The only purpose of a coupon is to get you in the store, and hopefully once you're in the store you'll see some other things you like, thus making up for the money the owner is losing on the coupon item. Joanne fabrics run these single-item high-percentage-off coupons constantly.

High-percentage off, single item coupons don't work as well on online stores, it's too easy for people to just buy one item and check out without looking at other stuff.

Combine this with the fact that it requires just as much in labor cost and usually just as much in packing material costs to pack and ship a single item as it does to pack and ship a larger order, and you can see why this type of coupon isn't seen much in online stores.

In an online store, you're more likely to see a coupon with a lower percentage off that can be used on an entire order, or a free shipping offer with a lower threshold.

Their coupon, their business, their rules. In the overall scheme of life, how vital is one 40% off coupon?

That makes sense.

True. I certainly didn't argue with the shop in any way as it is their choice. I just didn't understand why they would make this choice and hoped others (perhaps shop owners) could explain it to me. And some people did have ideas that didn't occur. I now see that if many people just bought one item, the shop would lose their profits. I rarely just buy one thing from a store and if I went into that store with the coupon, I would have bought more but most likely would have bought more online too, although I see that others might just buy one thing.

How would they redeem the coupon? Would you mail it back to them? That would be a lot of extra work and waiting to ship out the package. JMHO

I know times are tough and we are all trying to save but COME ON! LQS are working on a slim profit margin as it is and have to set limits on coupons. I do not think it is terrible not to accept a coupon on on-line purchase. Thery are just trying to stay in business. Use another on line shop that has sales or coupons.

they simply may not be set up that way online. small shops are having trouble and keep things simple.

That makes sense too. Thank you for your non-confrontational response!

You did ask a simple question and seem to just want information. I don't know why some people seem to be attacking you. My guess is that the shop didn't want to have to deal with a lot of online orders for just one item. JoAnn's has a 40% off coupon that people could use to just buy one item. Once you figure out shipping costs, I think most people would buy more than one item. I'm guessing the shop might have other items that were on sale and the coupon might have let them to many sales or it might have resulted in many small sales that they didn't want.