In the not-too-distant past, grocery cashiers would look at the price stickers on each item you were buying, and key in the price by hand. Nowadays, computers and scanners do all the work. So when the computers go down – there’s not much that cashiers can do but stand around helplessly while shoppers wait.  Or is there?  Here’s some solutions from Coupons in the News.

Ok, so the headline may be a little harsh. But a new study says one of the newest types of coupons faces some serious hurdles when it comes to being widely used and accepted. And the best way to overcome our resistance to these discount offers is to appeal to our instincts – we want to feel good about ourselves, we want to save money, and we don’t want to have to work for it.

“Consumers’ attitude and adoption of location-based coupons” appears in the latest edition of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. Its authors examine the benefits and drawbacks of mobile coupons that are tied to your physical location. Walk by a store, for example, and your cell phone may buzz with a discount offer that you can use if you go inside. Walk down a specific aisle of the grocery store, and you may get an alert about a digital coupon for a product that’s on the shelf right in front of you. Here’s the entire Coupons in the News article.

One of the challenges of couponing and building yourself a nice stockpile is trying not to accumulate more than you can use before it goes bad. But how do you know if “expired” food in your stockpile is really bad at all? Confusing date labels on packages could lead you to eat something you really shouldn’t – or toss something that’s perfectly fine.

But a recently-released report says things have gotten much better – and by this time next year, you may not have a problem deciphering date labels at all.  Here’s the Coupons in the News article.

For all their focus on high-tech savings without having to clip paper coupons, all of the major cash-back apps have one thing in common – they all still require that you scan paper receipts. Digital receipts are not accepted.

That could prove to be a problem by the year 2022. That’s when a California lawmaker is proposing a new statewide ban on paper receipts. And supporters hope the ban could serve as a model for other states across the country. Here’s the entire Coupons in the News article.

Remember when Whole Foods Market essentially admitted that its prices were too high, and its proposed solution was to open a whole new chain of lower-priced, stripped-down stores across the country?  Here’s the entire article from Coupons in the News.  Fast and interesting read.

Any time a new study ranks the top grocery stores in the country, the usual suspects typically top the list. And the retail analytics company dunnhumby’s new Retailer Preference index is no exception. Trader Joe’s leads its second annual list, followed by Costco and Amazon.  For a thoughtful take on this survey, read the entire Coupons in the News article.

Drones! Self-driving cars! 5G network-connected gadgets! See-through TVs!

Those are among the innovations featured at this week’s CES 2019 consumer technology trade show in Las Vegas, the annual showcase for high-tech innovations that promise to change your life. But there are plenty of other, somewhat less high-tech products debuting at the big show that can have just as much of an impact your daily life, but might get overlooked.

Like the tip jar that gives you coupons.  Here’s the entire Coupons in the News article.

Kroger has been testing out digital “smart shelves” since at least 2014. Using your phone or a store-provided handheld device to scan your groceries as you go is something Kroger has been tinkering with since 2009. And QR codes have been around so long, they’ve already fallen out of favor, come back into style, and may be on their way out yet again.

But combine all of these newish technologies into one store, and what you do have? The “grocery store of the future”!

Kroger and Microsoft have earned plenty of buzz this week, after announcing a partnership they plan to formally unveil at this weekend’s National Retail Federation trade show. The two companies have collaborated to create two “stores of the future” – one, a Kroger location near that company’s headquarters in Ohio, and the other a Kroger-owned QFC store near Microsoft’s headquarters in Washington state. Here’s the Coupons in the News article – flaws and all.

It now appears that Dairy Queen can promise you a free Blizzard ice cream treat, not deliver on its promise, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

An Oregon woman who didn’t get her free Blizzard has abandoned her proposed class-action lawsuit against the restaurant chain, after it pointed out that she gave up her right to sue by accepting the coupon offer in the first place. Now every other customer who might have had their own coupons declined won’t be able to share in any potential settlement.

Mariel Spencer of suburban Portland, Oregon sued last year, after Dairy Queen promised a mobile coupon for a free small Blizzard treat to anyone who downloads its mobile app and registers for an account. So she downloaded the Dairy Queen app and activated the coupon to redeem at a local DQ, which was listed in the app as participating in the promotion. But when she got there, she was told the offer was not accepted at that location. And then her coupon expired – unused and worthless.

Dairy Queen has explained that many of its independently-owned franchises don’t participate in the free Blizzard promotion, though it seemed unable to explain why its app said those locations actually would accept the coupon.  Entire article from Coupons in the News here.

If you’ve been meaning to get around to printing coupons for Triple Paste, HoneyWorks, NuAloe or other brands you might never have heard of or didn’t know you needed, it looks like you’ve missed your chance. Those offers were among the few stragglers that remained on Hopster’s printable coupon site for the first few days of this year, a bit beyond the date when the site’s owner planned to pull the plug.

And now it appears that the plug has been pulled.

As promised, albeit a few days after the originally announced end-of-2018 shutdown, Hopster owner Inmar has removed the remaining offers from the six-year-old printable coupon site. Visitors now see a notice that “there aren’t any coupons available at this time. More coupons are being added every day, so come back a little later to see what new savings are available!”

There aren’t any more, but if you want to read about Swizl (the new rebate APP) here’s the entire article from Coupons in the News.