That kind of shit is discriminatory against those who especially need those discounts, who may not even be able to afford a smartphone, or even Internet access.
It’s like those McCafe stickers you could collect to eventually get a free coffee, now it’s all done through the McD app…
It’s also annoying af for me, because my local Safeways are all dead zones for cell and WiFi service. So you try to scan the stupid little barcode and then it just spins and spins and you still have to pay full price for the fucking can of beans. I fucking hate Safeway.
Shit, they could be operating a cellular jammer like Marriott was caught doing to force guests to pay for their wifi, but with their coupon crap.
Used to be you had to worry about the FCC crawling up your ass if you jammed signals.
Now you add journalist to Signal, and they jam you.
Can you do it at home? I always write my shopping list and use the weekly circular/review the app before I go shopping.
who may not even be able to afford a smartphone, or even Internet access.
I agree generally… However, at least currently until this fascist takeover gets to it, those same individuals would qualify for service through the Lifeline Program (Obama phones).
https://www.fcc.gov/general/lifeline-program-low-income-consumers
The digital requirement is a negative for everyone on general, but that specific reason doesn’t really apply with other current social support programs in place covering that scenario as well.
The point is that even if they can (though trump is probably eliminating it), they shouldn’t have to do that just to get the same prices the other customers get.
Maybe but I don’t see how this helps. Companies give discounts strategically. They won’t start giving discounts to one demographic because they can’t to another
YES! This is a pet peeve of mine since I don’t use a smartphone (by choice in my case). I also hate the stupid loyalty cards. It’s all for tracking and exploiting their customers, fuck that. We’re always told to boycott Walmart, but most grocery stores are no better than they are (all merged into just a few chains that have driven out the independents) – and at least Walmart has the same prices for everyone in the store.
I am actually surprised that this isn’t law in Europe already. I hate when I go to a supermarket, I have to always check the app for coupons and discounts. Otherwise I would have to pay 30% more for my shopping list.
I don’t want a million apps all spying on me just to not get robbed by the stores.
Good!! I moved to a new area and started using my new store card. A year later I realized I wasn’t saving as much as I could - they give you 1% back only if you manually apply the money you earned on their app. I didn’t know about this. I also didn’t know that the store sometimes had 3 prices - regular price, store card price, another price if you apply the coupon on the app.
The goal is to just give the discount and stop ripping people off.
This is why I shop at Aldi and Costco and my local grocery co-op. No secondary prices. No coupons needed. No rebates that aren’t automatically applied at point of purchase.
Don’t shop at garbage places that do pricing shenanigans.
I love Aldi so much! Their all dressed chips are fire.
New Jersey tried to pass a similar law a couple years ago, but it didn’t pass :(
I hate that a lot of coupons are hidden in the supermarket’s app. At least that’s the case for Safeway. Some coupons are advertised on the price tag, but some aren’t on the price tag, nor pop up if you add the item to the cart on your phone. You need to go to the coupons section in the app and search for one, or scan the barcode of the product to look for coupons for it. I’m not doing that for every item in my cart. Waste of time.
