C2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 17,1980
Soak that label, stomp that carton refunding’s become a local mania
BY SUSAN KAUFFMAN
Staff Correspondent
What is it that has taken hold of sensible homemakers’
minds and energies and turned their thoughts to trash?
Why do some respective ladies, when they see an empty
detergent box lying on top of a trash pile, feel waves of
emotion overtake them to urge them, to tempt them
almost to the breaking point, to retrieve someone else’s
discarded carton? Why is it that in some homes the Easter
Bunny brought certain kinds of chewing gum the wrap
pers of which have already been removed? Why have
some seldom-used mailboxes suddenly become stuffed
week after week with postcards and letters?
All of the above mentioned symptoms are part of a
growing national consumer movement called refunding.
For some time, shoppers have been using coupons en
titling them to reduced prices for products at the store at
the time of purchase. But there is a second, more com
plicated and more time consuming, step in the ongoing
progress to help cut costs called refunding.
Refunding is the process by which a manufacturer will
send cash or coupons to a consumer after the consumer
has proven purchase for particular items, At first the
refunding programs where relatively simple. With the
increasing popularity of the program, however,
qualifications and specific details have become more and
more demanding. Refunding is a means by which com
panies share their advertising monies with the consumer.
They ask in return thatthe consumer try their product. To
show that the consumer has tried the product, the com
panies ask that certain portions of the packaging or
certain information be sent to a specified address.
Generally, a specific form also has to accompany the
proof of purchase by a certain date.
* s A
■>; Refunding requires a good deal of organization on a
feigesdale operation which could result in a homemaker
bribing practically everything at reduced prices. The
whole process from selecting what to purchase each week
at which stores, saving forms, coupons and proof of
purchase items such as labels, box tops, box bottoms or
ingredient panels and putting all the requirements
together and into the mail takes planning and time, but to
ifiany a homemaker it has become a fascinating and
rewarding challenge. "
To aid the individual shopper in her quest for the best
possible number of refunds coming her way, individuals
have joined together in small groups and formed clubs. A
recently organized refunding club held a meeting this past
month near Quarryville, Lancaster County. Many of the
members or prospective members were not totally in
formed about refunding and had invited an editor of a
refunding newsletter, Janet Scotten, from Leola, to ex
plain more details involved in refunding.
Mrs. Scotten, an operating room nurse at a Lancaster
hospital, has been involved individually in refunding for
some time and has only recently begun her publication of
existing refunding offers. One paragraph of her in
troductory remarks highlights what refunding is all
about.
“Be BOLD! BOUNCE around the store and be GLAD to
try new products. GLORY, it pays to FLICKER around
the HALLS of the store and HUNT’S for HYGRADE
national brand products. The companies will CHEER and
TICKLE you with a CARNATION or some ROYAL
reward.” Later she her statement, “I can’t
PROMISE INSTAMATIC SUCCESS but if you do a TOP
JOB you can save a BIG BATCH and PAMPER yourself.”
. Most refunders advise using a separate savings account
so that one can actually see the amount of return she is
getting. Since the refunds are usually in small amounts at
a tune, Mrs. Scotten warned that if the checks are spent as
quickly as they come back, one would lose perspective of
the total. If the refunds are deposited in an account, the
growing sum can be surprising.
Once a shopper has made up her mind to start refunding
seriously, she can be encouraged by the rewards coming
her way. These rewards can be in several forms. A cash
refund, a free coupon for a product, coupon for a certain
amount of money off the purchase price of a product or a
free gift are the usual rewards.
Refunds are good for brand name products only. A store
brand may have a lower purchase price, but after
refunding for a national brand name product, the brand
name may prove to be the best buy, Mrs. Scotten ex
plained. Using coupons at stores which honor double cents
off increases file amount saved even more.
Often refunders will stock up on non-perishable items
such as paper products and canned goods when there is a
particularly good savings at the time of purchase. Then
they remove the refunding proof of purchase qualifiers,
process them with the required form and mail them in to
the clearing house for the refund. Other refunders buy
items one or two at a time, save the qualifiers as they go
along, then send in the form and qualifiers before the
expiration date of that particular refunding offer passes.
Immediately it becomes apparent that organization
plays a big role in refunding. Cents off coupons, forms,
proof of purchase qualifiers, cash register tapes, en
velopes and postage all have to be filed and readily
available when refunding. Many refunders have litterally
boxes and boxes of coupons, forms and collections of
labels, cartons, box tops, pull tapes from frozen juice cans
and whatever else the manufacturer may require.
