Coupons, Good Business? Maybe not

I recently received another advertisement in my newspaper for Bed, Bath & Beyond, along with it was a coupon for $5 off any item. I decided to write to them and let them know why these coupons are so pointless, and they do not entice me to go there and shop. If you read the fine print on the coupon, I counted 40 brands for which the coupon could not be used at all. I immediately wondered how many SKU’s that this would multiply out to, probably thousands. I emailed to BB&B about it; I told them I would not even go to the store because I know I will inevitably pick out an item on the list. So rather than aggravate myself, I just stay home, I’ll get what I need at Walmart when I need it. I even said 1 brand was Dyson vacuums; I mean please…, they can’t take $5 off a $400 plus vacuum. Either have a sale or don’t have a sale. I thought any item, meant any! So I sent my little email, and got the usual robotic/scripted response that it has been forwarded. I’m sure it was forwarded to the suggestion box, or bathroom toilet, which are usually one in the same. This is why I stopped going to JC Penny many years ago, after getting the run-a-round on a coupon, so I left without making a purchase, and have never returned to their store again. I guess they never will learn. Coupons can save you a lot of money, usually on groceries. I purchased $150 in groceries at good prices to start with, and after coupons, reduced my bill to $94! Some coupons I just through away, because the brand name item with the coupon, is still more expensive than the store brand. I also checked out LensCrafters today, had a 50% off sale coupon. They were still over $100 dollars more that I can get them at BJ’s or Walmart. Do these company executives sit in meetings trying to figure out why people are not going to their stores to shop anymore? It doesn’t take a brain surgeon. Fool me once, bye! A furniture store here called Haynes had an ad once on TV. “This weekend, we will sell $30 million dollars of inventory for $20 million dollars”. Can someone tell me what that even means to me? It sure will not be 30% off I can tell you that. We tried to by a Kingsdown brand mattress at Haynes years ago. We went there every week to see the price. TV ad came on one day, 40% off all mattresses including Kingsdown. When we got there, it was the same price it had been for the past month. It was 40% off some made up, or mfg. suggested retail price. As a consumer, I thought it would be 40% off the price I saw last week, when it was not on sale. I asked the salesperson, and he said the mattress was ‘for sale’, not ‘on sale’. Wow, this store has items ‘for sale’, what a concept! So we left, never to return.