They’ve seen them every day in their purse. People come in with five coupons, but they kept them six months. If people know they never expire, they keep them. SCOTT HAMES ( chief marketing and analytics officer, 2000-18): Word got around, and it became a thing. WARREN EISENBERG You should have taken one and ripped it up! Down here in Florida, nobody knows who I am, and the woman in front of me in line turns around and says, “You know, I have extra coupons, would you like one?” I love that. MITZI EISENBERG People used to keep stacks of them in the car all the time. Any associate would accept any coupon, regardless of date, but that was never an official policy, just so you know. LASKIN What I know is that the company line was, “We encourage customers to use the coupons before they expire.” That was the phrase we were always told to say. But like all things with good intentions, they do kind of sometimes get out of hand. This actually happened.Īnd the manager said that of course we would accommodate her. We call the ambulance, hold the door open and she tells us that her coupon is about to expire that night. A customer walks into a store in the Midwest, she is nine months-plus pregnant and goes into labor. LITTLE We were a service-oriented organization. That expiration date is more like a suggestion. It moved the needle.īig Blue’s little secret: It’s good basically forever. I’ll just say that we knew people reacted. We decided to try 20 percent off one item. And we needed something with a little extra zing. It was going to be a postcard, probably with some outdoor-living kinds of things on it. There was a need for a Fourth of July-type promotion. RITA LITTLE ( vice president, marketing, 1997-2013) They had probably 60 stores. But then Rita Little, who had gone through the executive training program at the now defunct Abraham & Straus department store chain, came along. In the early years, the coupons were infrequent, attached to circulars and for offers like $5 off a purchase of at least $15. There was no big television commercial, no big splash in the newspaper saying we were a cool place to be. BETH GROSSFELD ( senior marketing manager, 2006-19) The thing I remember being so intrigued by was that the company had not spent a dime on a branding campaign, ever.
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