Have digital coupons somehow come full circle?
“Our customers asked to make online coupons easier for them to use and we listened,” a Kroger spokesperson said way back in 2010, as Kroger introduced its first digital coupon center.
Fast forward 15 years, and Kroger has made digital coupons even easier to use. By printing them. On paper.
After testing them in select stores, several Kroger divisions this week officially introduced “Weekly Digital Deal scan sheets.” The single-page, double-sided sheets available in stores feature images of about three dozen digital coupon deals, and a single bar code. A cashier or self-checkout user simply scans the bar code, and every applicable digital coupon on the page will be applied to your purchase.
“A new process is being implemented in (the Kroger divisions) Atlanta, Columbus, Michigan, Mid-Atlantic and Delta allowing customers to use scan sheets to access Weekly Digital Deals digital coupons,” a memo to store associates reads. Kroger’s Weekly Digital Deals are advertised in each week’s circular. They might appear to be sale prices, but they’re really after-coupon prices that must be loaded to your loyalty account, by clipping them and activating the deals on the Kroger website or app.
If you don’t activate them, or don’t have the equipment or the proficiency to get online, you’ll generally be stuck paying full price. This week’s Weekly Digital Deals offer a total of $67.19 in savings – savings that elderly, low-income and other digitally-disengaged shoppers have complained they are missing out on.
The new scan sheets represent the latest effort by a retailer to make their digital deals more accessible, before they’re forced to. Ever since consumer groups began calling these digital-only deals discriminatory to those without internet access or aptitude, and lawmakers in several states began proposing legislation to address the issue, several grocery chains have come up with their own solutions.
Stop & Shop very publicly installed in-store kiosks where shoppers without internet access at home can activate all the digital deals advertised in the weekly circular. Albertsons says many of its stores will apply digital deals at the checkout upon request. And Kroger itself said shoppers could simply visit the customer service desk to receive digital-deal prices advertised in the weekly circular.
But that apparently became somewhat cumbersome, as shoppers would still need to have a loyalty account to get the deals, and a customer service representative would have to help them sign up if they hadn’t already, and load each individual deal to their account for them.
Representatives for Kroger, as has become typical for them lately, did not respond to numerous requests for comment, about what prompted them to introduce the scan sheets. But the internal memo describes the scan sheets as a way to make the process easier for everyone involved.
“This change impacts the customer and associate experience by simplifying the checkout process for customers who may not have previously downloaded digital coupons to ensure they are able to take advantage of Weekly Digital Deals without the need for a (point-of-sale) price adjustment,” the memo explains. Anyone using the scan sheet must have a loyalty account, and the bar code can only be scanned once per account. Once scanned, all of the digital deals on the scan sheet will be loaded to the loyalty account and will be available throughout the week.
Depending on the store, you should be able to find the scan sheets alongside the printed weekly ads, or behind the customer service counter.
It is important to note that the scan sheets don’t grant anyone access to all of Kroger’s digital coupons. Kroger currently has nearly 800 digital coupons and deals available online. The scan sheets grant you access to only a few dozen – the ones that are advertised in the weekly circular. The rest do still need to be clipped and activated online.
That’s just fine with consumer advocates who just wanted to make sure that the digitally-disconnected had access to the same advertised deals as everyone else. But many proposed state laws – including, as currently written, a San Diego city ordinance due to take effect next month – would mandate that all grocery stores make all digital coupons available to all shoppers at all times.
There’s nothing like the threat of regulation to light a fire under those to be regulated, and prompt them to come up with their own solution that doesn’t require legislation. Kroger’s initiative would appear to be just such an effort. Time will tell whether that effort is acceptable to shoppers and legislators – or whether, with at least one law about to take effect and others still being discussed, the effort proves to be too little, too late.
