What do you think about the Digital Coupons that grocery stores are promoting?

[Paper Roses]

I strongly dislike this new ploy. All they are accomplishing is tracking you.

Having a sale? The sale prices should be available to anyone. Many people do not have a smart phone to download the App. Stores would get their money anyway, with or without the Digital Coupons if the customer wants the item.

I don't want their App on my phone. Neither do I want them to track me. All the Grocery stores in my area are now doing this except Market Basket. Bravo to MB, they were credited as the best run grocery store in the US
I will not shop at a store that requires me to use this digital baloney to save money on my purchase. I will pass the items that are on sale only with this Digital coupon only.

[elleng]

1. NOTHING.

I don't do 'digital,' and wouldn't if I could. DON'T have a 'smart phone.'

[Midnight Writer]

18. I don't have a smart phone either. Wouldn't know what to do with it if I had one.

Just spent a couple months checking out new smartphones, since my old flip phone doesn't work anymore (3G).

After checking out all the features, the prices, the service plans, and the different models, I ended up with... a $20 flip phone.

[elleng]

19. Sounds about right!

Kyocera

[Raven123]

2. I agree with you. I avoid any such tracking ploys

[jimfields33]

11. I have the Winn Dixie app. It's incredible. You gain points everytime you shop.

Recently I had over 70 dollars to spend. I like free money.

[Freethinker65]

3. Coupons often allow the store to limit how many times you can get the discounted price.

Many times I have gone to a specific grocery for a specific sale item only to find it sold out (often on the first day of the sale). Sure, one can sometimes get a "rain check", but often the item is not regularly stocked. I have found items more likely to be available since the use of digital coupons.

[TurboDem]

4. I hate digital coupons!

Instead of installing the app on your phone, go ahead and sign up for their card and when you go to the checkout just tell the cashier that you forgot your phone and would like the item at the digital coupon price. They will usually give it to you. For some reason the digital coupons never load correctly from my phone to my card so I stopped even trying to use them.

[halfulglas]

5. Yeah, I use them but I still hate them.

Some stores apps are a bit glitchy and they have the digital coupon in the ad but I can't find the button to "clip" it. There are several times I can swear I clipped a digital coupon but when it rings up I don't get the coupon price. That pisses me off and it makes me want to throw my phone or something else.

I totally agree they are not fair even when they work perfectly. I'm not too bad for a senior lady on my computer, but my phone is another story.

[dem4decades]

6. They piss me off.

[Kaleva]

7. I love the store APP

I use it when I go to the Dollar General store to shop on Saturdays. I can scan the products which puts the item in my digital cart. There I can see my running total. As I collect $5 off if you spend at least $25 coupons during the week or preceding Saturday shopping, the app makes it easy to keep track so when I get just over $25, I go to the register, pay, put the stuff in the car and go back in the store for the next bunch. Yesterday, I had 6 coupons, so I made 6 separate shopping trips saving $30 plus what I saved with the digital manufacturer's coupons and the store sales.

When scanning a product, the app lets me know if the item is on sale or there is a manufacturer's coupon available. One item on my shopping list was Swiffer cloths. When I scanned the box, it said a $2 coupon was available for that product and I selected it. Along with the $5 off for $25 spent coupon, the final price for the box was $7.60 instead of $12.

I used to use paper coupons, but it took a lot of time to gather the coupons and keep track of them and I wondered how much I was actually saving if I included my time into the final cost. The digital coupons and using the store app is a real time saver.

[MichMan]

8. The chain I frequent targets them to things I ordinarily buy

Save me a lot of $ since it is items that I would be buying anyway. Much better than a bunch of random coupons I don't need.

What I don't like is their in store sales have been increasingly oriented towards having to buy multiple items to get the sale price.

"Buy 5, get $1 off on each; must buy 5 for sale price"

Two items isn't bad, but who needs 5 bags of Frito's ?

[subterranean]

12. The 5 items don't necessarily have to be five of the same item.

My local store (owned by Kroger) has that kind of sale often, but usually there are numerous items throughout the store that are part of the sale. You can combine any five qualifying items to get the $1 off each, if you can find five things you want. It causes me to spend more time in the store and sometimes buy more of something than I otherwise would -- which, of course, is exactly why they do it.

[MichMan]

13. I'm referring to Meijer

All 5 have to be identical. Love the store other than that. I really do.

Occasionally they have a 10 for 10 promotion with the 11th item free. That one is mix and match.

