SD grocery stores purging digital coupons under new law to make savings accessible

A Vons grocery store Photo by Alexander Nguyen San Diegans without smartphones can now access digital deals in a multitude of local grocery stores just weeks before a new city law forcing businesses to print online coupons officially takes effect Three months after San Diego became the first U S city to ban the popular yet controversial online-only coupons that grocery stores have adopted in the digital age particular local businesses are already offering paper versions of digital deals A multitude of San Diego grocery businesses have already started to follow the city s new ban by posting signs pointing out print versions of digital deals throughout stores Photo courtesy of Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera s office Online-only coupons are set to disappear from all San Diego grocery stores in two weeks starting on July when the ban is slated to take effect Consumers have for years complained about digital-only deals which require shoppers to have a device like a smartphone Wi-Fi access and certain apps or email subscriptions to save on groceries Critics have argued that these requirements block consumers who are the the majority squeezed by high grocery bills from saving money ranging from senior shoppers with less tech know-how to low-income families who can t afford phones The new law aims to respond to these calls by leveling the playing field for shoppers who don t have the apparatus or knowledge to access online-only coupons Once the law officially takes effect at the end of the month the city is planning to monitor that grocery stores are following the new ban through August People are accessing savings that had previously been out of reach or intentionally challenging to access Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera who put forth the new ban declared in a Wednesday press release This means more money in the pockets of San Diegans What is the Grocery Pricing Transparency Ordinance in San Diego A printed in-store flyer showcasing the week s digital deals at a local grocery store Photo courtesy of Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera s office Under the new ban all shoppers now have the right to request printed versions of digital coupons at grocery stores and stores must post signs notifying consumers of this right Grocery stores that refuse to do so can be taken to court or fined under the new law Elo-Rivera recommended that San Diego grocery businesses follow the law by offering coupon booklets next to registers by shelf items or in other visible areas throughout stores as a large number of have started doing Who s left behind by digital-only deals A handful of states from New Jersey to Washington have moved to ban online-only coupons due to concerns that they re widening the digital divide or the gap in tools between people who can and can t access equipment function use strict window addEventListener message function a if void a material datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a evidence datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a facts datawrapper-height t px r style height d San Diego led the charge once Councilmember Elo-Rivera proposed the new citywide ban in October after he saw seniors low-income families and non-native English speakers including immigrants and refugees miss out on digital savings in his District These groups make up a large chunk of the city About one in seven San Diegans are and older with a great number of of them relying on a fixed income of Social Safety retirement savings and pensions What may seem like a trivial exercise of downloading an app or utilizing that app while in a grocery store becomes an insurmountable barrier to way too a great number of people in our neighborhood Elo-Rivera mentioned at a San Diego City Council meeting about the new ban in March An estimated San Diego households also lack internet access according to a city overview Households on this side of the digital divide tend to be lower income Altogether these groups are often the majority of affected by high food costs which inflation has ballooned in San Diego But they re not the only ones who have criticized online coupons Even tech-savvy consumers with smartphones have complained that slow Wi-Fi or glitchy apps have kept them from online savings even after they ve electronically clipped the digital deals Elo-Rivera cited these concerns as proof of a rigged system meant to maximize profit at the expense of consumers Ban aims to address cost-of-living emergency San Diego s new ban on digital-only deals makes up one piece of the city s new strategy to address its cost-of-living emergency which is pricing a great number of residents out of the city Inflation is a main culprit ballooning the city s cost of living While it has driven up prices across the board it s hit grocery bills particularly hard function use strict window addEventListener message function a if void a figures datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a evidence datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a statistics datawrapper-height t px r style height d San Diego s consumer price index a measure of inflation skyrocketed to its highest level in a year in May San Diegans now pay chosen of the highest grocery prices in the country according to the Council for Group and Economic Research s Cost of Living Index for January to March Orange juice cost a dime more parmesan cheese a quarter more and ground beef a dollar more on average from last year For Elo-Rivera these steep price hikes mean that access to any coupons available is essential Sean Elo-Rivera Photo by Salvatore Giametta This is an opportunity for San Diego to address what is our preponderance pressing issue and that s the ability of people who live in the city to see a future for themselves as a aftermath of the cost of living here Elo-Rivera revealed The ban s co-authors Elo-Rivera and Councilmember Marni von Wilpert will be hosting a town hall about the new law with the nonprofit Serving Seniors at the San Diego Oasis senior center on July the day after the ban officially takes effect The new ban was one of the first proposals considered by the city s new council committee dedicated to addressing San Diego s cost-of-living predicament which Elo-Rivera chairs