Herald
Watching a Now York woman and her husband roam the aisles of one of Chicago's major grocery stores may sound like a boring afternoon. But when that shopper goes home with $77.23 worth of goods and doles out only $3.46 to the cashier, it's worth playing second fiddle to a grocery cart. Susan Samtur, alias the Coupon Queen, and her husband, Steve, (their two kids were waiting for their thrifty parents back at the Whitehall Hotel) were in Chicago recently to demonstrate Mrs. Samtur's shopping system. Mrs. Samtur contends that consumers, by religious use of coupons and other offers can save as much as 50 percent on their grocery bills. Her new book, "Cashing in At The Checkout." (Grosset and Dunlap Inc., $6 95) details her methods. Mrs. Samtur began couponing seven years ago at the suggestion of a friend. She sent in for her first refund then - a dollar from Del Monte. And as she says in her book, "within six months. I was hooked." HER PLAN OF ATTACK is called the Supershopping System, a combination of couponing and refunding "They are so interrelated that you can't use one without the other," said Mrs. Samtur, with her coupons, proof of purchase seals and a shoe box full of labels spread out on a table in the hotel lobby. Before shopping, Mrs. Samtur searches the newspapers for coupons and for the store offering the most items for the coupons she's already accumulated. "While I wouldn't go very far out of my way for a few 10- or 15-cent coupons, if I'm shopping armed with a batch of valuable 50-cents and $1 cash-offs, I consider traveling a must if I can track down a nearby store that's doubling." "Doubling" is the icing on the cake for much of the Samtur savings. To Chicago area shoppers, doubling (in which, for example, a 20 cents-off coupon results in a 40-cents savings) is practically unknown because most of the larger grocery stores here don't do it However, Butera Food Stores, with 15 stores in the Chicago area, offers on 50 percent more" couponing (i.e., a 20-cents-off coupon will get you 30 cents off) about every six weeks, said company president Paul Butera. THE MAIN REASON for such a promotion, Butera said, is simply to attract new customers. "People who use coupons are usually better shoppers," he said. He hopes his coupon program will mean more people coming to Butera to compare costs. "I want to bring them in to see my shelf prices." he said. On the East Coast, where the market is larger and more competitive, the major chains routinely offer twice the amount of saving appearing on the coupon. In the Detroit area, 1½ couponing is prevalent, and in other areas of the country triple couponing is catching on. Why are grocery stores willing to offer more than the coupon is worth? With more major chains vying for the total grocery business, the companies look for new and different methods of promotion. For example, New York may have five large grocery chains compared to Chicago's two (Jewel and Dominick's). Doubling in an area where competition is keener may be just the answer for the chain who takes the lead and first offers this type of coupon savings. Eventually, as others enter the attract-the-customer race, doubling becomes more of a defensive action, with A store doubling because B store down the street does. THE RESULT OF the couponing events is profit for the customer but often a loss for the grocer, who receives from the manufacturer only the value listed on the coupon and has to absorb anything above that. Once she's chosen the store, hopefully a doubling supermarket, Mrs. Samtur turns to her coupon file, a bulging envelope filled with alphabetically arranged coupons. From this mass of gloss, about 200 coupons total, she matches coupons with the items on her shopping list. Refunding is the second phase of this seemingly infallible system: ''You buy a product. You save the carton. You send it in to the company's representative. And they pay you for having bought it." What goes with refunding are POPs in no-refunders' jargon, proof of purchase seals. These can be the name of the product, the net weight statement or in lieu of these seals, the Universal Product Code (UPC). The whole process, including clipping, filing and filling out forms for refunds takes about five to six hours a week for the experienced refunder, said Mrs. Samtur, and more for the beginner. Perhaps earning extra money as a professional pack rat sounds somewhat embarrassing. After all, Mrs. Samtur does save everything. Emptied boxes of detergent are flattened and filed in the biggest of her six filing boxes. And she's still waiting to get rid of at least some of her 50 empty Colgate cartons. "I am afraid to throw any away" she said. "The company may