May I offer a word of caution to everyone, please?

I did my weekly shopping at Von's on Sunday. I had downloaded the digital coupons to my phone, printed a copy of them, just in case, and proceeded to check out. I saw the coupons on the computer screen as I used my EBT card to pay. After getting home, to my utter amazement and disgust, the coupons had mysteriously disappeared from my receipt, and I was charged full price for 3 items.

I did the necessary calculations, drove back to the store today, Monday, and made the customer service rep. give me my $6.41.

There's something going on at Von's/Kroger. They know the merger is most likely going through, much to our horror and outrage, and the prices are not only escalating at an unprecedented rate, they're also identical at both stores.

This is all of our worst fears coming true and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it. They're engaged in cheating their customers and making it hard for those of us who are low-income to buy enough food to feed ourselves.

We better get mad about this and start speaking out. They think they have us where they want us.