The New DataBar Coupon Code

If you haven't already noticed it on many of the coupons we've gotten recently, there's a new bar code in town.  It's on the right side of the traditional bar code we all know and love.  Retailers will have several months to get their cash registers updated or we will begin to see major coupon redemption problems!  Let's hope that our local retailers are already up to date!

I think I read that once the old bar code is nixed, and the DataBar takes over, there will no longer be numbers on the bar codes.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  The good thing is that people will no longer be able to decode the coupons.  The bad thing is that people will no longer be able to decode the coupons. 

Clear as mud, right?  Let me explain.  If you decode a coupon and use it on an item not specified by the coupon wording, you've committed coupon fraud.  A diligent cashier would catch this injustice and prevent the coupon from going through, but sometimes cashiers don't have the time to check each and every coupon they are handed.  The new DataBar is supposed to help prevent this type of coupon fraud. 

The down side is that without the numbers, it will be harder to determine if a coupon can be used for a specific product.  And we know that some coupons are just not specific enough.  Take the $1.00 off any Revlon Beauty Tool coupon available on Coupons.com, for example.  I had read on another coupon blog that I could take this coupon to Walgreens and buy 2 packages of emery boards, use two coupons and get both packages for free.  I love a free product, but I noticed that the first 5 numbers on the coupon and the first 5 numbers on the emery boards were different.  Usually this is a really good indicator that the coupon is not intended for that specific product.  So, I took my emery boards and my coupons to the check out and asked very nicely if I could use the coupons toward the emery boards.  The cashier didn't think so, and neither did I.  I put the coupons away for another day and still got my emery boards for less than two-bucks. 

Yes, free would have been better.  Yes, I probably could have threw a hissy and convinced her to accept the coupons.  In reality, the wording on the coupon said "On any Revlon Beauty Tool" and you could argue that emery boards are a beauty tool.  It's a matter of semantics, I guess.  But, I do agree that this coupon is not intended for the emery boards based on the coding in the barcode.  I just don't know how this will play out when the new DataBar takes over.  We may start to see a lot of refusal when a coupon beeps even though the wording clearly fits the product we are purchasing.  If you had the "any" Ortega product coupon and used it on refried beans, you can remember that the register beeped even though Ortega refried beans are obviously "any" Ortega product. 

Thanks again, and happy couponing!
--The Hopkins County Couponer (7/23/2011)