a lot of women between the ages of 25 and 45, along with many men.
“The statistics are that most people using coupons are in their 30s and married and make over $75,000 a year,” said McCarthy. “It’s not who you think, at all.”
And their reasons for clipping coupons range from “the economy” to simply freeing up more money to spend on fun activities, like a day at the spa.
“The idea of being able to go out for a meal with family or friends at a discounted price, while also maybe trying out a new venue, is a plus for me,” said Syracuse resident Randy Flath.
Even savings-savvy Greutman uses discounts for more than stockpiling inexpensive shampoo.
“Me and my husband plan all of our date nights around Groupon,” she said. “Every single one.”
