Coupon Dispensers

Used to get the shit smacked out of me because of these fucking thing, dad always saw before i could empty them out

My mom would middle name me for pulling all of them out.

I’m sorry Kristine, we’ve been in the fucking coffee aisle for like 15 goddamn minutes smelling beans, I’m bored, the coupons come out automatically without being plugged in. Leave me alone.

We got so many unnecessary coupons on account of me running down the aisles grabbing every one I could find at our IGA. Truly the only way to enjoy grocery trips with my dad.

I actually found a couple of these in the back at work last week, complete with vintage 1996 EnerLeak alkaline battery spooge!

IIRC these were from Smart Source Advertising. Fred Meyer's had them before the Kroger buyout and for a little while after.

Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi with NutraSweet

I hate everything about this.

They're called "blinkies". The ones up at the cashier are called catalinas.

Lived in a tiny town as a teenager and had nothing to do. Noticed the coupons said in fine print at the bottom "Cash value .05 cents" so my friends and I went around the store collecting 20 before cashing them out at the register for one penny.

My god the stupid things we did to entertain ourselves.

The Albertsons in town still had these in 2010 until HEB bought it out and remodeled.

Just had a cringe memory where I was like 5 running up and down the aisles pulling these out and getting scolded by one of the staff for it.

This might be a generic comment but I have to say, every time I think I've unlocked all the memories there is something is this sub that unlocks another. I don't think I thought about these for at least a decade. This is up there with those sample plates in the store.

Man I haven't seen those since I was like 6 or 7. My local CB grocery store had these all over the place. I think that place was bulldozed to be used as a multi use lot years ago.

Damn i used to pull these coupons out any chance i got.

And Hires root beer! Never had it but I have seen the antique advertising trays.

These seemed to disappear by the mid 2000's. I know my grandparents took a limited part time gig going into stores and refilling the machines, but it was very brief.

I loved pulling them out as a kid . They just sat at home and never used them

Mmmmm, Hires Rootbeer.

They’re still in certain stores in the area I live in.

I don't know if I ever actually used a coupon from one of those!

I used to call these “puppies” when I was little.

They were everywhere! Some of our grocery stores still have them, but they are far and in between nowadays.

This might be a stupid question but why doesn’t the company just give a discount? Why do you need to print shit, put it in the same supermarket as where you want the people to come already are and make them grab that piece of paper for the discount you could just have given without all the extra steps?

When I was a kid, I used to run down the aisles and had to jump to yoink the coupons out of the various machines that were lined up.

They still have them you know

I loved grabbing one coupon from every dispenser I could find. I was always so disappointed when I thought I saw one and it turned out to just be a little tray with loose coupons inside.

Those things were just so satisfying for some reason. My mom would always let me pull a couple out. I get a brief moment of satisfaction and enjoyment in an otherwise boring trip, and she got coupons.

Why was it every kids goal to try and empty these thing ASAP? Thank you for the childhood memory

god i remember these, i’d pull one every time i’d pass it. i think it was my local P&C that had them, can’t quite remember

didn’t understand what they were for but it made grocery shopping a bit more bearable until my mom caved in and let me get a cheapass toy lol

Clearly I was not the only kid who would stand there and just keep pulling coupons out till it was empty

I still sometimes see in-store coupons like this, but they are dispensed manually, and not by machines like this anymore. Though most often I see coupons attached to the product themselves, sticky ones for boxes and string tags for bottles.

What was the point of making this coupon dispenser electric? To get people's attention with blinking? Or to limit the amount of coupons people could take?

Nostalgia? I saw one today.

I'm not that old and didn't realize they were not a thing anymore. Huh.

My dad would bash me in the head with a metal pipe for pulling these out!

Why is every comment the same on this post?

Ahh bro hell yeah 😅 what a throwback

So why were these necessary? Couldn't the store just discount the item for a time being? Or was there some rule to the coupon, e.g. valid only if your whole purchase is above some sum?

