• by morgan , April 25, 2011

Recycle

Go Green

Save the trees

Paperless

All of these are phrases we hear on a regular basis. Our professors tell us to email our assignments to them, our campus promotes recycling; we are surrounding by advertisements every day that promote protecting the planet.

I try to take this into consideration. I print double-sided, I email homework to my professors, and I try to remember to recycle my water bottles, but I have recently learned that this idea of protecting the environment is becoming more mainstream than it was before.

I was recently sitting in marketing class learning about short-term promotions. We were talking about how many companies were trying to decrease the number of short-term promotions they had because these promotions often involved coupons that were wasted.

Short-term promotions often spur sales in grocery stores and other retail facilities, but there needs to be some sort of alternative that would also protect the environment.

Online coupons

Whether free or fee, many websites are posting coupons online so customers can print only those coupons they will actually use.

Websites such as http://www.groupon.com allow customers to receive emails about deals in their area. They can purchase only those coupons they desire and then enjoy the deals.

Websites such as http://www.shopathome.com allow customers to print free coupons, catalogs, and receive free samples.

This sounds like a great idea to me. Instead of filling newspapers with ads (which many people just read online now anyway,) it is only logical that we should only print the coupons we want to use. Being a college student, I may only want to print the coupons for groceries while my parents may want to print coupons for new restaurants. With online coupons, we can both print only what will be useful for us.

There is one downside though; we have to find a way to inform people of where they can find these coupons. These websites are great, but if no one can find them, they are useless. Some people may not like the transition at first, but when utilized properly, I think it will continue to be a great advantage to the grocery, restaurant, and retail industries.