For the past three years, consumer groups including Consumer World have called on big supermarket chains to make digital coupons easier to use for seniors, poor folks, and others who either don’t use the internet or smartphones or who are not particularly tech-savvy.
Normally, a shopper has to use the supermarket’s website or app to individually select and load each digital-only offer or coupon onto their store loyalty card account before they shop in order to get the advertised discount.
Consumer World photo illustrationNow Kroger and some of its various supermarket brands like King Soopers have come up with a simple and cheap solution. They are making available digital deal savings sheets — a “super coupon,” if you will — that is a two-sided piece of paper that you pick up as you enter the store or at the courtesy desk. All that week’s advertised digital deals from the store’s current circular are summarized there, and a small barcode is provided on the back. The shopper need only scan that barcode at the checkout, and then all that week’s advertised digital coupons will be loaded onto the customer’s account and the savings automatically deducted from their bill.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Sample Kroger Digital “Super Coupon” (click to enlarge)Consumer World asked the company for details about which of their chains have implemented these deal sheets, but they did not respond to multiple requests. Nonetheless, we salute Kroger for finally heeding the call to make digital coupons easier to use and available to digitally-disconnected shoppers.
We also asked The Consumerman, Herb Weisbaum, to check the stores in the Seattle area — QFC and Fred Meyer. He reports that both stores had displays of the “super coupons” near the store entrance.
If you shop at a Kroger-owned store (Kroger, Baker’s, Dillons, Food4Less, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Harris Teeter, King Soopers, Mariano’s, Payless, Pick’n Save, QFC, Ralph’s, or Smith’s), please post a comment noting whether your store now has the “super coupon,” and if it was near the store entrance or if you had to request it. (Some locations reportedly are keeping them hidden behind the service desk, believe it or not.)
Kroger’s move follows an initiative by Stop & Shop at the beginning of 2025 to install “Savings Center” kiosks in the front of their 350+ stores where all a shopper need do is scan her loyalty card and then all that week’s advertised digital coupons are automated loaded onto her account.
Some of these efforts by supermarket chains to make digital coupons easier to use are the result of consumer complaints by customers, the advocates’ campaign to end digital discrimination, and legislative efforts requiring that non-digital alternatives be offered.
In regard to legal initiatives, San Diego’s new ordinance that requires supermarkets to make available printed versions of digital coupons in the store just hit a road block because retailers are opposed it. They lobbied for an amendment that would completely gut the new requirement. See Coupons in the News. It is scheduled for a new hearing this week. Stay tuned.
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UPDATE
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Without going into great detail here, MrConsumer wrote to the entire San Diego city council pointing out the issue with their proposed amendment. And they listened and voted approval of a revised amendment. Now stores need provide “an in-store alternative” for all publicly available digital-only deals and digital coupons (instead of the only option being printed versions of digital coupons). They dropped the explicit exclusion of digital offers in store loyalty programs that would have been fatal to the original amendment. The new ordinance gets a second reading soon, and goes into effect in October.
I love the idea of a super coupon.
Save a dollar by using the free coupon at the end of the aisle. More time wasting hoops to jump through. Just lower the price.
I like this idea, but I’m reminded that coupon providers make coupons just easy enough to use that you still have to take action to use them. I’m guessing they only want a certain percentage of people to actually use them, otherwise why not just have the register automatically apply all applicable savings?
The Kroger digital coupon sheets will require you to have a loyalty card and limit the total number of each coupon item you can purchase in any one transaction. I believe that the digital coupons in the newspaper ads, which you can download on the app on your phone, do not allow you to purchase additional items on subsequent trips at the coupon price, I expect the same would be true with this handout. The handout both encourages you to use the loyalty card and discourages anyone from overly depleting their sale stock.
This is true, manufacturers and retailers definitely like digital coupons more because it prevents mass couponing. I worked at a grocery store for several years and I can tell you a very small subset of customers will use 20+ of the same coupons.
Thank you. I love my little Kroger and want it to stay in business. Your answer is logical and reasonable; and I am grateful for Kroger making it easier for me to shop.
It would be nice if they could do it for store rewards (points) as well. Some points can be used elsewhere (e.g., gas stations), but it seems to require a digital selection. Shoppers (at least those with store cards) should be reminded of the points and given a non-digital opportunity to use them when shopping.
I am very happy to see this as I take care of my elderly neighbor who uses no technology. This super-coupon will be very helpful.
The handout or barcode can’t be used as an alternative to clipping the only coupons needed to obtain the sale prices on other items.
The Kroger where I shop puts its circulars in bin mixed with copies of the day’s daily newspaper which the customer must separate. I saw signage referring to the new weekly digital deals handout for the first time last week but it offered to direction on where to obtain one.
This is great news. I can’t help but feel that you were an integral part of the process for getting this done Edgar, thank you for all of your hard work.
Thanks for the kind words, Joel.
Thanks, Edgar, for this post! Scrolling & then finding all the digital coupons on the Fry’s Food app is difficult. And my local store doesn’t help; my phone signal is zero there (“emergency calls only”); I have had to leave the store to get a signal to search for a digital coupon and go back inside to continue shopping.
Leif… Let’s hope your store has the “super coupons!”
This is good. My biggest challenge with Kroger is I use an Iphone SE and the battery is usually dead / dying by the end of the day – sometimes I go without discounts because my phone’s dead – and I can’t login and add the coupons. This is better.
Dennis Bell reports that Food4Less in Redmond, CA is using the paper “super coupons.” Thanks for letting us know!