I worked grocery for 17.5 years and when I quit 5 years ago they still had these in California, I'm in Texas now and they do not have these (they use metal keyring with coupons that are hole punched)

I forgot all about these coupon dispensers.

Wait they'd dispense coupons at the location of the discounted product? Why not just discount the product instead of making you take a coupon? Is this an American thing I don't understand

when i was a kid, we used to believe that rubbing the arrow would make another one come out. it was actually just the act of removing one and a pause that made it come out.

I am convinced that whomever came up with these did not have children.

Also that old school Diet Pepsi logo. My grandmother switched to that after our local Farmer Jack stopped carrying Tab. Every morning opening the fridge to get milk for my cereal seeing that bottle.

I’d pull them out and toss the coupons around like I was in a strip club.

Hires ftw

I used to try to make paper airplanes out of these but they suuuucked

I vividly remember these being introduced in my area. And I remember distinctly being so confused why on earth they made a machine to distribute paper coupons next to the discounted items IN THE STORE they are being sold in. I still don’t understand.

I get the idea of coupons is to draw more customers to your store, but what’s with coupons that are dispensed inside the store… I mean the customer is already there. Why not just discount the item without these coupons?

Would be nice to have in Canada again, now that they are going to be starting a sugary drink tax.

Now if you want coupons, you have to install a spyware and possibly virus riddled program that fucks up your computer.

These have all been replaced by digital coupons you have to activate inside the app for the grocery store you shop at. But if anyone has seen one of these dispensers lately, let us know.

I miss hires rootbeer

Omg my brother and I used to try and find all of them and trade them. What's the point of money when you have all these couoons!

F'tip... veyrr, veyrr, veyerr.

Mom: "Don't take another one!"

I worked on a project to digitize these. Most grocery stores allow you to go online and clip these coupons to your customer rewards card. Automatically deducts the coupon at check out, then the packaged goods vendor sends a check to the grocery store.

Some grocery store chains make more money from coupon reimbursements and selling shelf space than they do selling actual marked up products.

I remember taking coupons from these in the store as a kid just because it was sorta fun to do and i was bored and my mom would get mad at me for it.

If you pulled the coupon out twice rapidly the third would take time to emerge (I think it was triggered by light differences, so it would dispense as people passed them).

I remember always running up the aisles and grabbing one of each coupon, giving them to my mom, then she would get mad because “we don’t need those.”

20 punces 8 pack. Haha i love the 7.5 ounce 6 packs. 20 punces is way too much soda!

I swiped the whole thing back when I was a kid. Figured it might be some complex device inside, only to find it's just 2 "D" batteries, a switch and a motor. Oh, and a LOT of coupons!

Looking back, I realize it was a pretty dumb idea, but try telling that to 13 year old me. I felt bad about it later, but I'd already dismantled the whole thing.

I don't think I ever did that, but these things also are nice nostalgia trips. I honestly prefer paper to digital. Maybe it is my old-school nature. Also, does anyone remember when they remove these dispensers from stores?

I worked as a stocker in a grocery store in the 90s and accidentally broke about a dozen of these with my carts

I miss these

We all grabbed them as kids and got yelled at to stop and then proceeded to grab more the next time we saw them.

I'm more nostalgic over the old diet Pepsi bottle!!

I see a lot of people saying they pulled the coupons out but me, I love to slap them. Walk up and down each aisle and just slap each coupon. Good practice for later when there's an ass presented to me.

Memory unlocked. Haven’t seen one of these in ages!

they were fun 😪

These still exist.

HOLY SH** I FORGOT ABOUT THESE.

2000TH UPVOTE

Um....nostalgia? And isn't this a fairly new thing?

What the fuck?

I honestly hadn’t noticed these were gone? I thought CVS still used them? It would seem on brand for a company that kills a redwood for every eight-foot long receipt for Cheetos.

I still see these in grocery stores.