Shame on Jewel food stores, which have touted their grocery chain to be “hometown” and “customer-friendly” and has operated in our neighborhoods for decades, for clearly discriminating against its most loyal customer base. In line at my local South Oak Park Jewel, I struck up a conversation with an elderly woman ahead of me. She was paying with cash, spoke to me about her dementia and most likely didn’t have a smart phone.
When asked by the cashier if she was a member of their current shopping program, she replied, “I have been coming here for decades!” She cheerfully entered her phone number, soon learning she is not part of their new digital coupon program, where you have to go into an app on a smart phone and “clip” the coupons prior to checking out to get a sale price.
This week one of the promotions was “save $7 on your total purchase due to the Bear’s win on Saturday. I asked the cashier if he could give this promotion to her, after she asked to put back one item because she only had $20 and her amount was greater. He said she had to be part of the “program.”
Shame on you, Jewel. We’re elderly, and people who do not have the wherewithal to own smart phones are clearly discriminated against. There should be a class action suit against Jewel.
Beth Shannon
Oak Park