Mrs. Scotten flattens all her cartons then presses them
under her son’s lifting weights so that the cartons will fit
into a filing box taking up much less room. She organizes
her coupons and forms by expiration dates, her labels and
Universal Products Codes by alphabetical order of the
name of the product, to make it easier for her to collect the
separate pieces of each particular refunding offer.
Refunders warn new-comers to start organizing their
“trash” early, otherwise they may wait until they have
several boxes full of cartons and box tops to handle all at
once and then end up being discouraged. Several local
refunders say they do this endless task of sorting- and
filing while watching television or while waiting for a load
of wash to finish thereby putting their time to double use.
VUmesfcad
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If by this time, you’ve decided refunding is not for your
household you don’t use name brands or your family
has particular tastes, that you do not use packaged,
prepared foods much or do not have the time for such
nonsense, you might consider testimonials given at the
refunding club. One homemaker said she used double
cents off coupons the week before for the first time in her
life and had the checker return to her $l4 in cash. Another
lady said she sends an average of seven or eight letters off
each week worth $lO to $3O each week.
Samples of qualifiers
people collect are left to
right: tear strip from
fabric softener, spray can
plastic cap (usually asked
to cut out triangular
shaped piece to send in
with form), UPC symbol
on bottom of cake mix
box, cereal box back with
cents off coupons and
refunding form, tuna can
label and circled cash
register tape.
Janet Scotten, editor of Trash Is Cash, Leola,
explaining details of refunding to group in
Southern Lancaster County.
Others nation-wide save up for vacations or with
- remodeling projects in mind. But Mrs. Scotten warns that
the picture often depicted of a refunder going to the store,
filling a shopping cart and only paying out a sum less than
a couple of dollars is unrealistic. “If you saved up all your
free coupons, went with double cents off coupons and
selected only certain products this could be possible onte
in a great while,” she clarified. Usually the refunder can
save less dramatic sums. JBut'doing so consistently over a
longer period of time, the total is stfil rewarding.
“Many people ask ifie how much I spend to get a
refund,” Mrs. Scotten said. “I never buy a product I won’t
use just to get a refund, but if I need paper towels I will use
the cents off coupons that I have cut from the newspaper -
for a national brand and stock up when they are on sale.
Sooner or later there will be a refund offer on them. I’ve
heard people say they don’t cook for a large family so they
wouldn’t he able to send for many refunds. There are
refunds on products that almost everyone uses
shampoos, deodorants, toothpaste, batteries, pain
relievers, hght bulbs, even diapers, dog and cat foods. ’ ’
Mrs. Scotten gave some tips on getting started refun
ding. “To get a refund from a company you need to send a
form or write a note if a form is not required plus send
along some qualifier. “You can find forms on super
market shelves on specially marked packages and on tags
hanging on bottles. “Forms can also be found in
newspapers and magazines. They can be exchanged, not
sold, in clubs, round robin groups which are a closed
group who share by way of mailing or by answering ads in
the classified sections of the newspaper.”
She went on to explain that whatever the company
requests for a particular refund—the box top, box bottom,
front or back label, Proof of purchase seal, the UPC
(Universal Product Code, all those lines with numbers
underneath), net weight statement, the ingredient panel,
the entire box or the cardboard backing needs to be saved.
Often the qualifier is the part you usually throw away
when you open the product, such as the tear off strip on
boxes or frozen juice cans, or the inner seal on a jar of
instant coffee or tea. What may be the qualifier today may
not be a qualifier in another refund offer months from now
so save everything, she advised. “Cut labels from soup
cans, soak labels from jars and plastic bottles and flatten
boxes.”
“Most refunders use the simplest method, putting them
in alphabetical order in cartons for the large items and
expanding folders or large envelopes for the smaller
items.” Also save all register tapes. If you need to circle
the purchase price of an item it is not necessary to send
the entire tape unless the form requires it. Sometimes you
may just need to tract a name on a plastic container that
has no removable seal or label. You may need a weight
and pnce sticker from a meat or bakery products or a
wrapper from a package of hot dog buns. “When I get a
qualifier I clip it to the necessary form and keep it in a
separate box,” she added. “Read the form carefully and
be sure to send exactly the qualifiers requested. Be
patient, most forms advise you to allow at least six weeks
before expecting the refund. The money you make is up to
you. The more refunds you send, the more checks you will
receive and remember that your trash is cash,” she
concluded.