Coupon use, on the decline since 1992, appears to be on the way up as shoppers look for ways to combat rising prices.

Forget the image of a befuddled shopper fumbling with a jumble of paper scraps just to save a few cents on cat chow. These days, coupons and promotions often are worth more, targeted to specific shoppers and, perhaps coolest of all, tech-friendly and convenient. Some can be loaded onto grocery savings club cards.

Two recent national reports indicate grocery coupon use is on the rise. One shows coupon use stopped declining last year, after a 16-year drop. Another shows consumers, even those younger than 35, are more interested in grocery coupons in the slow economy.

The grocery store chains Albertsons, Fry's Food Stores and Safeway said they have observed more coupon use, but did not have specific numbers.

Some are handing out more store promotional coupons. Safeway is giving away books of coupons worth $40 to shoppers who buy items from the store's organic foods line and handing out a coupon for $10 off a shopper's next bill to shoppers that buy $30 worth of selected items.

Coupon use typically rises as the economy slows, said Matthew Tilley, director of marketing for Winston-Salem, N.C-based CMS, which reported the information about the halt to declining coupon use. CMS is a coupon-processing agent for grocery brands.

The last boom in coupon use was during the tough economic times of the early 1990s, Tilley said.

In 2007, shoppers redeemed 2.6 billion grocery manufacturer coupons, he said. But shoppers could have done much better. Manufacturers distributed 302 billion coupons, worth an average of $1.28 each. Coupon values also increased an average of 10 cents last year, he said.

Tilley's report does not address new methods of coupon distribution, such as through the Internet and direct mail to consumers who have a history of buying the product. But he said that the convenience of such methods is likely to encourage increased coupon use.

"In today's environment, consumers expect marketing to be contextual and relevant," he said, "Don't give me a diaper coupon if I don't have an infant child at home."

Overall coupon distribution was up 6 percent in 2007 and distribution of coupons for nonfood products was up nearly 13 percent, Tilley said. Nonfood coupons also increased in face value by about 7 percent, compared to the 5 percent increase in food coupon values.

Grocery coupon distribution, meantime, was down, with 2 percent fewer distributed than in 2006, Tilley said.

Tilley said the most dedicated coupon users traditionally have been female, in their 60s, middle- to upper-middle class and have other household members to shop for.

Another report, by ICOM Information & Communications of Toronto, said even shoppers ages 18 to 34 are interested in coupons now that the economy is slowing.

A recent ICOM survey showed 67 percent of all respondents and 71 percent of young shoppers would be more likely to use coupons in the event of a recession.

The ICOM study said more shoppers in the young demographic, 77 percent, would use coupons if they could be accessed electronically, much like the ones Fry's and Procter & Gamble offer on the Fry's Web site. Shoppers can download coupons onto their V.I.P. Shopper's Club cards and redeem them at the store checkout.

Tilley said he expects to see more stores and manufacturers partnering to provide electronic coupons because about 10 percent of Americans don't ever clip newspaper coupons out of a newspaper and 80 percent don't do it regularly. He expects coupons to take a number of high-tech forms in the future, including cell-phone downloads.