No more entertainment coupon books

[Pigeon]

I agree they'd gone so far downhill as to be useless. The last one I bought was probably 5 years ago, and the restaurant coupons were all for places at least half an hour away, mostly further. None of the good restaurants participated any more. Plus, you can find coupons in local fliers for free.

 

[Colleen27]

I had a feeling that would be coming soon... They lost almost all value as a fundraiser when CVS, Costco, and others started selling them for less than the fundraising price, and the value of the coupons themselves has declined pretty sharply over the last 2 or 3 years. My mom and I were talking about this just yesterday, actually - the book used to pay for itself in fast food coupons alone, but now the direct mailings from most places are better deals. Fewer and fewer local places were included to the point that it was virtually all national chains, many of which have fine print allowing individual franchisees to opt-out of participation so using them can be frustrating. And the travel discounts, which used to be pretty good, have been more expensive than other offers available to the general public online for every stay and scenario I've priced over the last couple years.

 

[frannn]

If so, that alone is worth the discounted price of the book to me. Are they still going to sell the leftover books? I was waiting till they were discounted more to buy :/

 

[bpesch]

Not surprised at all. I've never really found them to be a great deal unless I would get it seriously discounted.

 

[Avonlady1001]

If so, that alone is worth the discounted price of the book to me. Are they still going to sell the leftover books? I was waiting till they were discounted more to buy :/

I can only speak for my area, but, yes, the LI edition does have the $5 off $50 Pathmark/Waldbaums/A&P/Superfresh coupons.

 

[USS Disney]

The Las Vegas edition was wonderful. Many BOGO shows, discounts on dining and we made our money back on the movie discounts alone. Sad to see them go. Just bought one for Honolulu this year so I guess its back to scouring the internet after this.

 

[Zhoen]

Bummer! I really liked ours. We always made our money back on the "greater Baltimore" edition... The Bogo subway coupons stacked with $5 footlongs was always great for feeding my sister's teens... and the Bogo mini golf and skating rink ones... free popcorn at the movies, discount movie tickets... all good stuff...

And once I'd gotten a feel for what I would use and pulled it out, I would pass the book around the office for everyone else to pick through...

I used to like to do the deal where you buy the "leftover" book for $5 and the new book together, more free subway!

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We purchased the Orlando edition for our Christmas trip, and used enough of the coupons (T-Rex, car rental, Friendly's, Congo River, etc.) to make it pay for itself and then some.

We had planned to use several more (National, Pirates Cove, Congo River again, Showcase of Citrus, etc.) on our August trip, so I emailed most of the vendors (everyone except National) and they have all confirmed that they will still accept the coupons despite the bankruptcy .

Hopefully others who already have purchased the book will be able to use more of their coupons as well.

 

[amcnj]

Oh no, this is going to be devastating news for some friends of mine. They are retired now and purchase multiple copies of the book each year and rarely dine at places "not in the book". They are fortunate that their area has many places listed in the book. My area never had many so it was not something I purchased, except sometimes when it went down to $10-12 in price.

 

[gemini2727]

I bought it each year for the supermarket and Lego coupons, they made it very worth it (we pay $25 for a book.) Will def. miss it

 

[Anjelica]

Entertainment Book has been brought out of bankruptcy and rehired some of its workers - they are not closing after all:

http://www.freep.com/article/201304...sher-bought-out-bankruptcy-rehiring-employees

 

[tvguy]

I think I've been given one of those books every year (for free), have yet to use a single coupon out of them. Never for anything I use.