Do I need to be the first to get new coupons each week?

I have heard it said – “The early bird gets the worm.” But sometimes there just aren’t enough worms to go around. Then what do you do? And what about that early bird who DOES get the worm? Turns out the best time to go worming is NOT when the worms first appear!!

Coupons that appear in your local newspaper insert are usually the first part of an advertising campaign designed to ramp up sales and exposure of an existing product or introduce a new one. There are rarely sales in the store matching those new coupons until several weeks later.

Manufacturers do this to get you to try the product when the coupon comes out, then a few weeks later when you return to the store you don’t have a coupon but now it is on sale.

If you liked it you will buy it the second time, and every time after that, without a coupon!

So weeks later when the item goes on sale everyone has used their coupons and if they like it they buy it on sale – and maybe even stock up. Manufacturers know they have you as a customer at that point. Smart shoppers know the best strategy would have been to wait a few weeks and couple the coupon with the sale, or several coupons with the sale, and get the item as cheaply as possible.

Oh – and of course you still stock up!!

For this reason, older coupon inserts are often more valuable than newer ones!