Does anyone still clip coupons? Consumers want deals, but how they find them is shifting

Natalie Stechyson · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 06, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

For some, it's a ritual — sitting down with that week's flyers and clipping retired coupons for the champion deals.

For others, it's a lifestyle. Couponing entered the lexicon successful the 1950s, and past came Extreme Couponing, the fashionable 2010 U.S. tv amusement that ran for 4 seasons.

And for many, it's a necessity. The bulk of Canadians are actively seeking ways to prevention connected nutrient costs, including utilizing much coupons, according to a 2024 study from the Agri-Food Analytics Lab astatine Dalhousie University successful Halifax. 

But arsenic a question of reports shows a diminution successful coupon organisation and redemption, and amid the expanding usage of AI to hunt down deals, is couponing in information of becoming a mislaid art?

Changes successful the coupon landscape

"I think it's that the benignant of couponing is changing," said Kathleen Cassidy, who runs the fashionable societal media couponing relationship Living connected a Loonie. 

Cassidy, who lives successful Toronto, regularly posts deals and couponing tips to her hundreds of thousands of followers crossed societal media.

"We're seeing a batch much couponing entering the integer sphere. It's much of the cash-back apps, the integer coupons, the loyalty points," Cassidy told CBC News.

Yet coupon use, some carnal and digital, has been declining successful the U.S. since the 1990s and fell by implicit 50 per cent betwixt 2006 and 2019, according to a caller survey successful the Journal of Political Economy. U.S. marketers distributed just 50 cardinal coupons successful 2024, compared to 330 cardinal successful 2010, according to information compiled by marketing and commercial-printing services company RRD for the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, postulation to U.S. retail websites via generative AI jumped 1,200 per cent successful February compared to six months earlier, according to a March study from Adobe. While Adobe added the postulation was "modest" compared to different channels similar paid hunt oregon email, its "growth has been notable — doubling each 2 months since September 2024."

The institution besides surveyed 5,000 U.S. consumers for its report, and recovered 39 per cent utilized AI for online shopping. Of those, 43 per cent said they utilized AI to question deals.

The evolutions of coupons

Coupons day backmost to astatine slightest 1887, erstwhile Coca-Cola started distributing them arsenic a way to boost the drink's profile, according to the History Channel. They've since evolved from those accepted paper clippings with in-store redemption, according to a study from Snipp, a promotions tech company.

The 1990s saw the rise of integer discount codes, email promotions and printable coupons, the study says, and the COVID-19 pandemic caused digital coupons to surpass carnal ones. The problem, however, is that the scenery for integer deals is presently "overcrowded," according to the report.

And that whitethorn beryllium wherefore consumers are progressively utilizing AI to chopped done the noise, said Tripat Gill, an subordinate economics prof astatine Wilfrid Laurier University successful Waterloo, Ont.

WATCH | The emergence of the Canadian coupon clippers (From 2011): 

Gill said using AI reduces "search cost," or the clip and effort radical walk searching for products.

AI services are marketed arsenic incredibly intelligent and competent, truthful it makes consciousness for consumers to effort utilizing them to find discounts, said Matthew Guzdial, an adjunct computing subject prof astatine the University of Alberta.

But there's a problem, the experts agree: "Unfortunately, it doesn't truly work," Guzdial said.

'Life-changing buying hack'

TikTok is afloat of Gen Z consumers sharing however AI has helped them prevention money, from coupon codes and hunting down the champion deals, to budgeting help.

"My life-changing buying hack was when I saw a miss connected my [for you page] accidental she uses ChatGPT for discount codes," 1 TikToker wrote alongside a video successful May.

AI tin connection a discreet mode for consumers to question retired cost-saving tips, says Guzdial, but the models are often wrong. Coupons alteration regularly, and AI models astatine this constituent don't person the quality to verify if a codification recovered successful their grooming information from months oregon years agone is inactive valid, helium said.

In astir cases, a chatbot can't adjacent hunt the web arsenic portion of an answer, Guzdial said.

Gill says that when it comes to buying research, however adjuvant AI tin beryllium depends connected however constrictive and focused you are successful your prompt.

For instance, Gill says he precocious asked Shopping GPT (a diagnostic within ChatGPT) for assistance uncovering a integer camera for his teen girl that outgo nether $100. It provided him with 3 links, 2 of which led him to products that weren't adjacent cameras.

But had helium asked, "Find maine a pink-coloured integer camera for a teen miss for nether $100 from Amazon," the results would person been much reliable, helium added.

Can AI hunt down deals?

As an informal test, CBC News asked ChatGPT if it could find a discount codification for Old Navy Canada. It rapidly pulled up a codification for 20 per cent off.

However, erstwhile CBC attempted to use the code, it was "invalid oregon or expired." The aforesaid happening happened with the next three codes ChatGPT pulled up, arsenic good arsenic with the codes provided by CouponGPTs, an AI-powered coupon uncovering tool.

Next, CBC asked ChatGPT if it could find a discount for a dilatory cooker. It suggested the Chefman stainless alloy dilatory cooker from Giant Tiger for 50 per cent off. But CBC couldn't find that deal, oregon adjacent that dilatory cooker, connected Giant Tiger's website. On person inspection, the nexus ChatGPT cited arsenic a notation was from a Nov. 23, 2014 introduction connected the Smart Canucks blog.

Cassidy, the Toronto coupon influencer, says she hasn't tried AI to find deals. But she's not looking done insubstantial flyers, either. She uses the Flipp app to look done integer flyers each week, which she cross-references with antithetic cash-back apps and integer coupons. 

"You utilized to spot a lot of carnal coupons ... whether they were successful flyers oregon inserts oregon astatine the stores connected products," Cassidy said.

"There inactive are carnal coupons retired there, but there possibly aren't arsenic many available arsenic determination utilized to be."