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Giant Food Makes Digital Coupons More Accessible

Giant digital coupon for TideGiant Food, a grocery chain with 162 stores in the Mid-Altantic region, just announced it has installed “Savings Stations” in each of its stores to make use of digital coupons easier.

These large screen kiosks at the front of each store allow a shopper to simply scan their loyalty card or enter their phone number and then all that week’s advertised digital coupons from their circular are automatically loaded onto their account.

Giant Food Savings Station - digital coupon kiosk

Since 2022, Consumer World and other leading consumer organizations have been calling on top grocery executives to end the digital discrimination of seniors, low income folks, and others who don’t have smartphones or the internet or who are not tech-savvy enough to use supermarket apps to gain access to the grocery savings offered by digital coupons.

To date, Ahold-Delhaize (parent company of Stop & Shop, Giant Food, and Food Lion) and Kroger have heeded the call among others. It is now time for all the various Albertsons supermarket banners like Safeway, Vons, Star Market, Jewel-Osco, etc. to do the same thing and end digital discrimination.

With grocery prices as high as they are now because of inflation and tariffs, every shopper should be able to easily access all supermarket discounts whether they are tech-savvy or not.

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One Consumer’s Frigidaire Refrigerator Nightmare

Frigidaire side-by-sideAmanda C. wrote to us in July about a major appliance nightmare she was living through but now had hit a brick wall.

Last August, she bought a Frigidaire side-by-side refrigerator at Best Buy in Massachusetts for almost $1,000. Last month it stopped cooling properly. Apparently, the seal around the door was faulty so the refrigerator was running constantly, failing to keep food at a safe temperature while wearing out the compressor. The refrigerator got so warm inside that black mold started growing.

Contacting Best Buy was a dead end according to our consumer because they told her the return period was long over. When calling the manufacturer for repair, they provided her with contact information for a service company. But Amanda told us:

The company has cancelled the appointment multiple times, asked to reschedule, etc. after I had to rearrange my work schedule and life to accommodate the scheduling. After the 5th or 6th cancellation, I called Fridgidaire and filed a complaint.

The consumer contacted us asking for some guidance. We provided some executive level contacts at Electrolux (the maker of Frigidaire) and urged her to create a written record of the issue before the warranty expired. We suggested she follow some of the complaint resolution suggestions and contacts at Elliott.org .

She sent emails to key people at both Electrolux and Best Buy. Miracle of miracles, an Electrolux supervisor agreed to give her a replacement. But less than 12 hours later they told her they can’t replace it because that model has been discontinued.

Hope seemed to be lost at that moment. But then an executive resolution specialist at Best Buy reached out to our consumer and said they would pick up the old fridge and deliver a new one. Yeah!

*MOUSE PRINT:

Amanda was put through the wringer despite the law being on her side. In Massachusetts, a seller is just as responsible as the manufacturer in the case of defective goods. And here, when goods are defective, it is also the consumer’s choice of one of the three “R’s” — repair, replacement, or refund. Unfortunately, too many retailers simply point the finger at the manufacturer and brush the customer off.

We applaud Best Buy for finally stepping up.

Should you face a similar issue, our suggestion is to document the problem and climb the corporate ladder when a retailer or manufacturer tries to weasel out of its obligations. Find corporate contacts at Elliott.org . Should that fail, file a complaint with your state consumer office or attorney general, consider small claims court, and if the issue is newsworthy, contact a consumer reporter.

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Salisbury Steaks — Where’s the Beef?

MrConsumer has never purchased frozen Salisbury steak dinners, but having read a story from Truth in Advertising about their ingredients, he became curious.

I always (foolishly) assumed that the burger-like patties in these dinners were made from beef. But nay, nay.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Lean Cuisine Salisbury steak

In fact, Lean Cuisine’s patty is made from beef and pork.

Worse news came when checking the ingredients statements of some other Salisbury steak dinners.

*MOUSE PRINT:

On-Cor Salisbury steak
Banquet Salisbury steak

In these products, beef was no longer the first ingredient in the patties — in fact, it was the last ingredient among the main contents. There was more chicken, pork and water in each patty than beef!

All is not bad news for Salisbury steak lovers. Stouffer’s boldly promotes that its patties are made with 100% beef.

Stouffer's Salisbury steak