For years, the narrative about digital coupons has been that elderly and lower-income people who lack digital access or aptitude are unfairly missing out on digital-only deals.
Now, public sentiment may be shifting. The new take on digital coupons? Shoppers hate them and they don’t work.
A local TV news story about digital access morphed into something quite different in recent weeks, as viewers vented about their coupon-clipping issues and the station seemed to believe it was on the verge of blowing the lid off a giant scandal involving defective, deceptive digital coupons.
In reality, it all came down to user error, involving a local grandmother who couldn’t figure out her pumpkin coupon. So in some sense, it’s much ado about nothing. Nevertheless, it gave shoppers the opportunity to sound off, and got a local grocery chain to admit that digital coupons aren’t always as simple and seamless as advertised.
Just before Halloween, Chicago’s WMAQ-TV aired what it seemed to characterize as a consumer investigation, entitled “Fixing Coupon Problems,” in which it identified exactly one coupon problem. A local woman complained about overpaying for pumpkins, for which she thought she had clipped a coupon.
“The first thing that I clipped didn’t apply,” she said. “I was paying full price for them.”
What the report did not uncover, was that a simple review of the sale sign shown in the report, the receipt the woman displayed, and a review of promotions going on at the time indicated that she likely bought the wrong type of pumpkin, to which the coupon she clipped did not apply.
No matter, because the TV station was now on the case, determined to expose a digital coupon conspiracy. “Grocery store customers say digital coupons are unreliable,” its headline read. The station soon followed up with a consumer survey. “Having problems with digital grocery store coupons?” it asked viewers. “We want to learn how big the problem is in the Chicago area.”
“Poll finds most shoppers struggle to redeem digital discounts,” the station concluded this week. More than 1,500 viewers responded to an unscientific online poll, and 92% of them said they’ve had trouble redeeming digital coupons.
The question is whether there’s a problem with the coupons, or a problem with the couponers. Survey responses seemed to indicate the latter. “Extremely time-consuming,” one shopper complained. “I shouldn’t have to work so hard to get items on sale,” another vented. A third respondent grumbled about having to “jump through all the hoops on your phone.”
Even the full-price-pumpkin-paying grandmother suggested the problem is not so much that digital coupons are deceptive, as it is that they exist at all. “It’s too time-consuming,” she said. “I just want to go in and out. I’m not there to waste any time.”
Jewel-Osco is the dominant local grocery chain in the Chicago area. Given the opportunity to defend its digital coupon program, encourage shoppers to learn how to use them properly, and point out that grandma bought the wrong pumpkins, it instead appeared to accept blame.
“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience,” Jewel-Osco told the TV station when asked for a response. “Our team is actively working to resolve these problems and enhance the app performance. We’re committed to ensuring that all customers can easily access their digital coupons, rewards, and weekly deals without interruption.”
Never mind that the statement appeared to be a canned response to complaints about a buggy app, and didn’t directly address complaints that its digital coupons are somehow defective or deceptive.
The real problems, unaddressed by the station’s purported investigation, are twofold. With a paper coupon, if there’s a problem, you’ll know about it right away when it’s scanned, and the cashier can troubleshoot on the spot. With digital coupons, you often don’t know there’s any issue unless you examine your receipt to make sure your coupons applied as expected. Does that make it a scam? A conspiracy to rip you off? More likely, it’s due to difficult-to-decipher fine print about the specific items for which a coupon is valid – or simple user error.
The other issue is how digital coupons are advertised – at the shelf, on in-store signs and in the weekly ad. They appear to be sale prices, but require you to go online and clip a coupon first. And shoppers who are not inclined or accustomed to clip coupons can’t figure it out and feel cheated.
So it’s not so much that digital coupons don’t work – it’s that many shoppers can’t figure out how to get them to work. And that’s been the basis behind the entire effort to regulate them, from San Diego’s new ordinance banning digital-only deals, to a similar proposal under consideration in Jewel-Osco’s home state of Illinois.
It’s not as sexy a story as purporting to expose a corporate scam, uncovering a deliberate effort to separate you from your money by offering digital coupons that don’t work as advertised. So a series of local TV news reports isn’t going to shake up the industry or make digital coupons any easier to understand for those disinclined to figure them out. But if it gives voice to shoppers who believe digital coupons as they currently exist are far from perfect – then bad publicity, restrictive new laws and a potential shopper revolt may await retailers who choose to ignore the complaints at their peril.
Image source: WMAQ-TV
Grocery store kiosks are just cheating the consumer. It is not just seniors or low income being cheated. The store needs to have big signs…DID YOU SIGN INTO THE KIOSK , where you enter the store. With a big load at checkout the asked if I had visited the kiosk. NOOOOOO, what do I have to do? I have shopped this store 10 years. NEVER have I known about a kiosk. So I guess I have not received any discounts. I am tech savvy but do not have the app that tracks everything, nor do I read the weekly flier. I am a senior and shop for my needs.
Used to be enter phone number and it all discounted. The kiosk is ridiculous for customers, inconvenient, and not customer friendly only Grocery Store Greedy.
In all fairness, that Jewel app is terrible. Deals don’t always scan, and searching for deals doesn’t always show the sale to click. The app automatically puts you in the ‘in-store’ mode which needs to be closed to scan for coupons. And cellular service is usually poor in store and their wifi isn’t often cooperative.
This is an age-old problem that likely won’t go away. Digital coupon accuracy is close to 100%. The issue is that brands often design the coupons to be used on the premium version of its brand, but the shopper attempts to use the coupon on the base, regular version. The coupon doesn’t apply, nor should it.