What if stores stopped accepting coupons?

With all the frustrations about stores have contradicting, changing, and extreme coupon policies lately, I’ve been thinking: what if they refused to accept coupons altogether?  How would your life change?  How would it affect your budget?  Would it affect store’s profits, positively or negatively?

For my family, not being able to use coupons would mean buying more off-brands.  Our pantry is full of mostly name-brand items because I can almost always get them cheaper with coupons and the right sale.  If I can no longer use a coupon to get French’s mustard for 25¢, then of course I’ll buy the off-brand when it goes on sale for 50¢ instead of paying $1 for the name brand.

It would mean an increase in our weekly grocery budget, especially in regards to non-food items like diapers.  I don’t think it would be anything drastic like a doubling of our budget because…

I would make more items from scratch rather than buying convenience foods.  We’d probably eat more oatmeal and pancakes for breakfast rather than cereal, because I wouldn’t be able to get cereal for super cheap.  I’d cook dried beans instead of buying canned.  I might even consider making my own laundry detergent!  Of course, if there weren’t coupons, I would have a great deal more time to spend making things from scratch as about half of the blog posts I write have to do with coupons!

We would probably get a membership to Sam’s Club or Costco.  I can usually beat Sam’s price on almost anything by waiting for the right sale paired with a coupon, but if coupons were no longer available, a Sam’s membership would become quite attractive to me.

From the other perspective, if stores refused to accept coupons, I think manufacturers would be more than upset.  Coupons are a major way for companies to convince people to try their products, and if a chain refused to accept those coupons I’m pretty sure there would be some major backlash.

Stores like Walmart would see those once-loyal shoppers return – many of us have discovered we can get better prices and often higher quality by shopping at “grocery” stores, but if those stores won’t accept coupons, those grocers may find themselves losing business from the people who shop at their stores just because they double coupons.

Newspaper subscriptions would decline due to couponers not needing to subscribe for the coupons anymore.

What do you think?  How would your life change if you couldn’t use coupons anymore?  How do you think it would affect your family, manufacturers, and grocery stores?