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Though a trip to the grocery store is often a chore, once inside your local supermarket there always seems to be a friendly face behind the deli counter or packing your bags.  We all have a certain comfort zone when it comes to where shop for goods.  Knowing exactly where your favorite products are located and which cashier runs the fastest check-out lane without smashing your eggs are huge benefits to shopping at the same grocer each week.

So what is brand loyalty?  According to BusinessDictionary.com, it is the extent of the faithfulness of consumers to a particular brand, expressed through their repeat purchases, irrespective of the marketing pressure generated by the competing brands.  What does that really mean?  It means people tend to select products that they have been happy with over and over again.  Similarly it refers to where shoppers chose to make their purchases.

The latest trend in saving and shopping seems to have altered how we think about our favorite supermarkets and products.  Thanks to the reality TV show and an excessive amount of couponing websites, extreme couponing has become a trend that is sweeping the nation by storm.  The premise of the show and discipline now being practiced in households across the United States, is simply extreme couponing is an activity that combines shopping skills with couponing in an attempt to save as much money as possible while accumulating the most groceries.

The problem for brand distributors and local supermarkets, is that though they offer coupons and commonly offer double coupons, extreme “couponers” are often one-time buyers.  They follow the coupons and sales, rather than coming back next week to purchase the same product.  Retailers offered over 300 billion in coupon savings last year alone.  After all, the goal of a retailer is to keep their customers loyal so they keep coming back.

Retailers do have a few tricks up their sleeves however.  Customer loyalty programs, buy-back programs and repeat service discounts and the ever popular points programs are just a few incentives to keep customers returning for more.  Furthermore, extreme couponing requires a tremendous amount of organization, patience, storage space and time on task.