Letters: Jewel-osco Should Toss Its Unfriendly App

Thank you for the excellent editorial (“Fix your lousy shopping app, Jewel-Osco!” Feb. 26). As the Tribune Editorial Board said, is a grocery store app a global crisis? No. Is this app a royal pain in the neck? Absolutely.

I wonder if the Albertsons executives use this app? If they did, the app wouldn’t exist. All people want to do is be able to go buy their produce and groceries and then go back home to make dinner. Instead, we have to wade through all that data nonsense in order to buy a pound of broccoli.

Grocery stores are personal; we all have our favorite store. Don’t frustrate your loyal customers who make you successful. Throw out that unfriendly app.

— Anthony Costa, Antioch

Treatment of customers

Thank you for the editorial on the Jewel-Osco app. The Tribune Editorial Board wrote everything I have been thinking for a long, long time. As a lifelong shopper at Jewel, I felt I was dumped from Jewel’s customer list these last few years.

The information the editorial board supplies in its editorial made it easy for me to contact my representatives in Springfield. Here’s hoping for some good changes.

— Lynn Rogge, Mount Prospect

Tips for using Jewel app

Whoever wrote the editorial about Jewel-Osco’s app needs a lesson in how to use their technology. I am 72 years old and use this app weekly without any problems. Same for my 50-year-old friends, my 40-year-old kids and my 20- to 30-year-old gym buddies. This is one of the best money saving apps I have at my disposal.

Here are some tips for you: First, and foremost, go through the app at home before you go to the store and clip your coupons. My biggest pet peeve is standing in the checkout while some shopper is struggling to find their item on their phone and holding up the line. And if you are just way too busy to clip your coupons ahead of time, then clip your coupons while you are shopping. The in-store Wi-Fi makes it easy and works if you spy an item not on your list.

We all make a game of this app and compare how much we save periodically. And best of all, you earn points that convert to dollar savings. You can even set up the app to automatically use your points so you never lose their value. Please, please, please do not have Illinois government try to regulate this app. You know Illinois will search for a way to tax anything.

Lastly, let’s save paper and keep the parking lot free from all those paper coupons that you know will go flying around just like the plastic bags used to.

— Mike Swift, Chicago

What’s the big deal?

Regarding the whiny editorial about Jewel-Osco coupons, just what’s the big deal?

I’m a geezer who turns on my cellphone when I want to make a call, not to shop. Every Wednesday, I get an email (on my laptop) from Jewel-Osco with the week’s coupon bargains. I scroll through the list, checking the items I want and adding the stuff to our grocery list. Works fine, and at checkout, I see the savings on my receipt, sometimes pretty significant.

When I go to the store, my wife tells me to get only what’s on the list. Yes, dear.

— Paul Oppenheim, Oak Park

Clip coupons at home

I was surprised to read in the editorial that so many people have issues with clipping Jewel digital coupons at the store. Am I the only one who clips her coupons at home while making a shopping list? It’s true that I occasionally add a coupon while I’m shopping, for items I might not have considered buying earlier. But doing it at my leisure is much easier.

And while I do not consider the Jewel app a shining example of online marketing, the app from Mariano’s is even worse.

— Frances Fruit, Winnetka

Just use your laptop

I, too, have a problem with the recent increase in businesses that require the use of a QR code on a smartphone (theater tickets, theater program books, restaurant menu, etc.). Although I have a smartphone and generally carry it with me, I do not have unlimited internet access, so I can’t always call these things up easily, However, I do disagree with the Tribune Editorial Board’s complaint about Jewel’s digital coupons. All you need to use them is access to a computer; they do not require a smartphone.

I always look at their ad before I go shopping and clip the digital coupons on my laptop. They will automatically be deducted at checkout. (Truth be told, I generally double-check on my phone in the store, but it is not necessary.)

I love Jewel and its Jewel-Osco for U program. It can save lots of money if used regularly.

Also, Mariano’s has started putting out a piece of paper in stores that one can pick up to scan its digital coupons at checkout. Perhaps this would be helpful for Jewel to do too.

— Nancy McDaniel, Chicago

What we can all do

I read the Tribune obituaries every day. Every now and then, I see someone I know. This ritual has taken on new meaning now that my parents received word from their doctor on the same day, that Mother has Stage 4 cancer and Father has a suspicious spot on his pancreas.

During this time of Ramadan and Lent, reading the obituaries gets me thinking about what a good, fulfilling life looks like. I see the smiling photographs and the litany of accomplishments. But what gets me most excited is the loving family experiences, the relationships with neighbors and friends, the pride in community accomplishments, the lives touched by unselfishness. It is how that person has made their very small corner of the world a better place for having lived.

I am one person, I cannot change the world in my lifetime, but I can make the small corner I live in a better place.

— Michael Dejanovich, Crown Point, Indiana

Glad to win the gold

Congratulations to the Team USA hockey team on winning the gold medal. So very proud for them. Congrats to the Canadian team also. What a game thriller it was!

Hold your heads up, Canada, as millions and millions of Americans stand side by side with our Northern neighbors. Of course, we are so excited the gold has come back to the USA.

— Gloria Geddes, Sugar Grove

Honor Lindsey Vonn

I mean no slight to Connor Hellebuyck and the USA men’s hockey team and their achievement. But if any Olympic athlete deserves a special medal for Olympic competition and contribution, it is Lindsey Vonn.

— Ed McGarrigle, Fox River Grove

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.