PFMA President and CEO David McCorkle spoke as part of an association management roundtable last month at the Food Industry Association Executives (FIAE) Convention in Park City, Utah.
He noted that many FIAE state association members, including the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association, have processed coupons for their members since the 1950s as a source of non-dues revenue. PFMA subsidiary Pennsylvania Coupon Redemption Services, Inc. processes coupons for 600 retailers in Pennsylvania and surrounding states.
McCorkle provided couponing statistics based on research from the Food Marketing Institute, Valassis and its subsidiary NCH Marketing Services, Inc., the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).
• According to FMI, all supermarket sales in 2013 totaled nearly $620 billion and NACS reports convenience store sales, including gas totaled nearly $210 billion in 2013.
• 315 - 319 billion traditional coupons were distributed in 2013.
• 2.8 - 2.9 billion coupons were redeemed by consumers/retailers in 2013. 66.1 percent for food products and 33.9 percent for non-food items.
• The average face value of a printed coupon was $1.56 and the value of each redeemed coupon was $1.30. Consumers saved nearly $3.77 billion or .45 percent of supermarket and convenience store sales in 2013. The 8 cents per coupon handling fee paid by manufacturers and their agents for processing coupons in 2013 totaled $232 million.