Kristen Bell, who stars as Connie Kaminski in the new movie “Queenpins,” doesn’t consider herself an extreme couponer, but her grandmother was.
Bell’s character Connie turns couponing into a crime as she becomes a coupon counterfeiter in the movie. Her grandmother never turned her coupon craze into a criminal enterprise, but she was creative when it came to coupons.
Photo Courtesy STX Films
Bell’s grandmother collected UPC labels from everything from cereal boxes to toothpaste. She would send them to the manufacturers and companies with letters telling them how loyal a customer she was.
In return, the companies sent Bell’s grandmother cashier checks, some only $5. She saved all those checks and started college funds for her grandchildren, including Kristen.
“My grandmother was an extreme couponer,” Bell said. “As a child, I’d visit my grandparents and a large part of their basement was made up of cardboard boxes filled with coupons, each box catalogued according to the discounted product. My grandmother ultimately started college accounts for all her grandkids from what she saved with these coupons, as well as through writing the participating companies and getting small checks back in response. So, I knew this had the makings of a big underground business.”
“Queenpins,” which also stars Vince Vaughn and Kirby Howell-Baptiste, opens in theaters nationwide on Sept. 10 and will stream on Paramount+ on Sept. 30.
