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> This brought what used to be a painstaking process of clipping coupons from magazines to a slightly less painful process of having to click “Add” on all the c

> This brought what used to be a painstaking process of clipping coupons from magazines to a slightly less painful process of having to click “Add” on all the coupons every week after logging onto their site. This is an insane trend in supermarket usability. You want to offer low prices, but only to people who go through a practice round of online shopping before doing it in person? Why are we doing this to ourselves?

moftz 7y ago
They wouldn't make as much money if everyone clipped the coupon. However, most of the time, the coupons aren't really special. The loyalty club member price is already shown on the shelf anyway. Most "coupons" are more of an advertisement for the old folks who still do that. The incentive for the actually good coupons is to get you to come into the store and buy other stuff alongside the on-sale item. If I only have a few key items on my shopping list, I might be more inclined to buy more if the coupon app shows buy one get one half off for something. Or I might buy a different brand than I normally would because there is a coupon only on the app.
- brownbat 7y ago
  > They wouldn't make as much money if everyone clipped the coupon. I get on a basic level it's a form of price discrimination, it just seems unfathomable that this bizarre skeuomorph, totally dependent on a series of random historical developments, would actually happen to line up with the way to extract the most return from your customers and/or give them the best experience. But hey, I found the perpetual fake "50% off" sales at JC Penney's crazy making, and when they reversed that for more honest pricing they almost went out of business. I know I'm just shaking my fist at irrationality for no reason. It still bothers me though.