Coupons

When Daily News staff writers Peggy Higgins (pro) and Carol Towarnicky (con) faced off on the subject of coupons, we asked for your comments. You responded and the answer was loud and clear: You like them, you love them, you can't get enough of them. They save you money, they give you something to do, you have a system. And anyone who is against them is lazy or foolish or rich . . . These are excerpts from some of the responses: A GREAT FEELING Coupons, if used judiciously, can put a saving into your budget.

Baseball fans are a forgiving sort, especially when they're driving in rainy rush-hour traffic from Newtown and Wilmington to Veterans Stadium to get free tickets to a Phillies game. That's what happened yesterday. From the sunny morning to the windy midday to the rainy twilight, fans trickled to the Phillies' ticket window to redeem coupons for as many as four tickets to the April 19 game against the Montreal Expos. The free-ticket coupons, which appeared in yesterday's and today's Inquirer and can be redeemed right up until game time, are the Phillies' way of making amends to the fans for the inconvenience caused by the 32-day lockout that delayed spring training.

When US Airways announced last month that it would start charging $100 for passengers to fly standby, it meant new revenue from a common practice - flying standby - that formerly produced none. To further that policy, the airline this month began selling $100 coupons that expedite flying standby. The coupons "can be purchased in advance and allow customers using nonrefundable fares additional flexibility in their travels," US Airways said in a release that tried to put a positive spin on the new process.

If you're the supermarket shopper in your family, you may have noticed a book of $1 coupons next to the cash register that say, "Check Out Hunger in our Neighborhood. " The coupons - distributed by the Greater Philadelphia Food Bank - allow shoppers to add $1 to their grocery bill to help feed Philadelphians who can't afford to feed themselves. And there are many, according to Kevin Fagin, director of development for the Greater Philadelphia Food Bank, who supplied these figures: 500,000 people in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties live in poverty and frequently go hungry.

A Philadelphia woman was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $6,000 yesterday for taking part in one of the largest supermarket coupon-redemption scams in state history. Dorothea Joyce, 59, of the 5800 block of Frankford Avenue, was one of five people sentenced yesterday for participating in a what prosecutors say was a well-organized scheme to collect millions of discount coupons and sell them to store owners for 40 cents on the dollar. Twenty-one people have pleaded guilty so far, and all face sentencing.

No one seemed more surprised than representatives of the AMI marketing company when the Woodbury Homesteader Restaurant abruptly closed its doors late last month during a sales promotion that generated about 500 new customers. Clifford Walker, manager of the Mount Laurel company, said his firm was contracted by the restaurant owner about two weeks before Thanksgiving to sell discount coupons for $19.99. The coupons would allow the buyer to purchase 10 dinners and 10 lunches. The coupons also offered a 20 percent discount for groups.

Federal prosecutors have charged 21 Philadelphia-area residents with conspiring to defraud grocery manufacturers of more than $3 million by illegally redeeming cents-off coupons for products that were never purchased. Among those named in a 97-count indictment alleging mail fraud, conspiracy and income tax violations were West Chester food consultant Robert A. Joyce, 32, his wife, Edna, 46, and his parents, Robert J., 56, and Dorthea Joyce, 58, of Frankford Avenue near Stevenson Road.

Buying a certificate of deposit or opening a savings account never has been quite like buying laundry detergent or a jar of peanut butter. But Fidelity Bank is trying to change that. Starting Tuesday, the bank will begin running newspaper advertisements pitching its "special values," an assortment of coupons offering cash bonuses and other goodies for customers. For example, the bank will offer a $10 cash payment for new statement savings accounts and $20 in cash for a new money market savings account if either is linked to a checking account.

Robert A. Joyce, admitted mastermind of a $2.5 million cents-off coupon fraud scheme, yesterday was given a five-year prison term, and his father received a two-year sentence for helping him. Two other admitted helpers, Joyce's mother, Dorthea, 58, who is serving a one-year prison sentence, and his wife, Edna, 46, who awaits sentencing, also were in the federal courtroom in Philadelphia to learn the fate of Joyce, 33, and his father, Robert J....

Taking a page from the consumer-products playbook, drug manufacturers are offering patients coupons to try new prescription medications - just as they would a laundry detergent or spaghetti sauce. Consumers now can clip coupons from newspaper ads for Eli Lilly & Co.'s new formulation of the antidepressant Prozac and for two diabetes drugs made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. The coupons offer a month's free supply of a drug - with a valid doctor's prescription. They are another effort to bring patients directly into pharmaceutical marketing.

