There are many similarities between ALDI and Lidl. Both are small-format German retailers that sell a limited assortment of mostly store-brand grocery items at lower prices than traditional grocery stores. Both are in the process of expanding their presence in the U.S. market. And due to what ALDI calls the “brazen actions” of two former employees, both retailers allegedly now have access to some of ALDI’s most closely-held business plans.

So ALDI is taking Lidl to court.  Read the entire Coupons in the News article here.

You can’t get much more severe than limiting coupons to one per customer, or offering printable coupons that expire a mere 24 hours after you print them. Procter & Gamble has led the way in creating coupons that can be frustratingly restrictive. But now the company is backing off, by making some of its coupons just a little more user-friendly.  Here’s the entire Coupons in the News article.

Imagine for a moment that you’re in charge of a promotion in which a fortunate few will win a valuable coupon code for $88 off a $100 purchase. Would you make the coupon code a secure, random string of letters and numbers, unique to each recipient? Or would you take the easy way out and make the coupon code something simple like, oh, say, “88OFF”? Here’s the entire article from Coupons in the News of the code that failed.

A year after introducing it in a single test market, Target’s new loyalty program has a new name, new participating markets, and a few new perks that may or may not make signing up worth the effort.

“Target Red”, first introduced to the Dallas-Fort Worth area last April, is now called “Target Circle” and will be available in Charlotte, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Phoenix effective February 19th.

Target describes it as “a super-cool (and fast-growing) loyalty test packed with fun surprises, community giving and personalized perks”. Retail analysts describe it as a way to engage shoppers who may not be interested in applying for a Target REDcard. And committed Target deal-seekers who are a whiz at combining coupons, Cartwheel offers, weekly promotions and their REDcard discount to pay low prices for their Target purchases may describe the new loyalty program as, well, kind of meh.

But then committed Target deal-seekers apparently aren’t the intended audience for Target Circle.  Here’s the entire Coupons in the News article.

Shoppers who like to use paper coupons can be put off by the prospect of ordering their groceries online, because most services don’t accept paper coupons for online orders. So some grocers are trying to make it easier for coupon-clippers to participate, by accepting paper coupons when your groceries are delivered or picked up.

But at least one company doesn’t seem to want any part of it.  Most on this no coupons for online orders, read Coupons in the News.

All of those grocery delivery trucks, personal shoppers and robots aren’t going to pay for themselves – and the people ordering their groceries online aren’t necessarily paying for them all either.

Trader Joe’s announced this week that it’s ending grocery deliveries in New York City, the only market where it ever delivered, and it does not plan to introduce grocery delivery to any other markets.  Interesting read from Coupons in the News.

It was only a matter of time. While paper coupons still represent the vast majority of coupons redeemed, digital coupons have been gaining ground in recent years. Now, for the first time, an annual survey finds that more couponers actually prefer digital.  Here’s the Coupons in the News article.

After one too many cases of avaricious couponers using, abusing, duplicating or manipulating printable coupons for free items, most brands learned their lesson and stopped issuing them years ago.

But over the past year, many brands have begun disregarding that lesson, taking their chances that their promotions will work out and couponers will behave – or that retailers will ignore their own policies and accept the coupons even though they say they won’t.

Yogurt maker Danone North America is the latest to promote a printable free-item coupon offer. This one is tied to the Super Bowl this coming Sunday.  Entire Coupons in the News article here.