| It's a conversation that's stuck in my mind for eight years. A baby boomer mom with a minivan's worth of young children was lamenting that she never had the time, or the organizational skills, to take advantage of supermarket coupons. "Don't worry dear," said her saintly mother-in-law, "this isn't your time to clip coupons." Whenever I'm too busy or frazzled to get the best possible price, I remember those reassuring words: "Don't worry dear, this isn't your time to clip coupons." The statement could be a catch phrase for the baby boomer generation. We have not been great coupon-clippers. Give most of us a choice between an extra hour and an extra $20, and we'll take the hour without a minute's hesitation. But Phil Lempert says that's all about to change. Our time for "couponing" has arrived. Lempert is a certified expert on supermarket coupons. He knows so much about supermarkets in general that he's earned the title "Supermarket Guru," a nickname first bestowed on him by the television networks, radio stations, and newspapers that hired him to comment on food trends. In 1980, Lempert started a food industry newsletter, The Lempert Report, which eventually made him the unofficial spokesman for food consumers. He also hosts the Supermarketguru.com Web site, which is jam- packed with money-saving tips, news about supermarket trends, and first-person reviews from shoppers of new products. Lempert predicts that baby boomers are about to embrace couponing in a big way. First, he said, baby boomers are suddenly waking up to the fact that they need to save every penny for retirement. Second, new technology makes couponing look cool. I asked Lempert why it is that every time you're stuck in a supermarket behind someone with 20 or 30 coupons that person invariably is old. "I think senior citizens or certainly retirees have the time, first of all, to really go through the newspaper or go through the magazines and find the coupons," he said. "And let's face it, they're from a different time. They grew up in the Depression, and they want to save money. They don't want to waste money." He believes that baby boomers who've seen their 401(k) plans shrink alarmingly in the stock market slide are not going to be so cavalier about throwing out $20-$25 in grocery coupons each week. But more important, he said, computers and the Internet have made couponing cool. "Baby boomers are recognizing that couponing is not a stamp of not being successful, but it's just basically smart shopping," he said. Statistics back up this trend prediction. Coupon distribution rose in 1999 for the first time in five years. Now, shoppers can go online, print out a list of coupon offers, bring it into the store to be scanned, save money, and look like a computer-savvy shopper. Lempert has endorsed ValuPage.com, a Web site run by a California- based marketing company. He said he wrote about the ValuPage site after it was launched in 1997, and the company approached
him about forming a Web alliance. ValuPage wanted a link to editorial content about shopping and consumer news, and Lempert wanted an alliance with a reputable company that would help give him the resources to host his Web site, which draws 6.1 million hits a month but accepts no advertising. There are a lot of bad couponing sites, Lempert said. He's particularly opposed to sites that charge people for couponing. "They charge for free coupons. It's just disgusting," he said. "Why would you pay for coupons when you can just go through the paper?" ValuPage makes the process even easier. Log on to ValuPage.com, enter your ZIP code and the supermarket chain where you shop, and the site will give you a choice of coupon offers. Click on the items you want, then print the list. The printout contains a bar code that will be scanned at the checkout register, enabling you to earn "Web bucks," coupons for cash off on your next supermarket trip. (Web browsers beware don't confuse this site with ValuePage.com, a site that will cost you more money than you ever save. ValuPage attorneys are fighting with ValuePage attorneys over use of the similar name.) I tested ValuPage and found it easy to use. I was not required to give any personal information other than my ZIP code and e-mail address. (If a Web site asks for your Social Security number, Lempert warns, "run!") There were a number of offers for items I would buy and use. I clicked on about a dozen, then took my printout to my local Stop & Shop. The cashier was familiar with Web bucks, scanned in my bar code along with my groceries, and said "Wow" when the register spit out $4.25 worth of coupons earned on a $69.94 grocery bill. The coupons can't be redeemed until my next shopping trip, but they are cash coupons that can be applied to a total order, not coupons that require another purchase of a specific item. Lempert recommends that ValuPage users continue to clip newspaper and magazine coupons as well. He says a baby boomer family of four with a fairly typical $150-a-week supermarket bill can easily save $25 to $30 a week with coupons. I was less impressed than the Stop & Shop cashier with my $4.25 in potential savings. I'll be more impressed if I remember to bring them to the store the next time I shop. But bringing my ValuPage printout to the cashier did feel a lot cooler than handing her a pile of clipped coupons. If ValuPage catches on and expands, we baby boomers may become the generation of senior citizens that never has to get out the scissors and actually clip coupons. And we can tell our mothers-in-law, "Guess what, dear, it will never be our time to clip coupons." Joan Verdon can be reached by phone at (201) 646-4419, by fax at (201) 646-4047, by e-mail at verdon(at)northjersey.com or by mail at The Record, 150 River St., Hackensack, N.J. 07601. | 
