How to save on groceries, even without a store loyalty app

Comment on this storyCommentSaving at the supermarket used to be simple: Everyone got the sale price. Then, stores began offering loyalty cards, which required customers to scan a

plastic card or key in their phone number at checkout to activate discounts. Now, many grocery store chains are replacing those loyalty cards with smartphone apps.You’ve seen the

ads proclaiming, “Go digital and save even more!” To do this, though, you must have a smartphone. Then you download an app and create an account, or use your phone number to

link it to your existing loyalty card. Once a week (or sometimes more often), the store issues digital coupons. Before each shopping trip, you must open the app, sort through the

available coupons, choose the ones you want and click to add each one to your account. When you check out, you either scan your plastic loyalty card (or a digital replica on your

phone) or key in your phone number. That activates all the “clipped” coupons. If there are no glitches at checkout — such as coupons not activating — you get the advertised

savings. Otherwise, you pay the full price.According to Consumer World founder Edgar Dworsky, who examines weekly store sale circulars, shoppers who don’t use a store’s loyalty

app may pay two to three times more for a sale item. The process can be confusing, though. An informal survey of Consumer World readers in September 2022 found 1 in 3 consumers

could not explain how to get the digital-only price. “I’m able to do it, but not everyone can,” Dworsky says.Dworsky and other consumer advocates say these app-centric

grocery deals could penalize the digitally disconnected. “Millions of seniors who don’t use the internet or own a smartphone, as well as lower-income shoppers without broadband

access, are shut out of these offers. Loyalty apps are a way to give fewer and fewer people the advertised sales price,” Dworsky says.The apps have pros and cons, says Adam

Schwartz, president of CouponSurfer. On the positive side, consumers get savings on products and can select the specific coupons they want. “The bad is you manually have to

select each coupon,” he says. “It’s time-consuming. Some apps are difficult to work with, and performance varies.”Many consumers feel frustrated by the switch. “Shopping

should not be work,” says Jeff Kagan, a technology industry analyst in Atlanta who shops at multiple supermarkets. “Different stores have different apps. Some have no app. You

can clip in advance, but many of us don’t,” he says. “So, often you stand in front of an item you found on sale. You have to open the app, open the phone camera, scan a bar