The Couponing Panel

I have been promising several readers that I would tell about my coupon panel from Thursday.  I'll start by saying it was probably one of the cooler things I have ever done.  And I made some really easy money for just speaking up a few times.

There ended up being 9 panelists.  Most of us were women, but there were 2 men as well.  The panelists were all different levels of couponing...some heavy (that would be me), some moderate and some light.  We met at the hotel (the downtown Hilton) about an hour before the panel was supposed to start.  The moderator had us all introduce ourselves and then she told us a little about how the panel would work.  There were 3 or 4 main questions she shared with us that she would ask the panel.  And then any of us that had something could say would just speak up.

Before we went on, two representatives from All You magazine (which if you don't read, you have no idea what you are missing!) came in and gave us some goodies.  I love All You magazine so this was pretty exciting.

After we discussed her questions, they took questions from the audience.  I would guess there were about 125-150 folks there. There were representatives from Family Dollar, the Dollar Tree, Dole etc.

One question was about what we really liked or disliked about coupons, what our frustrations were and what we felt about the promotions (like March to Madness at Kroger) and rebates.  The general frustrations were coupons that are $.55 or the like because of the lack of doubling along with coupons in which you have to purchase multiple items to get a quarter off (that would be mine).  Everyone agreed their favorites were the coupons that offered an item free.  The only rebates that panelists found it worthwhile to send in were the ones for cell phones and laptops where the return was $50 or more.

Another question was regarding the economy and how it has affected our couponing habits and if those would stay the same if the economy (or our personal situations) improved.  There were a couple of us who had (or will have) a one income family and so the moderator was  especially interested in our situations and how we thought they would change if our personal situations changed.

The final question from the moderator was about loyalty...brand loyalty to be exact.  Most of the panelists were brand loyal to something.  There was one person who was not brand loyal to anything...none of us were brand loyal to much though.

The audience wanted to know things like what would it take for us to try one of their items (free trial etc.), how we felt about dollar stores (Family Dollar, Dollar General, Everything's A Dollar), our feelings about coupons on smart phones, internet printable coupons etc.

The moderator questions took us about 30-40 minutes to answer by the time 5-6 of us spoke to each question.  The last 20 minutes was for audience questions.  Several of the audience members came up to us after the panel and gave us coupons and goodies.

So, that was it. It was fun and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to take part.  Thanks for those of you that left comments and questions.  I tried to work them in where I could. 

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!!