The wording on coupons can often be a source of confusion for many. I can’t even tell you how many people have been shocked when I told them that they could use more than 1 like-coupon per transaction. Many of them just assumed that if they were buying 3 of the same items, they could only use a coupon on 1 of them….and it’s all because of the wording on the coupons!
So let’s clear this up right now, shall we?
“Limit One Coupon Per Purchase” or “Limit One Coupon Per Specified Item Purchased” – this causes the biggest confusion, because many people (and cashiers) don’t understand the difference between a “purchase” and a “transaction”. Simply put, a transaction is putting your items on the counter, having the cashier ring up those items, paying and leaving. The items in that transaction are each a purchase. If you have 50 items in your transaction, you have 50 purchases. Unless the store limits the amount of like-coupons that can be used per transaction/day, you CAN use a coupon for each item that you have.
So why does the store put that wording on the coupon? It is to alert you cannot stack manufacturers coupons. If you have a coupon for “$1 off 3 boxes of cereal”, you cannot buy 3 boxes and use 3 $1/3 coupons, nor can you use a $1/3 and a $0.75/1 coupon.
“Limit One Coupon Per Transaction”: this is the most restrictive coupon verbiage (and not seen that often). It means that you really ARE limited to 1 like-coupon per transaction, no matter what the store policy is about like-coupons. It gives the manufacturer the right to not reimburse the store if they ever performed an audit. As I said, this is rare and I can only remember it being on a few things like the Zone bars $0.50/1 coupons.
“Limit 4 Like Coupons In The Same Shopping Trip” – this started showing up on Proctor & Gamble coupons a little less than a year ago and is starting to appear on more and more coupons. With the growing popularity of using coupons, shelf-clearing has become a big problem is this is the manufacturers attempt to reduce that problem.
Any other questions about the wording on the coupons? Leave them in the comments!
