“BUT I TOOK a picture of the coupon with my phone,” the person informed the checker on the grocery store, pointing on the {photograph} on his display screen. “The coupon says the toilet paper is on sale for $9.99.”
“Taking a picture doesn’t work,” the checker defined patiently. “You have to scan it.”
The consumer was most likely in his late ’70s, very well mannered, and fully at sea as to what she was speaking about.
Susan Nash is a current Stanford Middle on Longevity Visiting Scholar and workers author for Bay Metropolis Information. (Bay Metropolis Information)
This alternate occurred a number of months in the past on the native Safeway in Fort Bragg. They had been speaking about digital in-store coupons. These are the small bar codes with a lower cost beneath the tag with the common value, often in very small kind. And the checker was proper — it’s worthwhile to use the Safeway app in your telephone to scan the coupon when you are bodily within the retailer, and solely then do you get the decreased value.
The reductions might be vital. On a current buying journey, digital in-store coupon scanners might rating two-pound baggage of Waterfront Bistro Massive Uncooked Shrimp, 31-40 rely, for $3.97 per pound, down from the standard per pound value of $10.99. CPK frozen pizzas, often $8.99, could possibly be had for $5.99 every. A pound of strawberries, often $5.99, was obtainable for under $2.47.
Coupon-clipping has steadily advanced, together with just about every thing else. My grandmother would lower neatly alongside the coupons’ dotted strains after which put them in a coupon pockets earlier than she made her assault on the native grocery.
Then got here grocery store loyalty applications, within the type of plastic playing cards swiped at checkout to get “member pricing.” There was a time when everybody I knew, together with me, carried common wallets the scale of a Dickens novel. Mercifully, the playing cards had been finally changed by keypads for getting into a telephone quantity on the checkout stand.
You want the app for the bottom costs 
An in-store digital coupon would web a $3.52 financial savings on a pound of strawberries on Feb. 21, 2025, on the Safeway retailer in Fort Bragg, however solely for individuals who can each spot and scan the coupon (Susan Nash/Bay Metropolis Information)
Now, being loyal to your grocery store is a needed however not adequate strategy to get the bottom costs. To do this, you will need to obtain the grocery store’s app. The Safeway app then permits digital “clipping” of “for-U deals,” providing merchandise at lower than even the member value which can be helpfully beneficial by a supply that is aware of what you want and the way a lot you purchase.
I don’t thoughts utilizing the app to get offers simply “for me,” particularly now that I’m retired. I consider my grandmother, open the app earlier than I store, flip by my beneficial “deals,” and “clip” them earlier than I am going to the shop. After I enter my telephone quantity on the checkout keypad, the offers are mechanically utilized to my invoice.
It’s like enjoying a pc recreation the place you get an actual prize.
However the transfer to on-line clipping was arduous for a lot of clients. AARP reported in 2022 that digital coupons had been stopping hundreds of thousands of older clients from getting reductions as a result of they lacked web entry or a cell phone. This led to an outcry by shopper teams and a call by Kroger and others to make digital coupons accessible from a house pc and to proceed to honor paper coupons.
None of that helps with the digital in-store coupons that may solely be accessed whereas standing within the grocery store aisle, should you’ve introduced your telephone and in case you have good mobile information service or a wi-fi connection and should you’ve remembered your studying glasses.
A bridge too far maybe?
The regular rise of grocery costs has been an actual financial burden. Making the bottom costs obtainable solely to those that can whip out their telephones and scan doesn’t seem to be progress. Positive, many older folks have the scanning down pat, however on any explicit day I’ve seen not less than one or two folks of all ages looking at these coupons in abject puzzlement.
The digital in-store coupons are a company-wide phenomenon, not restricted to Fort Bragg.
There’s a vocal dialogue about these in-store coupons on-line, principally heaping scorn on child boomers who can’t work out how they work.
An in-store digital coupon for CPK pizza presents a candy deal on Feb. 21, 2025, on the Safeway retailer in Fort Bragg. (Susan Nash/Bay Metropolis Information)Ask the checker
The Fort Bragg workers are extra sympathetic. “My mom can’t possibly use these in-store coupons,” stated one of many checkers. Assistant retailer supervisor Jesse Holloway additionally understands the issue. Now, not like the alternate I witnessed a number of months in the past, Safeway workers are directed to present the in-store low cost to any buyer who mentions it, whether or not or not they’ve managed to scan it on their telephones.
So, should you spot an in-store coupon however in-store scanning is just not your factor, strive asking for the lower cost anyway.
In the meantime, proper by the doorway to the shop, there are printed copies of weekly adverts with paper coupons for a complete completely different set of merchandise that may present some aid from increased costs. All you want is a pair of scissors.
