Wonder How Coupons Work?

Have you wondered how coupons work and how the stores get paid when we use our coupons?  A coupon is like free money and at the end of the shift the cashier has to count the coupons as cash in order for the drawer to balance.  All the redeemed coupons then have to be collected and sent to headquarters to be processed and usually the stores will send them to a clearing house to be sorted by manufacturer, scannable UPC codes, damaged ones, etc.  Once the coupons are all sorted then the clearing house sends an invoice to the manufacturer.  The manufacturer will either send a check to the clearing house who then reimburses the store or the manufacturer reimburses the store directly.

I guess my point is that the stores do get reimbursed for the full amount of a good coupon.  They also get reimbursed for handling fees (usually $.08 cents per coupon) and postage, too.  I know there are some cashiers out there that try to make us feel like we are criminals and stealing from the stores but they are uneducated about the process.  The stores are doing just fine during these economically hard times.  Actually it is during these times when the stores make the most profit because more Americans are scrutinizing our habits of eating out thus spending more time at home and cooking dinner.  The use of coupons has increased over 25% last year!