Several states have tried and failed to regulate digital-only grocery deals, introducing legislation only to have their efforts languish.
But one city hasn’t given up so easily. And its efforts are now poised to result in a historic first, impacting grocery retailers and shoppers locally, and potentially nationwide.
For the fourth time in as many months, the San Diego city council has unanimously voted to require grocery retailers to make digital-only deals more accessible to the digitally-disengaged. After a second reading of an amended ordinance, council members yesterday granted final passage to the final version of the measure that its sponsors hope will be a model for other communities to follow.
The ordinance requires grocers to offer “in-store alternatives” to digital discounts, allowing shoppers who lack digital access or aptitude to obtain the same deals without having to use the store’s website or app. It now awaits the mayor’s expected signature, after which it will take effect on October 1st.
Over the past several months, the city council has tried, and succeeded, and generated controversy, going back to the drawing board to try again, and yet again, to pass a measure acceptable to consumer advocates and feasible for retailers.
Several of their earlier attempts to become the first jurisdiction in the nation to ban “digital discrimination” met resistance from industry groups and consumer advocates alike, who complained the regulations either went too far or not far enough. The original version would have required retailers to offer paper coupon equivalents of all digital discounts, including the hundreds of digital coupons available to loyalty program members on any given day. A revised version would have exempted any digital deal available via a loyalty program, which would essentially have exempted all digital deals.
The latest version, as passed and on its way to taking effect, represents an imperfect but apparently acceptable compromise to all parties. Most notably, it eliminates the “paper coupon equivalent” requirement, allowing retailers to come up with their own solutions, such as in-store coupon kiosks or printed digital coupon “scan sheets,” that stores in other parts of the country have implemented.
Council member Sean Elo-Rivera, who introduced the ordinance, noted that those scan sheets have begun showing up in stores in San Diego, as retailers preemptively comply with what they soon will be required to do. “This past weekend, we actually have begun to see implementation of our law,” he said. “There are signs now posted in grocery stores saying that these digital deals are made accessible through paper coupons, making it easier for many, many people to access deals that were otherwise evasive to them.”
Some of the ordinance’s definitions remain murky, however. As its supporters describe it, the measure is meant to apply specifically to advertised digital deals, where a weekly ad or shelf tag displays a discounted price that’s only accessible if you clip a digital coupon first. The ordinance will require grocery stores in the city to make those same discounted prices available in non-digital formats. Elo-Rivera had earlier told Coupons in the News that the measure was not designed to apply to all of the other digital manufacturer’s coupons that a loyalty program member can access via the store’s website or app.
But the latest and presumably final version of the ordinance doesn’t specifically say that. It still defines a “digital discount” as a “coupon, rebate, or similar publicly available discount offered to consumers through digital or electronic means,” which could indeed be read as applying to the hundreds of other digital manufacturer’s coupons available in a retailer’s online coupon gallery. All it could take is one digitally-disengaged San Diego shopper, denied a digital coupon discount because it’s not an “advertised digital deal,” to turn this ambiguity into a test case.
But few affected retailers seem particularly troubled by this scenario. Instead, the industry group that spoke for San Diego grocery retailers throughout this whole process is praising council members for working out a compromise they can live with.
“The industry appreciates the San Diego City Council’s willingness to seek out a middle ground that serves the community and its grocers,” California Grocers Association spokesperson Nate Rose told Coupons in the News. “The updated ordinance will allow California grocers to continue offering the digital coupons customers count on to save money at the store while adding new methods to better support shoppers who might not be comfortable with or have access to technology.”
So the ordinance may not be as precise as it could be. But since city officials wrote it, and city officials will be in charge of monitoring and enforcing it, their interpretation of the measure’s intent is what ultimately matters. And for supporters of the ordinance, if coupon kiosks and more digital coupon scan sheets start showing up in San Diego grocery stores in the coming months – it’s mission accomplished.
