Coupon Clicking On The Internet Gaining Popularity
KLTV (abc) - May 28 2006

http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=4960041

f you don't have time to clip coupons every week, the World Wide Web maybe your solution. Websites like coolsavings.com and coupons.com offer many of the same deals as the weekly circular, and are gaining in popularity. Torey Hughes is an Executive Team Leader at the Target in Tyler. "We started noticing a big trend, or a big boom as far as the online coupons," he says. We clicked some of those coupons and took them to a local retailer to try them out. The first thing on our shopping list was shower gel. 'Pure Rain' ended up being $2.99 after a $1 off coupon.

We threw it in the basket, and headed for the cereal aisle. For another coupon, we have to buy two boxes, so we picked up Chex and Cheerios.

After picking up a grill lighter we headed off to the check out lane.

Our coupons were from reputable sites, so they scanned without any problem, but retailers warn, not everyone's will. "There was a case going around earlier in the year, especially during the Christmas time. There was a big case of fraud coupons," said Hughes.

If a coupon doesn't scan, it's most likely fraudulent. Stores won't honor it, because they can't redeem them from the manufacturer. Some people who've used online coupon sites say another drawback is that you have to sign up with each site, giving them a lot of your personal information.

Christine Vandivert says that's why she stopped using them. "I ended up getting some of that obnoxious spam type email afterwards, so I kind of quit doing that," she said.

In spite of their growing popularity, retailers say the vast majority of frugal shoppers still use old-fashioned coupons. On our trip to the store, we saved 25% percent on four items with our online coupons. We also saved time, and that's priceless.

Lindsay Wilcox reporting, lwilcox@kltv.com