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3 On Your Side: 96 Percent of Millennials Use Coupons

By Jim Donovan

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Move over Grandma, these days it's Millennials who have gone coupon crazy, looking for steals and deals both in person and online.  3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan takes a look at what's making this generation so thrifty.

When Briana Brooks' family went through some tough economic times, she decided to grab her scissors and start clipping coupons.  She says, "By the time we got to the store it was just like, 'go get this, go get this', head up to the register, hand them the coupons, bill goes down by at least 50 percent. I was like this is actually kind of cool!"

One study found 96 percent of Millennials, those born between 1980 and 2000, said they use coupons.  Millenial expert Chelsea Krost says, "We're living in a time where our economy is uncertain, where the job market is uncertain and I think wherever we can save a dollar or two or more we're definitely going to take advantage of it."

Marketing expert and author Liz Crawford believes retailers are coming up with creative ways to reach Millennials and give them the coupons they crave.  She says,  "A business that wants to connect with Millennials should make it fun and make it mobile."

From money saving apps, to social media sites that reward followers with special deals, to coupons which can be pulled up on a mobile phone or printed out in store.  According to Crawford, "Millennials are so trained to look for coupons and good deals that they have in mind what product or brand they'd like to buy ahead of time and then they find that coupon across a variety of different vehicles, platforms, retailers and websites."

Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are also big into stacking coupons.  That's where you combine offers from a variety of different sources like manufacturer coupons along with in-store deals.  One survey found they're doing this more than Baby Boomers or Gen X-ers.

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