South Tampa, Florida — These days, savvy shoppers like Alisha Stephens have come to rely more and more on snip-able savings. Coupons, that in some cases, provide deep discounts.
"Definitely. It's more important now than ever before, with the way things are," says Stephens.
But at stores like Publix, where they say coupon usage has spiked by about 50 percent in the past year, they also face an alarming increase in counterfeit clippings. Customers who knowingly — or in most cases, unknowingly — present photo-shopped phonies that offer deals too good to be true.
Coupon clipper Margaret Ward says she stays away from them, "because more times than not the stores don't like to use them. They look sort of fake," she says.
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