[BigmanPigman]

9. I had to spend 4 hours trying to learn

how to hook up the whole thing on my own. I am retarded when it comes to tech anything. I spent all that time this past summer so I could get peaches and shrimp at a great price. I brought my phone to the store, hoping they could show me how to use it at the check-out but it was such a pain in the ass for the staff that I got my items for the sale price without even using the newly installed app. I have to teach myself everything as far as tech goes and it is frustrating, time consuming and not worth the energy. The staff at my store isn't too crazy about digital coupons hope they go away ASAP.

[Kali]

10. if you are not using cash, you are being tracked regardless

I just try to be baffling with random purchases of items or amounts.

[Freddie]

14. Giant has been doing this for quite a while

Doesn’t bother me and I get gas points. They used to send households paper coupons and did the same thing. I occasionally get my neighbors’ mail. My coupons from Giant were things like toilet paper, Fancy Feast, white bread. Theirs were all natural/organic stuff.

[surrealAmerican]

15. I assume I'm being tracked already ...

... that said, as a general principle, I try not to give my phone number out to anyone whose phone call I'd rather not answer. This includes the supermarket. There's no way I want them calling me.

[moniss]

16. Most stores

I'm aware of also have their "card" that accepts the digital coupons if you just go online and download them from a non-mobile unit. I know there is still a "tracking" component to it but at least they are not getting all of the info your mobile device would provide. I agree with you about discounts being available to all regardless of "shoppers card" etc.

[Mr.Bill]

17. My wife handles it.

Another reason to marry an intelligent woman who was willing to put up with me.

[MichMan]

23. My wife tracks me by watching my debit card purchases with her bank job

[Retrograde]

20. A local produce store

has a weekly "free when you spend X dollars" specialsthat you have to sign up on their website to know about (or you can just ask the cashier what their weekly special is when you check out). That's about the level at which I want to be tracked.

[tishaLA]

21. It's a built-in advantage to tech savvy customers

I use them, but I think they're terrible because older and poorer consumers who tend to be less tech literate are basically left out of the equation. OTOH, they're so much better than those old paper coupons that used to tie up cashiers for ridiculous amounts of time.

I'm not so worried about tracking because I already have multiple Google smart home devices in every room, so I'm already being tracked even in my sleep; I don't care because they make life easier.

[Duncanpup]

22. Doesn't bother me

I have store app on my phone no $ limit last time was like $45 in points I let them on there didn’t cash them out.

[Emile]

24. They suck! Just drop the price.

[NJCher]

25. great topic

so glad you raised it.

I, too, hate 'em. I've noticed that ShopRite, one of the better "value" stores in my area, is now letting you clip them from the circular on some occasions.

For a while they had some kinda' scanner in the stores for them, but they come and go and even when they had them, they seemed a source of frustration for the people using them.

Another thing is that as you look at the screen, sometimes you don't see the amount off until you get to the end of the transaction. The ones at SR now show it, but on some other types of transactions, they don't.

I will say this: the customer service people at my store are very nice about helping you when the card fails to load from your computer or on other occasions, I would presume.

Bottom line is, it's so much easier just to go to Aldi where you don't have to Mickey Mouse around with the mystery of whether your coupon is loaded to your card.

I am going to print this thread out and mail it ShopRite and Stop 'n Shop. Once I complained to ShopRite about something through their web site and they even followed up with me later to see if my concern was taken care of.

[Paper Roses]

26. So glad you mentioned Aldi. A new one just opened near enough to me to make a trip.

My only option near me is Marker Basket and they don't use the Digital Coupons and told me they were not planning to. MB is fine, no problems with them but I've never been to Aldi and want to see what it is like and what they offer. So glad they did not adopt this ploy. All the others near use them.

I wonder how long it will last before the stores get enough feedback from customers and drop this ridiculous idea.. No-one I know likes to clutter up their phone with more Apps and have to fiddle around with this scheme. Many also feel it is not fair to those who don't have the right phone.
I hope you get a reply from your letter to the stores and keep us posted.

[TygrBright]

27. Just another way to compromise your privacy and monetize your personal data. n/t

[Paper Roses]

28. My thoughts exactly. Won't do it. Bet this Digital coupon stuff dies in no time.

Very little positive support in my area (Mass). Just give the customer the sale price. As a store, you will get will get your money either way!

[AndyS]

29. You don't need the digital cupon to get the price. Just show the ad to

the clerk at checkout and they will manually enter the discounted price. No tracking, no need for a smart phone.

While I respect your personal choices re phones, I have always embraced new technology. I got that from my Dad who was the first farmer to adopt such tools as cotton pickers, hay bailers and other 'modern' tools in the late '40s early '50s. Those tools allowed him to cut his labor by days which allowed him to contract out to all the other farmers for a share of their crops. That allowed him to embrace rural electrification and more leisure time to enjoy the first TV in our community.

My smart phone has made my life much easier and helped me organize my time so like Dad I have more of it!