Coupon use skyrocketed as economy went into free fall

By Mark Huffman ConsumerAffairs.com February 15, 2010

With a deep recession and stubbornly high unemployment, coupon clipping has taken on a new life. But does scanning the newspaper and magazines for small savings add up to significant savings?

Clipping coupons may be a painstaking process, but it could be time well spent. According to the Wall Street Journal, an hour spent looking for, and clipping coupons, can yield as much as $100 in savings.

When the economy went into a freefall in October 2008, coupon use suddenly skyrocketed, according to coupon processing agent Inmar. Since that time, coupon redemption has enjoyed five straight quarters of double-digit growth.

In 2009, for the first time in 17 years, consumers used more coupons than they did the year before, with 3.3 billion coupons redeemed, an explosive 27 percent increase over the 2.6 billion redeemed in 2008.

The increase in redemption went hand-in-hand with an increase in distribution. Despite the tight economy, marketers invested heavily in coupons, boosting the number available to the highest level in over 30 years. Meanwhile, consumers appear to find the biggest savings when it comes to food coupons. In 2009 Coupons.com found food to be in the top five coupon redemption choices.