Page 12 - aruba-today-20221118

A12 BUSINESS
Friday 18 November 2022
Consumer groups want grocers to ditch

digital-only deals

By DEE-ANN DURBIN
AP Business Writer
A coalition of consumer
groups is asking grocery
chains to rethink their
digital-only coupons, say-
ing the deals discriminate
against people who don’t
have smartphones or reli-
able internet access.
Digital-only deals adver-
tised online or on store
shelves can offer significant
savings, but they generally
require customers to elec-
tronically clip a coupon A digital-only coupon for Pampers brand baby wipes is displayed
in a grocer’s app or on its at a Kroger in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2022.
website. For example, a Associated Press
Kroger in Cincinnati, Ohio,
is advertising frozen turkey uitable and everyone can and the National Consum-
for 60 cents per pound this take advantage of the ad- ers League sent letters this
week; with a digital cou- vertised price in one way or week to Kroger, Albertsons,
pon, the price drops to 49 another,” said Edgar Dwor- Stop & Shop and Smart &
cents per pound. And a sky, a consumer advocate Final urging them to make
Stop & Shop in Somerville, and former assistant attor- sure deals are available in
Massachusetts, is offering a ney general in Massachu- both digital and non-digital
half pork loin for $2.99 per setts who runs the website formats. Kroger and Smart
pound; with a digital cou- Consumer World. Dwor- & Final didn’t respond to
pon, that drops to $1.79 sky and others including requests for comment from
per pound. “There’s noth- Consumer Reports, Con- The Associated Press. Stop
ing wrong with digital cou- sumer Action, the Public & Shop said it will review
pons as long as they’re eq- Interest Research Group the letter.q

Trimming the fat: inflation finally hitting

profit margins

By STAN CHOE
AP Busines Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Corpo-
rate profits have withstood
raging inflation over much
of the last year, but those
good times may be end-
ing.
Profits stayed fat even as
companies’ costs rose
thanks to one simple trick:
Businesses boosted the
prices they charged cus-
tomers by more than their
own costs rose.
A display shows most indices up on the floor at the New York Now, though, more com-
Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. panies are seeing their
Associated Press costs rise faster than their
revenues. In the parlance
of finance executives,
their margins are getting
squeezed, and that’s act-
ing as a drag on their prof-
its.
To be sure, corporate
profits are still near record
highs. Companies in the
S&P 500 are in the midst of
reporting overall growth of
roughly 2% for the summer
from a year earlier. q