If you’re a frequent shopper at Sam’s Club or Costco Wholesales, you’ll notice that they issue discount coupons valid at certain time periods. It sure pisses me off some time when I already run out of paper napkins or mouthwash, but can’t use the coupons until two weeks later. I hate not to save those few bucks but my daily needs are important to me as well. Similarly, I need an extra TV in my bedroom to watch my sport shows, but my wife insists that I wait a few weeks for the coming holiday sales discount. It’s frustrating, and to me, a few dollars or a few percents of the sales price may not be worth the wait. But for those who can plan their purchases weeks ahead of time, it can definitely save money that way. For household supplies such as toothpaste or toilet papers, you can buy them so often that waiting shouldn’t be an issue. But infrequently purchased items such as a new TV or computer may need a better strategy to take advantage of good deals or bargains. I just happened to learn from my friend an effective way to tackle this problem: a wall wish list.

Basically, I put a little black-board on the wall and write on it any items I wish to buy as soon as I remember. There’re two major advantages by doing this. First, it informs all people in my home about the intention to buy those products, and we won’t miss any good deals when they become available. Second (and most importantly), they will have to pass the “necessity test” before being purchased. The necessity test I mentioned here is basically convincing my wife why I can’t live without those products. So as you can see, not many of them can pass this test, and I’ll just have to forget about them! This system has been working very well for the past three years. I still remember many times before that I bought stuffs that I later regretted, just because I never had a chance to use them and they even consumed my limited space.

But if you think about it, what’s the whole purpose of coupons and discounts? Only a few customers could actually feel that they save some money, while all merchants reap the benefits of more sales volume and even profits. Who are the winners? It’s obviously the merchants who give out those discounts and maybe a few of their customers. As you can guess, it’s definitely not a win-win situation like the merchants try to make you believe. There got to be losers in here, no doubt about it.

So who are the losers? The majority of customers, of course. Sure they take the discounts, and for some moment, think that they save money. But the truth is that they don’t even need those purchases in the first place! It’s the merchants’ success to make their customers believe the merchandise a necessity and rush in to buy them, only for a happy moment. Soon those customers will realize they just wasted their money on unnecessary items. But for those merchants, that’s all they need: a happy moment of their shoppers.

I’m not a marketer, so I have no hard statistics on how successful the coupon/bargain tactics have been. But common sense tells me that they’re so darn powerful. There was a time my wife bought me 2 new shirts that she got 50% off regular price. She still felt good about it and tried to find all the reasons to justify it, even though she knew my closet was full and that I wouldn’t need any new clothes. I didn’t want to upset her (am I smart or what?), but obviously it was a waste of money. Well, my point is, if you take the discounts without passing the necessity test, you’ll be the loser in this shopping game.