Steve in Olympia

In the mail today, I received my six coupons for a free 12-pack. The first line of the fine print on the coupon says "Only one coupon per purchase."

Are the retailers ignoring this restriction?

And why would Coke reimburse a retailer for $4.99 if the customer only paid $3.00? The coupon requires the cashier to write on the coupon the price paid by the customer. Is the store defrauding the manufacturer?

In the immortal words of Col. Bat Guano: "You're going to have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ9B7owHxMQ

diburning

No, and no.

One coupon per purchase means you can only use one coupon per item bought. Even though the coupon is for a free item, it must be included for legal lingo purposes. A single purchase is one item, regardless of the transaction. This piece of legal lingo exists to say that the customer may not use multiple coupons for the same item.

If it's only one per transaction, it will say so on the coupon. This piece of legal lingo exists so that people who actually read it would not redeem multiple identical coupons at once, saving the manufacturer money. Most retailers ignore this restriction because the manufacturer and the coupon processor have no control over it. Retailers also generally ignore this line because the customer can simply leave the store (put the product in their car) then return for a second transaction. Why inconvenience the customer if the coupons will be paid for by the manufacturer either way?

As far as writing in the price of the free pack, the manufacturer often has control over pricing as well. At your local supermarket, the Coke products are NOT stocked by the store. Coca Cola distributes directly to stores as a vendor, and sends their own employees to stock the shelves. The Coca Cola employee is also responsible for ordering stock as well as unloading the truck. Depending on the type of store and the volume, the Coca Cola employee stocking the store may be the delivery driver as well. Because Coca Cola controls distribution, they also control price. Coca Cola KNOWS how much the retailer is selling the product for. It's possible that the box to write in the price exists for legal purposes. I am not 100% sure.

Out of my Element

150 points for $25 Restaurant.com gift card is the Wednesday deal.

Steve in Olympia

This just doesn't add up. The coupon explicitly states: "RETAILER: We will reimburse you for the retail price of the specified product up to $4.99." (emphasis added)

The coupon also says: "CASHIER: Enter retail price here:___________ Maximum value $4.99."

This "legal lingo" is there for a reason. It is designed to prevent the retailer from collecting $4.99 from Coca-Cola when the item really sells for only $3.00.

I visited my local Safeway store this morning. By chance, the Coca-Cola guy was stocking the shelves. He told me that Coke sets the wholesale price and Safeway sets the retail price. (There are significant anti-trust implications if the manufacturer dictates the retail price. That's why it is called the "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price" (MSRP)).

yanxfann

It might not add up but it works. Earlier today I bought nine Coke 12-packs at CVS, I gave the cashier six MCR 12-pack coupons which were credited at $4.99 each, when all was said and done I owed an additional $1.86 as there's 6% sales tax in my state. And then they gave me a $10 gift card.

So basically my total outlay of 180 MCR points and $1.86 got me nine 12-packs (which yielded me a total of 90 MCR points as each has 10 MCR points on the tab) and a $10 gift card. Sweet.

Steve in Olympia

Was this a "Buy 2, get 1 more for free"? That would make sense.

NJUPINTHEAIR

CVS will be repeating this promotion in some form for the weeks of 1/13/13 and 1/20/13, as I have seen advance copies of the circulars.

As I had suspected, others are also having Coke promotions. Starting tomorrow, Friday, A&P and Pathmark have a 1 week promotion whereby if you buy $25 worth of Coke (and/or Nabisco snack products), you will get $20 worth of coupons to be used during a specific week for the next 4 weeks. See the subject circulars for more information.

KathinJax

I just entered a Coke zero cap and received an entry into the Coke Zero Squares Bowl:

GET IN THE GAME

Find a code: Coke Zero bottle caps, 12 packs, and multi-pack wraps
Enter it here or text to 2653* to choose a square
Head to squaresbowl.com to see how you're doing during the game
No Coke Zero code? No problem. Click here to learn about other ways to play
Questions? Contact Us.

One of the 4th Quarter prizes is 50,000 Priority Club points.

I hope this means that Priority Club redemptions will show up again soon.

TrojanHorse

QUOTE=Earthlings;20002519]I have never seen those machines. Coke with Raspberry/Orange sounds tasty. But wonder how they keep all those different drinks stocked in the machine. Hope they don't collide and come out tasting like a hint of Vault, when you are getting Diet Root Beer. Happened to me with buying Ice Cream, they stupidly used the same spoon- had a hint of bubble gum in my chocolate ice cream.[/QUOTE]


I love those new machines

and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the Raspberry diet coke

jamesteroh

I love those new machines

and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the Raspberry diet coke[/QUOTE]

I love the raspberry coke zero. I wish they would carry raspberry coke zero (or even diet coke) in cans/bottles and I would buy that instead of cherry coke zero from the grocery store. Sometimes I will add sugar free raspberry torani syrup to coke zero at home but it still isn't as good as from the machine.

Something else I love from those machines is Barqs diet rootbeer with Vanilla flavoring.

lbotez

I love those new machines

and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the Raspberry diet coke[/QUOTE]

Raspberry Diet Coke?? oooh, that does sound good.

jamesteroh

I have seen them in a few five guys. I also saw one in the Pavillions in WEHO when I was in LA not that long ago and there is one in the food court in the F terminal at ATL airport. Hopefully they will be more popular.

They are pretty cool. It's a touch screen and you select the coke product you want and then it has various flavoring options to it depending on the product you select. For Diet Rootbeer it only gives you the option of vanilla, but for coke zero you get lemon, lime, vanilla, raspberry, orange and possibly another flavor. You can also get various dasani water flavors.

bosman

"Free" coupons redemptions are reimbursed to the retailer in a number of ways. The retailer is supposed to enter the actual price; if they do, they are reimbursed on the price they enter (up to the stated limit). If they do not, every "free" coupon has a default value that determines what the retailer is reimbursed; this does not have to be the maximum value stated and is often calculated on the average price paid (including discounts) for the product being given away. Yes, this does give retailers the opportunity to cheat a bit by writing in a value higher than they actually charged, however, manufacturers also reserve the right to audit coupon redemptions and can fine retailers for blatent fraud (or at least get them to stop doing it). It wouldn't be tough to write a program to show average $ amount of free coupons redeemed by retailer and then inquiring into retailers that are consistently at or near the maximum value.

mikeef

They're not supposed to do it at $4.99 if it sells for $3.00, but they often do. Often, it's not fraud. Sometimes it's laziness ("I don't feel like going back through the receipt."), sometimes ignorance ("Oh, it says $4.99 here, I'll write $4.99,") and sometimes, just a mistake. At my supermarket, the self-checkout machines were messed up for a while and it would give the maximum value for the coupon no matter what the retail price was. Any overage was counted toward other items.

Mike

Frenchie Flyer

I got an email today from KFR with a free mystery code. It was worth 80 pts. When signed into my account there is an offer that says enter a code before 1/31/13 and get a bonus 100 pts.

Not sure if this code is one time only or what:
XM5X-WJWW-M7JP-TYNX