I was just over at Iheartthemart.com and saw that, September 1st Wal-Mart made a few changes to their coupon policy and to the register systems. From what Paul has mentioned you probably will not see any changes to the Public Wal-Mart Coupon Policy, this has to do with how they handle coupon in the store more of a procedural thing and clarifying what is being done (I’m sure that means they will be changing the policy soon). So what are they doing?

Wal-Mart Coupon Policy Changes:

1. Wal-Mart like most business are updating their register systems to accept the new GS1 barcodes (click here to see an example of the GS1 barcode) You might have seen that most coupons already have switched to this and all eventually will go to.

2. You will no longer see the cashiers using the handheld scanner. All coupons must be scanned on the flatbed scanners only.

3. Nothing new here with this point. The coupon must scan. Cashiers/CSM’s or Managers will not be allowed to override or manually enter coupons.

4. Here is where I think things will get some people upset. If a coupon does not scan they will return the coupon to you. All Cashiers will be instructed to do this, so I would expect to see this happen a lot because when it won’t scan you’re not going to be able to use the coupon. I should point out that this will not just be Printable Coupons, but the newspaper insert coupons as well.

Here are a few major reasons for these changes:

1. Coupon Fraud- Is the biggest reason for the changes. You figure that there are some 4,000 Wal-Mart stores here in the US, and if there was only $1,000 per month that would be $4,000,000 a month and over a year that would be pushing $50 million dollars a year. So you might think that a $1,000 is not a lot for one Wal-Mart but when you consider companywide that is a lot of money indeed.

2. Employee Coupon Fraud- I am sure you have seen it in the News or read it in the papers. Here is one example of 18 Wal-Mart employees getting buster for coupon fruad here in Hanford California. The problem that Wal-Mart faces with its employees concerning Coupon Fraud is on a massive scale.

3. Coupon Bar Decoding – I know some of you are like me and say what??? But yes there are those that would buy items based on the codes of the coupon that would allow the coupon to scan anyway. Yes, yet another form of coupon fraud. The old bar codes had a lot of info that could be deciphered and used on products that they were not intended for. Some people just have too much time on their hands. Now the new GS1 bar codes will eliminate that.

How Will all This Affect You?

1. Paul say that some will see this as a negative and then there will be a positive – What you need to see here is that the decisions have been taken out of cashiers hands; the computer knows all (George Orwell “1984″) and determines all. If the coupons scan they take it, if not they don’t.

2. Here is where I think that we will have to look at the cost of all Printable Coupons. You will need to print coupons on the highest quality, color not required but you should be printing on the highest quality available.

3. Wal-Mart and other retailers that will be following suite are hopeful that this will severely reduce the amount of fraud and hopefully we will then see a return of higher value coupons.

Just as when new things come along, there has to be that time of adjustments, as Wal-Mart beings this change in their system there will be some growing pains between the GS1 Data barcode and the systems that accept them. Now one can only hope that all of the kinks are worked out before their launch, but I am not going to hold my breath. We have to realize that this problem of Coupon Fraud has led to some knee jerk reactions.

Ok some of you are already saying that “TLC’s Extreme Couponing is the cause of this” when we start pointing fingers just know this that you have 3 of them pointing back at you. This kind of thinking is just the similar knee jerk reactions in who to blame for the changes. So TLC’s Extreme Couponing will become the number one scape goat. Yes their was one of the biggest culprits of Coupon Fraud / bar code Decoders in the world featured on there show. I like Paul don’t think that TLC is culpable as much as I think they didn’t screen the people or the process nearly well enough. I will also say that I don’t think there was enough shown on the show that people were able to figure all this out. They did plant the seed which made them the catalyst. Now with that said those Couponers that were featured and explained the way to decipher told people how need to step up and take responsibility for their actions. I like what Paul said here “The bottom line is that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Coupon Fraud is the same, people make their own choices an unfortunately we all have to live with them”.

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