Why do grocery store and restaurant coupons expire? How would it hurt if they didn ?
In short: Inflation. Say a kid collects over 10,000 coupons in the 1940s and 50s and takes them out of the time capsule this year, by the time he or she is a grandparent. They then go on a shopping spree (and maybe give it to their sons and daughters to use them all faster). If these stores haven’t gone out of business already, it’ll take away from the profits because these stores will be forced to sell their products at the coupons’ prices. Many stores and restaurants are afraid that customers will collect and time-capsule their coupons and sometime down the line, use them to buy what the coupons are for at deep discounts unhealthy for business. This is one of the reasons why coupons have expiration dates.
Grocery stores carry thousands of products, many of them in competition with each other. Because shelf space is limited and valuable, stores introduce coupons to help market and highlight certain products and to sell as many units as they can at a profit, as quickly as possible. Because ad space costs money, as well as shelf space, stores put expiration dates on coupons so that they keep the unit moving off the shelves to make up for the costs of selling it. The longer the validation period for the coupon, the lower the redemption rate. As a sales tactic, stores use the expiration date of a coupon to help urge customers to purchase the product quickly, making them a profit in the larger picture.
