Are there any aeropostale coupon codes?

How does coupon (circulars) and promo codes make money?

• I'm trying to find out the way coupons and promo codes work? Example One: You clip a coupon from the Sunday's paper or go to coupons.com and print a coupon for $1 off a certain product. The customer benefits from this coupon because they saved $1, but how do coupons.com or the company inserts the coupon in the Sunday's paper make money? Also how does the retail store benefit from this since they just lost a dollar off the product? Example Two: Retailmenot and of similar sites provides coupon codes to customers for a certain percentage off or a dollar amount. How does Retailmenot make money from the code? For example: A person purchases $25 worth of stuff and use code that saved them $1, what is in it for retailmenot? How do they make commission? Is it the worth of the coupon or the total amount that is spent?

• Answer:

  I can only answer for the newspaper coupons.  The inserts that contain the coupons within the newspapers are sent to the newspaper companies.  I don't have absolute specifics.  But the process looks like this. The newspaper does get a small kickback for the effort of transporting the coupons.  This is because the newspaper is printed at the local facility.  Then it is transported to the local distributor (who places the paper in your paperbox or on the lawn).  They must FIRST assemble the papers with local-specific inserts. This is done by employing a team of people to do so.  My boyfriend did this for a few years.  Every Saturday night / Sunday Morning from Midnight to 2am, he stuffed the papers with local fliers.  He'd generally be paid $30 for the effort.  Not bad, but really lame work. Now, where do the fliers come from?  The evil Canadians generally dominate this process.  And not just the evil Canadians, but the ones who speak a language OTHER than English.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebecor prints newspaper inserts and fliers for companies.  From here I'm going to extrapolate and say that there are likely only a few companies that do this process.  The timing and costs and distribution are pre-negotiated to allow for economies of scale.  "Okay, Frothmart, it looks like JCPenny, Kohl's and Bed, Bath & Beyond all have their coupons sent to us by  a week from print date.  Your cost will be X.  We will print your coupons as an individual flier placed within the flier bundle.  Because you want to spend X amount of money, your coupons will appear in the middle of the flier.  If you'd like a more prominent position, we can move them forward at X cost to you." Then the coupons are printed and shipped.  They arrive at the local distribution facility where young ladies and gentlemen are assembling the newspapers and stuffing them with the appropriate coupons.  As to the "benefit" for the product company issuing the coupon, the benefit is simple:  consumer loyalty.   For a quick overview on the coupon process, see:  Retailers and product sellers KNOW that brand loyalty, cross merchandising and frequency of return are king when it comes to selling products.  If you are a product seller, then you're hoping to create brand loyalty.  One of the sneaky things in retail is an ingrained knowledge of YOUR shopping patters better than you know yourself.  This is because producers like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procter_%26_Gamble have teams of psychologists and marketers are burning the midnight oil studying what you like and why you like it. They have discovered that [1] most shopping for home-goods, sundries and clothing is done by women (+/-80%) and [2] women are typically brand loyal and will stick with a product once they fall in love with it.  Therefore, a company like Tide (from P&G) desperately needs to get women who use Wisk (produced by competitor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Products) to fall in love with it and keep using it. But that can't happen unless P&G makes it so impossible to refuse the purchase of Tide that the previously loyal lady temporarily makes the switch because of the impossible pricing.  "Hmmmm.  My Wisk is $16.95, but fuck me!  This Tide is only $13.95!  Oh.  Okay.  I'll give it a shot!"  And thus, that brutal tyranny of Wisk is broken and another lady is brought over to the ranks of Tide.  (Consequently I use "ALL free and clear").