[goty2]

I don't find that to be an apt analogy. Tax avoidance is more like abusing coupons. Someone else is effectively paying your share, but the company can't shut it down because customer would complain or it could hurt the business overall. Eventually the business is forced to raise prices and everyone deal with coupons just to get a decent deal.

[anonacct37]

I feel like the phrase "coupon abuse" is madeup crap. A Business gives discounts in order to (hopefully) make more money, then try to ensure that we all see people who actually use those discounts as "abusers".

Don't fall for it.

It's not that complicated. If you are a business, don't sell stuff at a loss. If you want to sell stuff at a loss to drive traffic to your store, you're going to take a loss. Don't blame your customers.

[bmelton]

Why isn't just getting rid of coupons a viable option?

[goty2]

Because coupons might be useful to sell overstock or introduce new products. And even if you wanted to you would either have to convince all your customers to change their habits or convince the other businesses not to also not use them. It is like with credit card fees in the US.

[always_good]

Because they are political tools. Like how "getting rid of pollution" would involve rethinking our civilization, not just creating some dumpster fires.