On the grammar subject, it’s “couple of whatevers”, not “couple whatevers”. The word “couple” is like the word “group”. It wouldn’t make sense to say “a group people walked in” (instead of “a group of people walked in”), and that’s why it doesn’t make sense to say “a couple people walked in”. It can be spoken slang, like “you gonna gimme a couple bucks?” “I would of if I had it.” All that makes sense to local speakers where I am, but it only fits in casual speech and written dialogue, and I believe that’s because it’s lazily dropping a sound when spoken, not because it’s not understood to mean a collection of something.
On the grammar subject, it’s “couple of whatevers”, not “couple whatevers”. The word “couple” is like the word “group”. It wouldn’t make sense to say “a group people walked in” (instead of “a group of people walked in”), and that’s why it doesn’t make sense to say “a couple people walked in”. It can be spoken slang, like “you gonna gimme a couple bucks?” “I would of if I had it.” All that makes sense to local speakers where I am, but it only fits in casual speech and written dialogue, and I believe that’s because it’s lazily dropping a sound when spoken, not because it’s not understood to mean a collection of something.