Taking it to the next level
She didn't need a sales pitch, the trembling in her hands did the job. Still, Jess Higens passed the thin paper packets around the table, like a poker dealer, only her trick was designed to save money.
Hovering behind her, Jerrica Hughes bottled her own escalating excitement.
There's something unnerving about the energy at a suburban coupon swap, an event that promises the revelation of how keen organization and hawk-like deal chasing can transform any grocery-goer into a seemingly deranged shopaholic.
And they're evolving.
Higens' idea to start a swap group, a coterie of couponers for which to chart and isolate the most valuable savings, became a way to share her newfound wealth. She appealed to social networking websites, such as Facebook and Craigslist, to get the word out, and established free, semi-weekly meetings in low-key cafes and restaurants. With Hughes at her side, Higens runs one of Polk County's newest training grounds for people interested in entering the increasingly fierce world of extreme couponing.
Despite the stereotypes and mystique surrounding couponers, Higens and Hughes, both of Lakeland, said they shed any shame soon after they started less than a year ago. Rather than keep their coupons tucked discreetly in a re-sealable plastic baggie, they opt instead for trading card binders -- items tough not to spot as the two women carry them everywhere they go.
And to the audience of four sitting at the table in front of them, each clasping a packet, the words they heard came like sweet nectar from the gods, discounted nectar already at 50 percent off.
"It's not a secret. What we're doing is not an elite club," Hughes said, pausing a moment. "But this should be a women's Olympic event. It's competitive, more than football."
Higens said she's noticed an increase in fellow couponers since the airing of "Extreme Couponing," a television program on TLC that featured Missy Eby of Auburndale on the April 11 episode. Since the show's premiere, Higens said, her Lakeland grocery stores have become inundated with people looking to score the best deals possible. But the surging population of couponers has sent Lakeland residents like Hughes to surrounding municipalities, such as Bartow or Auburndale, in search of untapped stores.
Run-ins often involve panicked looks before both shoppers jet into the aisles, aiming high-octane carts at product shelves to clear them first. But beneath the veneer of competition, Higens preached etiquette, and assured her group that anarchism among couponers remains a rare quality.
"If you're going to get a lot of something, order it ahead," she said. "Just because it's free doesn't mean you have to have 20,000 of them."
The grocery chains have noticed the increasing number of couponers. In May, this newspaper reported that Publix changed store policy to allow shoppers to use coupons from product manufacturers, the Internet and competitors.
Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten said this week the new policy also gives store managers the right to limit the quantity of items a single person can purchase.
"It is necessary to assure we have enough product available to all of our customers," Patten said.
When she does buy in bulk, Higens said, she donates her extras to local shelters or creates care packages to send to soldiers overseas.
The most successful couponers walk from stores with carts filled with merchandise having spent less than $5. The experience can be life-changing, the two women explained.
A Lakeland resident of three weeks, Justine Goebel leafed through her packet and asked about the benefits of tracking deals using electronic spreadsheets. Higens and Hughes shook their heads. The best way to find coupons ahead of time includes visiting manufacturer and coupon-related websites, they said, but the overwhelmingly popular tool for a dedicated couponer remains the same: the trading card binder.
Flipping through the pages of her own, Higens displayed thousands of coupons, collected over the weeks through a combination of newspaper-buying sprees and online hunting. Goebel's eyes widened at the spectacle.
"You need to buy two newspapers a week, at least," Higens said. "I buy 20."
And preparedness is key, Higens and Hughes said. Streamlining grocery trips requires careful planning, a practice that often overtakes wide tracts of their living room floors. To find success in couponing means knowing what you'll save before you walk through the store door -- because once inside, you'll be there awhile.
No shortcut can alleviate the end of the process, where after roaming the store for at least an hour (or two), the couponer pulls into a checkout line. It's a sight that leaves streaks of dismay across the faces of regular shoppers, Hughes said, people who know from experience that waiting behind a couponer is tantamount to life imprisonment. Sometimes checking out requires cashiers to perform dozens and dozens of transactions, one per coupon for hundreds of items.
Patten said the surge in extreme couponing, in part, pushed the chain to begin piloting new software to decrease the amount of time customers spend in line. The software, being tested in select stores across Central Florida, allows cashiers to scan coupons and programs the register to validate the required information.
No matter the wait, Hughes said the result of couponing proves well worth it, and in more ways than satisfying an adrenaline rush.
"This time last year, we were eating canned pork and beans every night of the week," she said. "Couponing is an insurance policy that my kids will be fed, that I will be fed. These days, I can go into my kitchen and cook an actual meal."
For two Polk County deputy clerks, Amy Wagner and Julie Duffey, couponing has become a way to make up for the new law signed by Gov. Rick Scott that requires all state employees to put 3 percent of their salaries toward retirement.
Duffey said she got an email at work after someone overheard her in a break room, teaching fellow clerks about couponing.
"It's something that I do every day, so we got together, Amy Wagner and I, and we created a Power Point," Duffey said.
Starting last week, the two women are putting on seminars in other office branches, a money-saving measure approved by Clerk of Courts Richard Weiss, Duffey said.
As to whether she would describe herself as an extreme couponer, Duffey paused to clarify.
"Extreme as in we save a ton of money? Yes. As in we buy an extreme quantity of anything? No," she said.
Higens said she used to spend $140 a week on groceries to feed her family. These days she spends about $40, and she said her hope is to impart the knowledge using her newly formed group, Chic Coupon Chicks.
The two women also started a Facebook fan page for their group, where they post pictures of their grocery booty, and the amount of money they saved. In a recent post, Higens displayed $120 worth of merchandise. Her payout: $4.30.
"As much money as I save, my husband calls it a part-time job," she said. "I'll never have to pay for body wash, toothbrushes or deodorant again, none of that."
Management Advisor Marketing Advisor Business Communications Custom Website Design
JWB Interest, LLC 2011 All Rights Reserved
By: Chase Purdy - The Ledger
July 3, 2011
