Discount

[bigkevj]

Does anyone know of any discount codes to use on Austin Home Brews website to order?

 

[Evan!]

Try "UNETHICAL"

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Not trying to start anything, just curious... why unethical?

 

[Evan!]

Coupon codes are a touchy issue. I guess if it's public domain, that's cool..but a lot of times, places will offer special discounts to repeat customers or signed-up members, or they'll give you a code for doing something in particular. Now, I don't think it's a cause for concern here because I don't think that AHS has anything going on right now, that I've seen...but I see it as a second cousin to more than one person using an admission ticket. Just depends on the kind of coupon it is...but in certain instances, broadcasting a code that wasn't meant for the general public is ethically questionable IMHO. Yeah, the argument can also be made that if the company wanted to keep it restricted, they'd require some kind of authentication. That's valid. But it still doesn't speak to the ethical question.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Ah, I understand. I hadn't thought of the non-public coupon code deal. Cool...

 

[kniles38]

I don't see how sharing coupon codes is any more unethical than charging different customers different rates for the same product.

 

[Pedro-]

I don't see how sharing coupon codes is any more unethical than charging different customers different rates for the same product.

It's a matter of benefits for both you the customer and the store as a business entity.

Seen an ad in a magazine you bought or subscribe to? Use Coupon code "ICMAG" at checkout, and said HomeBrewStore knows their marketing worked and should continue. In the eyes of marketing, the hbs is rewarded for adding another customer and order, and they are passing that reward onto you by giving a discount.

On the HBS's newsletter or frequent shopper list? Enjoy free shipping this month or take $5 off your next order for being a great customer. The store knows they can pass some extra bucks in discounts your way because they will hopefully get repeat business.

In the ethic's argument of a coupon code that was a privilege in the first place is like working for a paycheck, and then photocopying the paycheck and adding all your friend's names to the check and cashing in.

To have gotten the coupon in the first place you somehow must be helping the store, that is the whole reason they can drop off a couple bucks and still stay afloat.

These stores are people.

 

[beerdad]

No coupon necessary tomorrow they are having an Oktoberfest sale 10% off everything. You just have to place your order at the right time check their site for details.

 

[Cheesefood]

The coupon code is used to track effectiveness and reach. We do something similar:

When we air a certain commercial in a certain market, we use a certain 800 number. (We have over 580 toll free numbers.) You see the commercial and call that number. AT&T allows us to attach a code to that toll free number that transfers to our system and we store it in our database. Each day, I send a data dump of the previous day's calls to our media buying company who then use those codes to see how well our ads are tracking.

If you write down the number and give it to a friend, guess what? That ad had secondary reach. It hit someone who then encouraged someone else to call our company. Mission accomplished, even though you didn't see the ad. The point is that it caused an action.

Same with coupon codes. They don't care that you bought that paper, they care that the ad caused you to purchase the product (unless the product is the paper.)

So it's not unethical. If someone here sees an ad and tells someone else about it, AHS gets a sale. Otherwise, NorthernBrewer gets a sale. Which do you think AHS would prefer?

 

[Pedro-]

So it's not unethical. If someone here sees an ad and tells someone else about it, AHS gets a sale. Otherwise, NorthernBrewer gets a sale. Which do you think AHS would prefer?

You are right cheese and I agree with that to a point.

With the broadcasting yes it reaches more effectiveness the more it spreads. You are only helping the store there, and I guess I wasn't completely clear (as always).

But it changes when you are talking about reward programs/coupons, loyalty services, feedback perks, etc. If you are a frequent customer, and as such get a sizeable discount then that is definitely a privileged coupon. If you get a 10 or 20 dollar coupon, unrestricted free shipping, or anything of the like that was given to you because you have helped that company with a lot of business that doesn't give you the right to broadcast it. Your loyalty is being rewarded, and in turn they give you a break. That doesn't mean every Joe in the forum gets it because the store sent you an e-mail and cut you a break.

With the privileged discounts and promos, yeah there is an ethics question involved.

I don't see how sharing coupon codes is any more unethical than charging different customers different rates for the same product.

Incentives for customers is a major driving factor in ALL business. That is the reason why I can ask for a discount from a manufacturer when my company is ordering 10,000 licenses of software versus 1 copy. If I sign a contract to have 2 million toys to be spread to all of my stores over the next year, your profits through production more than outweigh the problems of shipping costs and customs. Why not cover that cost since you just landed a monster deal and don't need to worry about putting food on the table or the mortgage payment for awhile. OR we could just order toy by toy, day by day, and you could worry if I stop ordering tomorrow and not know if you can put food on the table.

