Discount coupons

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It seems that nowadays pretty much everything is, or can be, discounted. Where it used to be the Sunday paper that would carry the discount coupons, now there seems to be a whole industry around coupon-ing; complete with its very own reality shows on TV.
And while it used to be groceries and personal care products that seemed to be the thing to get your coupons for, recently DIY stores, and other big megastores are joining the fray. To the point where one store makes it known it will accept all coupons of similar stores…

And it isn’t even just the stores that put out the discount coupons, or certain types of stores that discount their products big time. Even furniture stores that so far would just stick to their ‘sales prices’ will keep lowering the already affordable price to make the sale.

It seems that the winner in the ‘discount-coupon-war’ is the consumer.

And yet, I am not entirely certain about that. After all, if there is so much of a difference between the advertised price or ‘ticket price’ and the price at which the store is still willing to sell the item ~ especially when it is a store that has been in business for an extended period of time and which shows no signs of going out of business ~ than I find myself left with the sense that the original price was way too high!
It would mean that if I would buy something for the ticket-price, I’m paying way more than I should be paying for that particular product. Sometimes as much as double the price…

Of course I understand that any store, independent what type of store, or what kind of product they sell, is in business to make a buck. But when you can drop your prices so much while still making a buck; that seems to be plain greed.

Granted, the greed is more prevalent in some industries than others. It is well known for instance that margins on groceries are small; something that makes the discount coupon go up in value ~ even though it is only for a couple of dimes on each coupon.
But on other items, especially he ‘big ticket’ items, it seems to pay to be willing to walk away from a deal in order to see if that would bring the price further down yet.

Where I live this is becoming the normal thing to do, especially where it is about electricity, telephone service, TV service, Internet service. Changing from one company to another in order to save your pennies is no big deal anymore…

Seems we truly live in a ‘discount society’…
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