“BUT I TOOK a picture of the coupon with my phone,” the man told the checker at the supermarket, pointing at the photograph on his screen. “The coupon says the toilet paper is on sale for $9.99.”
“Taking a picture doesn’t work,” the checker explained patiently. “You have to scan it.”
The shopper was probably in his late ’70s, very polite, and completely at sea as to what she was talking about.
Susan Nash is a recent Stanford Center on Longevity Visiting Scholar and staff writer for Bay City News. (Bay City News)
This exchange happened several months ago at the local Safeway in Fort Bragg. They were talking about digital in-store coupons. These are the small bar codes with a lower price beneath the tag with the regular price, usually in very small type. And the checker was right — you need to use the Safeway app on your phone to scan the coupon while you are physically in the store, and only then do you get the reduced price.
The discounts can be significant. On a recent shopping trip, digital in-store coupon scanners could score two-pound bags of Waterfront Bistro Large Raw Shrimp, 31-40 count, for $3.97 per pound, down from the usual per pound price of $10.99. CPK frozen pizzas, usually $8.99, could be had for $5.99 each. A pound of strawberries, usually $5.99, was available for only $2.47.
Coupon-clipping has steadily evolved, along with pretty much everything else. My grandmother would cut neatly along the coupons’ dotted lines and then put them in a coupon wallet before she made her assault on the local grocery.
Then came supermarket loyalty programs, in the form of plastic cards swiped at checkout to get “member pricing.” There was a time when everyone I knew, including me, carried regular wallets the size of a Dickens novel. Mercifully, the cards were eventually replaced by keypads for entering a phone number at the checkout stand.
You need the app for the lowest prices
An in-store digital coupon would net a $3.52 savings on a pound of strawberries on Feb. 21, 2025, at the Safeway store in Fort Bragg, but only for those who can both spot and scan the coupon (Susan Nash/Bay City News)
Now, being loyal to your supermarket is a necessary but not sufficient way to get the lowest prices. To do that, you must download the supermarket’s app. The Safeway app then allows virtual “clipping” of “for-U deals,” offering products at less than even the member price that are helpfully recommended by a source that knows what you like and how much you buy.
I don’t mind using the app to get deals just “for me,” especially now that I’m retired. I think of my grandmother, open the app before I shop, flip through my recommended “deals,” and “clip” them before I go to the store. After I enter my phone number on the checkout keypad, the deals are automatically applied to my bill.
It’s like playing a computer game where you get a real prize.
But the move to online clipping was hard for many customers. AARP reported in 2022 that digital coupons were preventing millions of older customers from getting discounts because they lacked internet access or a mobile phone. This led to an outcry by consumer groups and a decision by Kroger and others to make digital coupons accessible from a home computer and to continue to honor paper coupons.
None of that helps with the digital in-store coupons that can only be accessed while standing in the supermarket aisle, if you’ve brought your phone and if you have good cellular data service or a wi-fi connection and if you’ve remembered your reading glasses.
A bridge too far perhaps?
The steady rise of grocery prices has been a real economic burden. Making the lowest prices available only to those who can whip out their phones and scan does not seem like progress. Sure, many older people have the scanning down pat, but on any particular day I’ve seen at least one or two people of all ages staring at these coupons in abject puzzlement.
The digital in-store coupons are a company-wide phenomenon, not limited to Fort Bragg.
There is a vocal discussion about these in-store coupons online, mostly heaping scorn on baby boomers who can’t figure out how they work.
An in-store digital coupon for CPK pizza offers a sweet deal on Feb. 21, 2025, at the Safeway store in Fort Bragg. (Susan Nash/Bay City News)
Ask the checker
The Fort Bragg employees are more sympathetic. “My mom can’t possibly use these in-store coupons,” said one of the checkers. Assistant store manager Jesse Holloway also understands the problem. Now, unlike the exchange I witnessed several months ago, Safeway employees are directed to give the in-store discount to any customer who mentions it, whether or not they’ve managed to scan it on their phones.
So, if you spot an in-store coupon but in-store scanning is not your thing, try asking for the lower price anyway.
Meanwhile, right by the entrance to the store, there are printed copies of weekly ads with paper coupons for a whole different set of products that can provide some relief from higher prices. All you need is a pair of scissors.
What does a longer lifespan mean to you? Two talented columnists tag-team every Friday to tackle the challenges that inform your choices — whether you’re pushing 17 or 70. Recent Stanford Center on Longevity Visiting Scholar Susan Nash looks at life experiences through an acerbic personal lens, while longtime writer and health reporter Tony Hicks takes the macro view to examine how society will change as the aging population grows ever larger. Check in every Friday to expand your vision of living the long game and send us your feedback, column suggestions and ideas for future coverage to newsroom@baycitynews.com.