You know those SmartSource and RedPlum circulars that come with your weekend paper? Well, there are regional variations. The ones they stick in the NY Times delivered to Manhattan residences are some of the most bizarre I’ve seen. Now, I clip and collect them for my own purposes as well as to send to a military base in Okinawa, but I just don’t see the point in most of them.
The selection is pretty thin this week…no doubt you non-New Yorkers get 24 jam-packed pages of coupons while I get 8 pages of mostly ads for cheap checks, indoor dog potties and Discover card. Heck, even subscribers to the New York Post get more than those who get the Times. But since I scavenge from others, I can’t be picky. Well, I still stalk the two folks on the 21st floor who get the Post, but aside from that…
The products I get coupons for, I swear, I haven’t heard of half the them. I realize that might be the point of sending out coupons to potential customers, but they can be laughably eclectic. I’ve gotten ones for Amish pasta and organic pet food. I’d mention the children’s laxative, but I think that made everyone’s circular last week. Another reason these coupons are so ridiculous: we have tiny supermarkets, limited shelf space, and while we tend to have more Rao than Ragu in the tomato sauce aisle, even we have our limits.
So here’s the full list of all the coupons I got this week – and yes, I know it’s short 😦
SmartSource
- Healthy Ones lunchmeat (um…Healthy Choice I’ve heard of, but this is new to me)
- Dole Canned Fruit
- Glory Foods Sensibly Seasoned Collard Greens and Black-eyed Peas – huh??
- Baskin Robbins – not sure there even IS one in Manhattan
- Mystic Frozen Pizza – did they just invent this? based on a movie from the 80s??
- Mrs Dash
- Explod-O-Pop – I thought this was a creation of the David Letterman producers…?
- Lindor Truffles
- Kozy Shack Ready Grains – in the refrigerated section? why?
- Citre Shine
- Melitta Coffee – apparently it’s historical?
- Duncan Hines brownie mix – now we’re talkin’!
- Nature Made Vitamins & CholestOff
- Zucol – yet another new cold med
- Glade candles & oil candles – strangely, can never find anything but Apple Cinnamon no matter what store or even state I’m in. Just sayin’.
RedPlum
- KY – what does it say about our society that they’re suggesting this for Valentine’s Day??
- Quaker Granola Bars
- Milk-Bone dog biscuits
- L’Oreal cosmetics, skin and hair products – a LOT of them, I guess us NYers have bad skin and hair
- Panasonic batteries – which I’ve never seen in the stores ’round these parts
- ScotchBrite sponges
- KFC – which isn’t half-bad, except it says “at participating KFC restaurants”, which usually means maybe 3 locations in Manhattan. I mean, these coupons state prices that are less than half the regular price.
I’m still shaking my head at the gourmet canned collard greens. I mean, if these circulars go out of their way to be “regional” in content, how did that make it into my ‘hood? I mean, did someone forget to send me the memo about how Soul Food is the new Sushi?
MoneyMate Kate 
I only got the smartsource. But I did not get the collard greens coupon as you’ve noted since you’ve got that circular now.
I’ve had the ready grains, since they were ridiculously cheap with sale + coupon. Since I don’t remember much about them they couldn’t have been amazing.
I’ll check tomorrow and let you know what LA’s are like this week. I buy some of my coupons, for the stuff that is a must have. I got a bunch of hormel chili for free this week, perfect for the food pantry. I buy from The Coupon Clippers, the $7 I just spent will be made up for with the $20 in yogurt coupons alone. They sell them for ~10% of the face value, so I only buy what I’ll use.
You know what kind of coupons bug me? Restaurant coupons that offer $5 off purchase of $20 or more. That means single diners like me can never use the coupon and thus I will never visit the establishment. I wish these coupons would offer $1 or $2 off an entree as an alternative to getting $5 off $20 purchase. If they did that, I may consider eating there. LOL re: the KY for Valentine’s coupon!
OK, I think LA’s coupons were even worse. There was only one insert, the red plum one. But, the milk bone coupon rocks! It’s buy one get one free, dog bone heaven for my boys. We go through a box a week.