Coupon Lingo-- One Coupon Per Purchase

I was recently confronted with a little coupon dilemma that I wanted to share with you all and explain the lingo to those who may not know.

Yesterday, I went into Staples because they had their Avery Removable Labels on sale for $1. Before going to the store, I went to the Avery website and printed 10 $1/1 coupons for this exact item (Go to the Money Saving Queen forums to discover more about this awesome deal!). The sale combined with the coupon made the item free, which is what you look for when you are a hard-core couponer. The more free stuff, the better!

I walked up to the register, handed the cashier my 10 products and then handed him my 10 coupons. He scanned one of the coupons, looked at the stack, read the coupon on top and the conversation went a little like this:

Cashier:"Unfortunately, we cannot accept all of these coupons. This coupon says one coupon per purchase."

Me: "That means one coupon per item. The coupon is for $1 off one Avery Removable Label product. I have 10 products and 10 coupons."

Cashier: "Ma'am, that's not what that means. You cannot stack these coupons like this. Staples does not allow stacking."

Me (and I am chuckling on the inside at this point): "What I am doing is not considered stacking. Can I please speak to a manager?"

So then the rest of the story is this: the manager comes up, tells the cashier if they scan then it checks out fine.

The cashier's demeanor changed completely from when I first walked up to the register to when I walked out the door. And it is just so frustrating to be seen as a "criminal" when I do all of my coupon-ing honestly.

I think the world will be such a happier place if these places would be educated on coupons. I mean, after all, they take the coupons. They should know how they work.

So here's a lesson on coupon lingo (Staples cashier: If you're reading this, I dedicate this post to you).

One coupon per purchase simply means one coupon per the discount posted on the coupon. So if the coupon says $1 off Any Avery Removable Label product, that means I can use ONE coupon per ONE item. If I have 10 of the same coupons, I can purchase 10 of the same items. If the coupon was one per order, the coupon would most likely say something like, "one coupon per transaction"

I am not making this up, this is the truth. You can Google it (or Swagbucks it if you want to earn points for free stuff! woohoo!) There are tons of websites that will tell you the same thing.

If you are caught in this position at a store, feel free to ask a manager. If they deny your coupons, respectfully decline their product and take your business elsewhere. After all, it's their loss. :)