come out .with a refunding offer anytime." Nevertheless, Mrs. Samtur insists couponing and refunding doesn't have to be a messy business. The file boxes .take up a 2-by-2-foot space in the Samtur home. Most of the busy work can be completed while basking in the sun for watching the tube. In other words, rather than jeopardize your life with refunder mania, organize to make the hobby manageable. Supershopping does pay off the Samturs say they receive about $125 monthly from their refunds and save $200 or 50 percent during the same period on their food bill. More time invested would, of course, insure more cash in the bank. But already their refund money has paid for one fuel bill of $1500 and a two-week winter trip to Florida, a vacation for which most Chicagoans would permanently wear a pair of coupon-clipping scissors around their neck. In the arena of conscious consumers, Mrs. Samtur is probably one of the most aware shoppers around. She can travel through the grocery store, pick up any item and immediately expou--- upon the merits or hazards of a particular product or company, as related to couponing. Chicago area shoppers don't have the advantage of double couponing that Mrs. Samtur does in New York, and matching her 40 percent savings would not be difficult if not impossible, But combining coupons and refund offe------, there is still a great deal of money to be saved. Mrs. Samtur says. Her system eliminates brand loyalty, which Mrs. Samtur says really doesn't matter because all the product she purchases are national brand. For example, in the course of a ------ minute interview, she mentioned the different brands of toothpaste purchased. Staying with one brand, she does have a preference, is like throwing money away if there's a savings on a comparable toothpaste. ---------- she compromises and insists only ------- fluoride brand. Buying in bulk, at least for no ------- items, keeps her financially ahead. ------ last purchases of 20 tubes of toothpaste saved at least $12 when compared to buying them at regular price. Most coupons are designed for convenient ---- foods, health and beauty aids and ------- per products Yet, for the persistent refunder, coupons for fresh fruit to sprinkle over cereal or a pound of ground meat to serve with spaghetti sauce eventually begin to appear. Mrs. Samtur says she never buys an Item she can t use, and she doesn't encourage buying unneeded products just to gain a free razor or bar of soap. About 80 percent of America is couponing, and probably even a larger number rely on convenience foods for daily cooking, so no one's pooh poohing savings on those easy to use items. For beauty aids and paper goods, couponing is definitely a worthwhile investment. But the danger for some shoppers, it seems, is sacrificing quality to save a buck. For consumers who prefer to prepare their own salad dressing, eliminate frozen pizzas and pot pies and skip the candy at the kids birthday parties, the best advice is to swap coupons with other couponing buddies. Mrs. Samtur's repeated message is awareness "Just change your shopping habits and look for store specials. There's no skill required." Differentiating between a rents off seal and one that simply describes the product as "new" or improved" is one way to start, said Mrs. Samtur, pointing to two bottles of salad dressing. Both had the same brand and type, matching color starbursts on the label; but only one with money off. DURING HER CHICAGO shopping trip at Treasure Island, 75 W. Elm, Mrs. Samtur also proved that the biggest is not always the cheapest. With a $1 off coupon for any size instant coffee, she compared the prices between the four-ounce and next largest size. The four-ounce jar usually $2.69, costs $1.69 or 40 cents an ounce with the coupons. The larger size usually $4 89, cost $3.89 or 50 cents an ounce, a difference of 10 cents. Mrs. Samtur describes her book as the "how to" approach to couponing and refunding. Her monthly newsletter, "Refunds Bundle." lists refund offers available for the taking. The items purchased on her shopping trip for The Dally Herald were "bought" basically with free item coupons gathered over an extended period. "You can't do this all the time I don't want people to think that," she explained at the checkout to an amazed checker and reporter. Yet, couponing must be contagious. Mrs. Samtur usually shops alone at home in New York, but during this bargain expedition at the grocery her husband pushed the grocery cart. While in the cereal aisle, Steve mentioned an offer on one of the boxes "Even my husband notices. How do you like that? That's when refunding starts to pay off."
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