DEAR ABBY: I'm a 43-year-old veteran of the grocery industry. I am also an associate of one of the premier supermarkets in the country, and I disagree with your response to "Chicago Clipper"! Coupons are a necessary evil and are graciously accepted, but they create work for retailers. It takes countless hours of sorting, logging, filling out forms, mailing and receiving to be reimbursed for the face value of the coupon. This is hardly a benefit to the grocer. The abuse and fraud associated with coupons adds up into millions of dollars.

When Brian and Sharon Squires got into the coupon business more than 20 years ago, Internet shopping didn't exist; neither did TLC's Extreme Couponing and its homage to bargain hunting. Actually, coupons were a rather dull affair, mostly black-and-white clippings from the newspaper, or slightly snazzier versions crammed into envelopes that showed up in the mail. The Squireses - sweethearts since their days at Northeast High School and then at Temple University (Class of '79)

Coupons for drug co-payments are illegal and drive up long-term health-care costs for all, a consumer group and four trade-union health-insurance plans said Wednesday in announcing lawsuits against eight pharmaceutical companies. Drug companies use co-pay coupons to entice patients to stay with higher-cost brand-name drugs and not switch to lower-cost generics. Coupons reduce the consumer's out-of-pocket cost at the pharmacy counter, but the payment process keeps that information from the health insurer, which still pays the previously negotiated price to the drug company.

An African American employee who claims that his race and pro-union leanings cost him his job at the SugarHouse Casino has hand-delivered a petition to get it back. Cory Ballard, 25, who made $13 an hour plus tips as a player services agent the last nine months, was accompanied by about a dozen SugarHouse employees and Bishop Dwayne Royster of the Living Water United Church of Christ in Kensington as he delivered the petition. It was signed by two-thirds of his old department and given to casino representatives Tuesday at management's office at 1080 N. Delaware Ave., directly across from the casino.

The Internet nearly killed Amy Kunkle's Philadelphia business when an ill-advised Groupon offer drove her thousands of dollars into a hole. But this week, the Internet also helped save it. Kunkle owns Mount Airy's Food for All Market, a cafe and shop at 7127 Germantown Ave. Food for All serves a special niche: people wary of certain foods - nuts, soy, eggs, wheat, and others - that cause them allergic reactions. It's a market Kunkle, 36, knows firsthand. She and her son Gabriel, 8, both carry emergency pens to inject themselves with epinephrine in case they react to an allergen.

If you're planning to shop online for the holidays, you should check out Mr. Rebates, a referral site that gives you cash rebates for shopping online. When you shop through Mr. Rebates, rebates are credited to your account. Then at the end of the month, quarter, or however often you redeem them, you get paid rebates in cash by Mr. Rebates. They can either send you a check in the mail or give you a credit in your PayPal account (your choice) so you can shop some more online. It's easy to get started.

'Bomb' was actually a seder plate * Willet Street near Lincoln Drive, in West Mount Airy A suspicious package that led to the evacuation of the Germantown Jewish Centre yesterday morning turned out to be a seder plate apparently placed at a side entrance by someone who wanted to donate it. Senior Rabbi Adam Zeff said the synagogue's maintenance director spotted the package leaning against the building outside a side entrance about...

CHICAGO - Some of the 2,500 people who came to hear Jill Cataldo talk about coupons started lining up four hours before she took the stage at the performing arts center in Charleston, S.C., in March. Cataldo's sold-out speech was touted as the largest event of its kind ever held in the United States. This crowd was big, but Cataldo, an entrepreneur and mother of three from the far northwest suburb of Huntley, is used to the attention. She has secrets to share that are just right for this penny-pinching era: how to use those little clips of paper to save a family thousands of dollars a year at the supermarket.

Dear Harry: This recession almost ruined me. I lost a job that I worked in for 32 years, advancing each year. Since then, I have worked at far less-skilled jobs (four of them) and earned about 70 percent of my last decent salary. We have stopped our IRA contributions, and the present job has few benefits. The result is that we are looking for every way we can to save a buck here and there. Fortunately, we have only one child left as a dependent, and our home is free and clear.