If I order from a store every month, and the store sees that I don't go elsewhere when I certainly could, what's wrong with the store throwing a bone my way to say, "Thank you, we appreciate your business"? Our companies sign into agreements that we will only do business over a period of time with a set company. In return said company give us a nice discount because they know ALL of our ordering is going through them during that time and we are not going elsewhere.

 

[kniles38]

We are talking about two different things. You are talking about a quantity discount, which can be validated because it obviously costs the retailer less to sell 10,000 to 1 buyer than sell 1 to each of 10,000 buyers. This is obviously ethical, but much different than a coupon code.

The coupon code gives two different buyers of the exact same item under the exact same terms purchasing the item at the exact same time two different prices. This is commonly referred to as price discrimination, which is legal under most circumstances and commonly used in many forms of business, though that does not make it ethical.

In fact, the legality of coupons and other forms of price discrimination have been argued in court numerous times, with airline ticket price discrimination and Amazon's price discrimination based on information tracking being the most famous. I think Amazon stopped the practice in favor of other more comonly accepted price discrimination tactics, though the tracking tactic was not found to be illegal and probably still goes on at numerous internet retailers.

If this were going on at the wholesale level, for example a malt manufacturer sells AHS 100 tons a year at 10% less than they sell 100 tons to your LHBS under the same terms, then this would be illegal, due to the anticompetitive aspects, no matter if it were a straight discount or a discount due to one buyer having a secret code. Obviously, a lower price for more tons could be justified.

The argument that using coupon codes is ethical because it helps get repeat business for companies or get new customers is not logical. Isn't that the definition of unethical (from a business standpoint), using dubious business tactics to increase sales. Obviously it is helping them in some way (probably for marketing as many seem to beleive or for pure price discrimination purposes) or they would not be using it. And being a one person shop vs. a megacorporation doesn't make it more ethical.

As far as sharing codes, the companies who use them want you to share them with people who ask for them, such as the person who started this thread. This is their goal, to have people who want a discount to get it, and to have people who are less concerned about price to be charged the full price.

I would not compare sharing coupon codes with copying paychecks, I would compare it to letting the guy in front of you at the grocery checkout swipe your card because he forgot his that day or is from out of town (I think most people know what I'm talking about, but there are places without these stupid cards still I think).

Anyways, price discrimination/coupons obviously piss me off which biases my opinion. Plus I need a beer.

 

[Cheesefood]

What I'm saying is that if they don't want everyone to have the discount, they'd make the code single use. Now, suppose someone says "Yes! In BYO, there's a code for a discount for this product this month. Next month it'll be different." Well that encourages people to buy BYO so they can take advantage of the offer. It also gives me a new reason to shop AHS each month, since this month it's yeast and next month it's buckets.

I subscribe to the Sunday Chicago Tribune just because I like the coupons and seeing the ad books. I might read the sports section or another headline or two, but it's the ads I like the most.

Unfortunately, homebrewing is a very small cottage industry and can't afford glitzy marketing. You're not going to see a lot of competitive pricing or coupons because the products are commodities. Do you notice how each facet is controlled by one or two suppliers? There are three (now 4) major grain mills, two major yeasts. Yes, I know that there are more, but it's dominated by two big guys. There's not a lot of need for competition because the market can't support a lot of suppliers.

So if you see a discount code, post it so that we can send more business to the shop. When they offer a discount, they rely on volume to overcome margin.

 

[beerdad]

Where's Forrest when you need him? I'm sure he could let us know if AHS minds if we share coupon codes. Anyway if you want to save some money don't miss their Oktoberfest sale.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

Where's Forrest when you need him? I'm sure he could let us know if AHS minds if we share coupon codes. Anyway if you want to save some money don't miss their Oktoberfest sale.

I am with you guys. I get upset when the Dell catlogs come. One for me and one for the IT guy. The catalog for the IT guy has better coupon codes on it. One time the same computer was $150 cheaper on the IT guys catalog.

I don't want to have the type of business where we are giving out coupon codes all over the place. It is just not fair to other customers. We just price items fairly and subsidize 2/3 of the shipping. We think that is a great deal.

We only use the coupon code for individuals to make up for something that broke or some other customer service use. The coupon codes are set up for the person only because it is for that person only. We have several sales a year and we used to use a coupon code for that but now the website does it automatically.

We can't have the best price on everything but we should have the best overall delivered price.

