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Stop & Shop Educates Shoppers About Making Digital Coupons Easy to Use

SS digital coupon itemsIn December. we told you that the largest supermarket chain in the Northeast, Stop & Shop, was rolling out Savings Center kiosks to all its stores to make using digital coupons easy for everyone including shoppers who are not particularly tech savvy.

All you have to do now to load all that week’s advertised digital coupons onto your account is to scan your loyalty card or enter your phone number at the kiosk as you enter the store. No more futzing with the store’s website or app to locate and load each coupon individually.

This move by Stop & Shop came after a two-year effort by MrConsumer and four other national consumer organizations to sensitize supermarket CEOs about the discriminatory effect that digital coupons had on vulnerable people many of whom were not able to use them to lower their grocery bill.

Now that the kiosks have been installed in all their 350+ stores, Stop & Shop is going one step further and has started airing a 15-second TV commercial to educate shoppers on how easy it is now to use digital coupons.

When Stop & Shop first told me a few months ago that they were going to air a commercial about the kiosks, I was thrilled because you can’t just install new technology in a store and hope people will find and use it. They also said they had a surprise in store for me. When I watched the ad for the first time recently, it wasn’t obvious to me what the surprise was. Then it hit me.
MrConsumer's caricature

The company said that creating a caricature of me was their way to give a subtle nod to my advocacy around this issue.

I am humbled.

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13 thoughts on “Stop & Shop Educates Shoppers About Making Digital Coupons Easy to Use”

  1. Kudos!!

    Wish Publix would have a similar system, with or without the logo. 🙂
    Every Thursday morning, there I am scrolling through the mostly don’t-need-it-don’t-want-it flyer. Advantage is, however, most fall into both categories so I go to Aldi, whose ad I have already read.
    My experience without sale prices, by the way, is:
    Aldi Publix
    Selection: 0 1
    Quality: 1 0

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  2. I really hope we see other grocery stores move forward with a process like this and introduce kiosks themselves, but it remains to be seen.

    That’s an incredibly honoring nod to be put in their commercial!

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  3. This is really incredible work that you’ve done. I love that they specifically credited you as being part of the reason that this got done.

    I hope we see other grocery stores introduce this as well.

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  4. I would be much more impressed if they took a far simpler route and simply eliminated the digital coupons altogether. Just set a sale price and make all the sales available to anyone with a store loyalty card without the need of scanning it anywhere other than the check out register. Eliminates the need and expense of placing kiosks in every store and eliminates this extra thing we have to do every time we enter one of their stores.

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    • Interesting comment. Would you also eliminate paper coupons? Here in Australia the dominant discounting off regular supermarket prices is via special offers (for packaged national brand products mainly paid for by the manufacturer) and advertised by the supermarket chain weekly in printed catalogues and online and which are available to everyone. And, there are some supermarket special offers available only to: members of the supermarket loyalty program, internet shoppers, and targeted consumers. The US’s manufacturer-issued (printed and electronic) coupon system seems to be more complex and costly and less consumer friendly. But maybe I am missing something?

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    • I think the point is not everyone gets the same coupons… they are trying to steer certain people to certain items. That’s why these are “digital coupons”… everyone doesn’t get the same things.

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  5. Hi Edgar,
    You didn’t mention this, but for the past couple of weeks I noticed that the weekly Stop & Shop flyer (both printed and online) has been promoting the fact that all deals on the front page of the flyer are available to all shoppers with the S&S loyalty card – there are NO digital coupons that have to be ‘clipped’ and added to you account. Along with the Digital Coupon scanners you mentioned, these are two very customer-friendly initiatives that S&S implemented. Perhaps 99 out of 100 people don’t give a hoot about this, but my impression of Stop & Shop has significantly increased because of this.

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    • Eric… Very perceptive of you to notice the change in their circular advertising and the lack of digital coupons particularly on the front page. I frankly find it baffling. Why go to the trouble and expense of putting in all these kiosks in their stores and then stop featuring digital coupons. It certainly doesn’t help get more people to try the machine when they see no need for it. Perhaps in a few weeks they will bring back front page digital coupons.

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  6. How about the “rewards” programs? Do they still require that the app (or website) be used to apply the rewards? If so, that presents an obstacle for customers who are not digitally connected.

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    • Ed… I don’t know for sure, but as far as I know, the kiosk only adds that week’s advertised digital coupons AND any personal offers that are being made directly to you.

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