Office_Shredder wrote:DaveBuck wrote:Sure! Let's say that Coupon Processing Expenses end up costing a total of .5% of Kroger's overall expences. I see it as more fair to pass on that .5% cost to me and other coupon users rather than to ever single customer.
I can then weigh that additional cost to my personal cost/benefit analysis and decide whether I want to continue to keep using coupons. But, to weigh this cost, I'd like to see it appear on my bill. Same for credit card expenses. Could I save money by not using a credit card? I don't know unless they seperated out those costs and applied them to people who are using the cards.
Even though this would have a negative effect on me, I believe it is the fair thing to do from a consumer point of view. Transparency is preferred!
Dave this makes no sense... the point of a coupon is that you save the amount written on the coupon. They're not going to charge you for using that coupon, rather, they'd simply have the coupon cut the cost less in the first place.
The essential purpose of a coupon is to increase sales of a particular product. A business would not use coupons if it didn't somehow generate more sales. On top of that, if sales of a product are not slumping, then there is no need to issue coupons.
Consumers take advantage of coupons and save money. Business benefit because they increase sales that they otherwise would not have had.
I assume Krogers is forced to honor coupons and has some expense associated with this task (mailing coupons in or something like that).
Of course, Kroger must benefit some way because of increased sales. So, perhaps they take the money directly generated from increased sales of couponed items and earmark that or a portion of that to pay for coupon processing expenses. If that's the case, then the cost is being passed on mostly to coupon users I guess.
But, more to what I think your real point is, Imagine if this Coupon Processing fee was very high. To cover it, Kroger would have to raise prices significantly. Surely the coupon savings would out weigh this cost so people wouldn't stop using coupons. But, part of everyone's bill is going to pay this fee, regardless of whether they use coupons or not.
I would not look down on a business that tried to make this more fair by moving most or all of this cost over to coupon users.
Office_Shredder wrote:Also, the coupon analogy is like saying if McDonald's has an advertising campaign targetted at Mexicans, the price for Mexicans at McDonald's should go up
mmmm. Very good point. Advertising is another business expense and every consumer foots the bill. Targeted advertising causes the cost of the product to go up for everyone. The consumer doesn't win.
Not sure what to do here. I hate when companies over-advertise. I try, if possible, to find companies who spend less on advertising and pass the savings on to me. That's about all I think we can do on that point.
W/r/t credit card costs, do you think it is more fair if credit card users pay the bulk of the card-usage fees or do you think that cost should be spread equally among all consumers?