Forrest

 

[rohanski]

While we are talking about how to get a 10% discount at Austin HB they have a sale with 10% off on everything tomorrow. Check out their site.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/

 

[Beer Weevel]

I own a business and I use a lot of coupons and I don't care if the whole world uses them, you see if I give a 10% discount I still keep 90% that's still a great margin. If I offer a 25% discount I still keep 75%. I also have a great penitration into my market. If you can't offer a coupon than one of two things are amiss 1) your prices arn't high enough 2) or you need a new marketing manager. About 20% of my total business is done with coupons.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

I own a business and I use a lot of coupons and I don't care if the whole world uses them, you see if I give a 10% discount I still keep 90% that's still a great margin. If I offer a 25% discount I still keep 75%. I also have a great penitration into my market. If you can't offer a coupon than one of two things are amiss 1) your prices arn't high enough 2) or you need a new marketing manager. About 20% of my total business is done with coupons.

It doesn't work for every business. Yes, I could raise prices so I can give lots of coupons out but I would rather have a low price. We have an invisible coupon that everyone gets everytime they order. We subsidise 2/3 of the shipping charges.

You must make a large margin in order to give 25% off. On many things I carry, if I gave a 25% discount it would be below cost. Coupons work for some businesses but it wouldn't work for me. I want everyone to have a great price.

 

[Cheesefood]

You must make a large margin in order to give 25% off. On many things I carry, if I gave a 25% discount it would be below cost. Coupons work for some businesses but it wouldn't work for me. I want everyone to have a great price.

Or you price something at a discount (even if it makes the price below cost) on the hopes that they buy a higher margin complimentary item. Yes, your low shipping is a nice incentive but now that Northern Brewer has cheap shipping there's not much differentiation. So if, for example, you had a sale on 20% off yeast you would get a lot of people buying a lot of yeast giving you a chance to clear our yeast closer to expiration date. But those people are also going to get grain and hops (since they would want to make the order worth the shipping price) and maybe even a chiller or a pot. It's no secret that sales and coupons work. It's also no secret that many times it makes the price too low to make a profit on, but you get a pick up in other orders which offset the sale price.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

Or you price something at a discount (even if it makes the price below cost) on the hopes that they buy a higher margin complimentary item. Yes, your low shipping is a nice incentive but now that Northern Brewer has cheap shipping there's not much differentiation. So if, for example, you had a sale on 20% off yeast you would get a lot of people buying a lot of yeast giving you a chance to clear our yeast closer to expiration date. But those people are also going to get grain and hops (since they would want to make the order worth the shipping price) and maybe even a chiller or a pot. It's no secret that sales and coupons work. It's also no secret that many times it makes the price too low to make a profit on, but you get a pick up in other orders which offset the sale price.

It works in theory. But if you have low margins and you give away most of the shipping there isn't room for coupons. I would rather give everyone a good deal on everything rather than mark things up and give coupons out.

Coupons work for some stores.

 

[LouT]

Do any of these places offer graduated discounts? It kind of rubs me funny when I drop $400+ on a single order and only get a "big whoop" low shipping price. I kind of like feeling like I've been rewarded for spending a considerable amount of cash with just "supplier A" vs. shopping around heavily.

Maybe $400+ isn't a big order to online HBS, but it's a big order to me and I would be a lot more likely to show loyalty to a place that thanked me for that business via a nice discount.

Note, this isn't a slam on AHS, this order was from another vendor. I am beginning to consider doing business elsewhere, though - my order placed at noon on a Friday didn't ship until the following Wednesday night - this is too long, it wasn't like an order of 400 items at $1 each, it was about 6 items!

I'll be giving AHS another look. Typically I was thinking the distance would be a problem, since I'm on the east coast - but if AHS ships out within 24 hours of receiving my order, that would make up for some amount of additional distance.

 

[jdcoffman]

AHS claims to ship within 2-3 days, which is fair in my mind for a mail-order company. Although my orders typically ship out the same-day or next-day after I ordered them. I'd also expect there to be some delays for the next week or two depending on them (hopefully) getting a lot of orders today.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Since I knew there was going to be a sale today, I had my order in by 1 am. I just got an email that it's shipping out today. I bet there's a lot of people placing orders today that won't ship out until sometime next week, though.

I have placed orders with AHS that ship within a few hours, and then others that have taken a few days. I'm sure it's just a matter of how many other people are placing orders at the same time. I just place my order early enough that a few days difference doesn't make any difference.