Bargain Quest

I noticed the difference and apparently I wasn’t the only one.

“Macy’s clipped itself by dropping coupons”, from Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch.

A year or so ago, our local Hecht’s stores converted to Macy’s, accompanied by a measurable decline in extra % off coupons advertised in the paper. Instead, the salespeople were pressured to push Macy’s cards on every shopper, and Macy’s cardholders still received the extra discounts periodically. The only department store card I have is for Kohl’s and I wasn’t interested in another, so my Macy’s shopping waned a little. It was partly due to loss of the coupons, but also the fact that I wasn’t finding as many clearance steals as I used to.

Well, we shoppers love our deals, real or perceived, and Macy’s profits apparently suffered from the speedily implemented strategy change. Now Macy’s is backtracking on the coupon cut-off strategy, and promising to offer more discounts to holiday shoppers this season. I returned to the store in August (with a percent off coupon of course) and picked up some clearance baby clothes at good prices, a promising start to a hopefully renewed bargain hunting relationship.

Lesson learned: Consumers don’t take kindly to cutting discounts cold-turkey.