Kroger Shoppers No Longer Need App to Access Digital Coupons
The Kroger Co. is giving its loyal shoppers easier access to digital deals. The national supermarket chain recently started adding paper flyers mirroring its weekly digital deals near the entrances of its stores, as reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer.
“We are always listening to our customers to create a better shopping experience,” a Kroger representative told Progressive Grocer. “To make it simpler for our customers to take advantage of the full value our stores offer, we are providing an easy-to-use flyer that customers can scan to save with digital coupons.”
Kroger customers with a loyalty card can grab a printed handout when they enter the store to find out about the weekly digital deals. Then at checkout, shoppers scan a barcode on the flyer to download all of the digital coupons at once. Each coupon can be used up to five times in a single transaction.
Using the printed flyer means that shoppers don’t have to go online or use the Kroger app to download each individual coupon.
Kroger isn’t the only grocer getting more flexible with its digital deals. The Northeastern supermarket chain Stop & Shop recently issued a brand-wide rollout of its innovative Savings Station. The in-store kiosk allows customers to quickly and easily activate all weekly circular digital coupons, as well as personalized offers – no smartphone, internet access or computer required.
These in-store efforts from Kroger and Stop & Shop are finally helping to address digital discrimination in grocery. Seniors who aren’t tech-savvy and low-income families without smartphones could wind up paying higher prices, since they can't easily access grocers’ digital deals.
A few years ago, five consumer organizations (Consumer Reports, USPIRG, National Consumers League, Consumer Action and Consumer World) brought this issue to the attention of various CEOs with a letter asking that their supermarket chains come up with an easy way for these digitally disconnected customers to take advantage of digital-only weekly sale items.
Kroger and Stop & Shop CEOs were among the recipients of that letter.
Further, states are also making efforts to bridge the digital divide. California’s San Diego City Council recently passed the Grocery Pricing Transparency Ordinance, a first-in-the-nation policy banning digital-only coupons in the city.
Cincinnati-based Kroger employs nearly 410,000 associates who serve more than 11 million customers daily through an e-commerce and store experience under a variety of banner names. The grocer is No. 4 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2025 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
Stop & Shop, an Ahold Delhaize USA company, employs more than 50,000 associates. Its parent company, Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, is one of the world’s largest food retail groups. Ahold Delhaize USA is No. 11 on The PG 100. PG also named both Kroger and Ahold Delhaize among its Retailers of the Century.