$25 rule annoys customer

Q: Our grocery store will not double coupons until a shopper has purchased items totaling $25. They will only double six coupons. Is the store allowed to set its own rules?

A: It may surprise you that the answer to your question is yes. A store can choose to require a certain amount of spending before it doubles coupons, or limit the number of coupons it will double or choose not to at all. A store can choose to accept competitors' coupons or turn them down. It can even choose not to accept any manufact-urer coupons.

Why might a store implement a policy like this? When a store doubles coupons, it also "eats" the cost of doubling. If a store doubles a 50-cent coupon to $1, it is giving up 50 cents of profit as an incentive to get you to shop in their store. In limiting the number of coupons doubled per transaction, the store is also reducing the loss it will take.

No major supermarket in my area doubles coupons.

These not-so-near-me supermarkets will only double two like coupons per transaction. But, if I plan to use two coupons for detergent, two for salad dressing, two for shredded cheese and so on, I can still put a nice trip together and maximize my doubling.

As for your store's $25 minimum purchase, the store is ensuring that customers won't come in and just "skim" the best sales. A shopper could buy 100 items priced at $1 each, use 100 50-cent coupons — which, doubled, make those items free — and walk out of the store paying only tax.

While this sounds like fun for shoppers, it's not as much fun for the store if they take a financial loss on those items. In requiring a $25 minimum purchase, the store ensures that it will get at least that amount spent in the store, pre-coupon.

One supermarket in my area offers great store coupons in its flyer each week. Because they're store coupons, I can stack manufacturer coupons with them and really bring down the prices of the featured items. For example, a recent flyer offered a store coupon reducing the price of laundry detergent to $2.99. I also had a $3 manufacturer coupon; stacked with the $2.99 store coupon, my detergent was free! But in order to use that great coupon, I also need to spend a minimum of $10.

If enough of those store coupons bring prices down into the great-deal range, the $10 minimum doesn't seem too bad to me.

Jill Cataldo, a coupon writer and mother of three, never passes up a good deal. Learn more about couponing at www.super couponing.com. Email your questions to jill@ctwfeatures.com.