Look Up, Look Down, Look All Around!

Because it is the season for tear pad coupons!

Ok, that did not quite rhyme, but the topic is more important than a silly old nursery rhyme so sayeth the poetically challenged one. Seriously! My idea of poetry is:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Your feet stink
They smell like *cough*

… er, ummm SEE!?

Back on topic…

Tear pad coupons are manufacturer coupons found on displays, in the aisle, hidden in the office or on coupon boards in grocery stores, convenience stores, mass merchandisers and drug stores. They are highly coveted because they usually have extremely long expiration dates, and therefore the sale ads cannot be run in conjunction, or in opposition, to a manufacturer coupon.

The holiday season during November and December traditionally bring out the largest volume of tear pad coupons. Why in the last few days I found the following:

Save $1 on deli meat or cheese WYB two (2) Keebler Toasteds
Save $1 on chicken WYB one (1) Good Seasons 4-pk or 5pk
Save $1 on bagged salad WYB one (1) Almond Accents
Save $2 on Butterball Turkey WYB any combination of five (5) Stove Top Stuffing Mix or Heinz Gravy
Free Lemon (value to 70¢) WYB Salada Tea Bags
B2G1 Lays Potato Chips
B4G1 Stove Top Stuffing
50¢ Halls Refresh
$1.25/3 Jello, Phili Cream Cheese or Baker’s Products
$1.50 Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers
Nabisco Holiday Jingle Booklet with these coupons:
GFIC $1/2
Honey Maid Grahams $1/2
MH Coffee $1/2
Nilla Wafers 55¢
Planters Nuts $1/2
Ritz Crackers or Easy Cheese $1/2
Starbuck Coffee $1.50
Toasted Chips or Easy Cheese $1/2
Wheat Thins or Easy Cheese $1/2
Clue: Secrets & Spies $5
The Game of Things $5

That was in two days! At a total of two stores!

Some tips on where to look:

You will find the longer you coupon the more tingly your spidy-sense becomes. I occasionally walk down an aisle I would never purchase anything in because I get a “feeling”, and voila! Coupons! I back track in a store without knowing why, and Bingo! Coupons!

In the grocery store look on shippers. They are occasionally attached the store shelves underneath the product in the aisle. End caps and big floor displays can yield some great coupons. In the frozen aisle look for coupons stuck to the freezer case doors.

At drug stores, as well as aisle shippers, look at the make-up displays. Often times the display comes with a pad (or four) of long-dated manufacturer coupon. Walgreen’s gets some great, extremely long dated manufacturer coupons. They are kept at the cosmetic counter in a little basket. Ask the cosmetic clerk if you can see the basket if it is not readily accessible to you.

Mass merchandisers vary. Most people would fall over if they found a tear pad coupon at Wal-Mart, although I have read of a sighting or two. Target occasionally has them in the make-up aisle, although Target is much better known for peel-off coupons and hang-tag coupons. Kmart is the best mass merchandiser to distribute tear pad coupons. Like a grocery store you will find them in the aisles and on shippers, but Kmart also goes one better and will have a board with extras, normally in the front of the store. Bet you never thought Kmart would be the best at something!

At 7-11 (and other convenience stores) I have noticed a propensity to quasi-hide the coupons at the counter. Sometimes they are just off to the side where anyone can grab them, sometimes they are fully behind the counter, there will be one coupon with VOID written across it at the front desk, and then you will need to ask the clerk for a coupon. Believe it or not convenient stores are an excellent place to gather manufacturer coupons from 50¢ Nesquik to 50¢ Malt-o- Meal Cereal to $2 Häagen-Dazs. The gum and bottled water coupons also seem to surface more often at convenience stores, although that is YMMV.

So definitely take some time to look around the store while you are shopping the next few months. You may be very glad next June that you did!