Why would 'Box Tops for Education' have an expiration date, and how would General Mills cull out the expired coupons?

I have had experience with them. And I too wondered why the expiration dates, as well as why the time allowed is so short. When you consider the time the product is on the store shelf, the levels of handling required for redemption, the incentive to mess with the things diminishes considerably. In fact I too have wondered just how rigidly G M enforces the date thing. As for how the company manages those redemptions, I seriously doubt that the redemption rate from product manufactured is statistically significant. There will of course be a few dedicated fanatics obsessed with the things.

What was your experience, @stanleybmanly? Simply collecting or redeeming, too?

Back when the kids were in school my daughter’s school brought the program to the attention of the parents, and it just so happened that we ran through a considerable quantity of the qualifying products in my business. The truth is that I did little more than provide my daughter and her classmates empty cartons and containers. They attacked the project with the sort of enthusiasm only found in teenagers.

Dang.
I was hoping you’d experienced redemption. I’d have to include some expired ones to see if they kicked them back.

One of the reasons for an expiration date is to incentivize action. Without an expiration date, people will put it off, or not take notice of it. If there’s a sense of urgency, then some people will buy a few extra boxes while the promotion is running.

I sold Box Tops on eBay @gorillapaws, and one of the reasons for buying them was to meet a deadline.