New Jersey bills are rarely featured in the state’s media as well as the national websites grocery shoppers use to find printable “cent-off” offers and online discounts.
Apparently, consumers are so outraged by the recent trend that they gave Rep. Paul Moriarty of D-Gloster kudos for a bill he says is even a playing field for all shoppers. There seems to be jersey.
Moriarty puts on the hat of a retired TV consumer reporter and says that if the only way to get out of a contract is a computer or cell phone, it’s the buyer who needs the most savings who will be left behind. Of course, this includes people who can’t afford high-speed internet, older people who aren’t computer savvy or don’t own one, people with vision or dexterity problems who can’t navigate small cell phone screens. This includes people who have difficulty downloading coupons through the Internet. Even for a mobile phone expert, it can be excruciatingly frustrating to scroll through hundreds of offers to find he’s 50 cents offer from a bag of sugar.
Consumer World’s Edgar Dworsky said: Dworsky has signed a letter asking supermarkets to provide offline alternatives. He said some do, but too many don’t.
Gone are the days when central Pennsylvania grocery chains used the slogan “Everybody saves every day.” That chain now requires a loyalty card for nearly every markdown. But there’s a difference between shopper’s cards, which automatically apply discounts when handed to the cashier, and those apps and his website that let consumers do all the work by effectively “cutting up” individual offers. there is. When it comes to ShopRite, New Jersey’s largest grocery store, you may get 1 off when you use your Price Plus card, but you often get even more when you use digital coupons.
In most cases, ShopRite lets you add digital coupons to your store’s card. The nice customer service representatives will also stop by to help those who can’t do this themselves, but there’s no guarantee that there will be 10 people wanting lottery tickets and 5 people wanting a refund in line.
The framework for Moriarty’s bill would require stores to offer alternative paper coupons to customers who don’t use computers. However, retailers use coupons for several reasons. The first is to limit the number of times the same customer redeems a significant discount. If everyone could buy as much ice cream as he wanted at $1.99, the store would be forced to discount more than it should. The second reason is why these coupons are often digitized now. Many of these offers are funded by manufacturers, who want data on their buying habits in exchange for savings.
So the suspicion here is that paper just doesn’t get along with manufacturers and the food chain. I don’t care if I had to run a big ad. But in reality, supermarket lobbies are more influential.
I have yet to see the text of the bill Moriarty just introduced (A-5076), but flexibility may be key to its passage. Even the definition of “coupon” is important. Must be limited to general grocery and drugstore items. A “buy one get one free” exchange window or a “used car get him $500 off” coupons are easily perceived as ongoing promotions rather than actual discounts.
One possibility is to require it to be placed in grocery stores and drug stores all Your loyalty card discount is automatically applied. Virtually everyone has a card, regardless of their computer skills. They’re free, and let’s be honest, when you sign up, you already know you gave up the measure of privacy for a cheaper bundle of paper towels.
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