Whether willingly, grudgingly, ambiguously – or in at least one case, defiantly – most grocery stores in one of the country’s largest cities are now complying with a landmark new law aimed at making digital-only deals more accessible to shoppers who are not digitally-engaged. And if any stores are not doing so, they could face administrative scrutiny, customer backlash and hefty fines.
It’s been just over two months since San Diego’s mayor signed an ordinance unanimously passed by the city council, mandating that grocery stores offer “in-store alternatives” to digital-only discounts. They’re also required to display signs in stores notifying shoppers of their “Right to Equal Discounts,” explaining that “under San Diego law, digital discounts must be available to all consumers and participants of loyalty or rewards programs without needing to use a smartphone or the internet, and in-store alternatives must be made available.”
To give retailers time to comply, the ordinance had an effective date of October 1st. And that date is now upon us. Some retailers began complying months ago. Others began complying today. Still others have not explained how – or whether – they’re complying at all.
Albertsons, for one, sure has.
Albertsons is San Diego’s largest grocer by store count, with 29 locations within the city limits, operating under three different names – Vons, Pavilions and Albertsons itself. The Albertsons/Vons weekly ad that ended yesterday highlighted 25 digital deals that were only available if you went online and clipped a digital coupon first. The newest weekly ad begins today. Outside the San Diego city limits, that ad features 19 digital deals. Within the city limits, most of those digital deals are replaced with “clip or click” coupons, which can either be activated online, or redeemed in store by cutting them out of the paper ad, or just showing the ad to a cashier.
It’s not an original idea – Albertsons-owned stores have sporadically offered “clip or click” coupons before. Now, the new ordinance could make them a permanent feature of Albertsons’ San Diego ads. But that doesn’t mean Albertsons is happy about it.
“Because many of the coupons offered through our app are offered by manufacturers, and because many manufacturers have not provided an in-store alternative, we have been forced to remove those offers from our digital app in our San Diego City stores to ensure parity for in-store customers,” an Albertsons spokesperson said in a statement to Coupons in the News. “The City of San Diego indicated this ordinance is about fairness to customers who may not use smartphones or apps. Unfortunately, the ordinance has resulted in severely limiting the number of discounts and coupons that all customers can enjoy in our City of San Diego stores.”
Comparing Albertsons and Vons’ ads inside and just outside the city limits, the only deals missing from the San Diego stores are a few Procter & Gamble fabric care products, from brands like Tide, Gain and Downy. So Albertsons may be overstating the negative impact of the ordinance just a bit, as P&G so far appears to be the only manufacturer declining to make some of its digital coupons available in paper form.
San Diego council members Sean Elo-Rivera and Marni von Wilpert, who co-sponsored the ordinance, issued a joint statement reacting to Albertsons’ comment. “We recognize that some stores have chosen to remove digital discounts instead of offering in-store options,” they said. That choice “undermines the intent to expand, not eliminate, access to savings,” they continued. “We do hope and expect all grocers, including those who have yet to do so, will follow the lead of others who are successfully offering in-store discounts to meet the ordinance’s goal: fair access to savings for all. We look forward to seeing all retailers — including Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions — follow the lead of other grocers honoring the spirit of this law and supporting their customers.”
Speaking before a town hall back in July, Elo-Rivera dismissed industry warnings that the ordinance could force stores to cut back or eliminate coupons altogether. “When they said things like, we’re just going to take coupons away, that was a threat,” he said. “Basically what we had hanging over our heads is, every grocery shopper in San Diego being told that ‘big bad Sean and Marni are the reasons why you don’t have any coupons.’ And that was a completely unnecessary way of responding to the policy.”
He spoke more favorably about another local retailer’s efforts to make their digital deals more accessible to the digitally-disengaged. As Coupons in the News was first to report back in June, Kroger-owned stores began offering “Weekly Digital Deal scan sheets,” a single-page flyer featuring a bar code that will apply all of that week’s advertised digital discounts when scanned at the checkout. So by offering a printed version of its advertised digital deals, Kroger-owned Ralphs and Food 4 Less stores in San Diego had already preemptively complied with the ordinance, long before it took effect today (and then the retailer disingenuously acted like it came up with the idea itself).
A spokesperson for the California-based grocery warehouse chain Smart & Final told Coupons in the News that “customers who cannot access or download digital offers still receive the same savings at Smart & Final. Upon request, cashiers can access the weekly digital deals at checkout and apply them directly, ensuring promotional prices are honored.” A representative for the Southern California grocery chain Stater Bros. said much the same thing, that customer service employees can help shoppers load “digital deals” to their loyalty account if they’re unable to do so themselves. “Stater Bros. Markets is committed to fair and transparent pricing,” a spokesperson told Coupons in the News. “Our San Diego store will comply with the City’s new ordinance, and an in-store alternative to digital coupons will be available for customers.”
Most smaller, independent grocery stores in the city are unaffected in that they either don’t offer digital discounts, or don’t advertise them in a weekly circular. Jensen’s Foods offers digital coupons, and goes above and beyond in complying with the new ordinance by featuring small screens at the register where you can load digital coupons to your account as you check out – a feature that far predates the ordinance.
National grocery chains with stores in San Diego, like Walmart, Trader Joe’s and ALDI, don’t have digital coupon programs or advertise any digital-only deals, so are seemingly unaffected by the ordinance. Sprouts Farmers Market has digital coupons, but does not advertise “after coupon prices” or “digital deals” in its weekly circulars. And while the wording of the ordinance is vague, its authors have said the intent is to regulate advertised digital deals and not all available digital coupons.
Grocery Outlet stores advertise a handful of “app-exclusive deals” each week. Under the new ordinance, shoppers who don’t have the app should be granted those “exclusive deals” too. But the retailer did not respond to requests for comment, and local customer service representatives were unclear about how these deals would be made available to all shoppers.
Target also has not responded to numerous requests for information on how or whether its San Diego stores are complying with the ordinance. Target’s weekly ad and in-store signs highlight the many percent-off deals and savings available to members of its Target Circle loyalty program. To become a member, you must sign up online or in the Target app. So unless Target offers an in-person way to join, which several local customer service representatives indicated yesterday was not an option in their stores, any advertised Target Circle offer is by definition a “digital-only deal.”
(Update: Target responded after publication to say that San Diego stores will honor advertised Target Circle offers for shoppers who are not members of the digital-only program, and also offer assistance to shoppers in signing up for the program if they’d like.)
Under the provisions of the ordinance, any store found not to be in compliance from today could be subject to fines of up to $2,500 per violation. And shoppers who run into trouble are encouraged to submit a complaint form to the City Attorney’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit. “The City shall give written notice of a violation to a grocer,” the ordinance reads, offering them “15 days to cure any violation.”
It took a lot of discussion and debate to hammer out an ordinance that all sides could live with – one that was acceptable for lawmakers, doable for grocers, and helpful for shoppers who are elderly, low-income or otherwise don’t have the access or ability to download digital deals online. As other states and cities consider “digital deal” legislation of their own, all eyes will be on San Diego in the coming weeks and months to see whether this effort to make grocery savings more accessible to all, is indeed fairer for everyone.
