Coupon Culture

Over the past year, there's been some chatter about consumers and their coupon habits.

The percentage of consumers who used coupons had actually been falling, that is, until the most recent recession. According to a recent article by the NYTimes,

"Coupon redemption in America peaked in 1992, at the end of a recession, when 7.9 billion coupons were redeemed...by 2006, that number fell to 2.6 billion and stagnated there through 2008."

But during the first half of 2009, "coupon redemption climbed 23 percent. Some 1.6 billion coupons were redeemed."

Something very interesting that the piece also points out is that demographically disparate consumers have embraced the coupon culture. In fact, in January and February of 2009:

- coupon use among young, single consumers with minimal savings rose 14 percent

- coupon use by affluent consumers who were born in the late 1950's and 1960's rose 13 percent

- households earning $70,000 or more a year were among the top coupon users
(Source: Knowledge Networks/PDI and Nielsen)

It will be interesting to watch this trend and see if coupon redemption continues to climb -- redemption numbers are still nowhere near the levels that we saw in the 1990's.

Or maybe coupon redemption will just level off as the economy makes its slow recovery.