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Do stores ask you to download their app?

A switch in my brain turns off when I hear the word "app." When I bought a smart phone, the only app I downloaded was for the altitude. Useful for hiking.

Joann's Fabrics sends me 1-2 emails each day with coupons. This requires I bring the damn phone- whoops, my attitude is showing- to the store.

"You need to download Jonann's app to access your coupons," the clerk said at the check stand today. "They need your email."

"They already have my email," I replied. "Why do I need an app? Today when I clicked on Jonann's coupon in my email, it went to Google Play. I don't want to play games on my phone."

"I don't want to play games, either," she replied. "Go talk to Amanda." She pointed to a store clerk in her 20s. Naturally.

"What's the app for?" I asked Amanda. "An app, an app," she replied (as if this explained it). "It's to get coupons and sales. Can I see your phone?" I handed her my phone.

At my insistence, Amanda showed how to get Joann's emailed coupons without the app. The trick is to click on the word, "Get." I didn't even notice "Get" until Amanda showed me.

This is maddening. I don't care about being out of sync with today's phone-obsessed culture. But it's irritating when a store makes me feel incompetent.

LiterateHiker 9 Aug 3
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26 comments

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2

I refuse to carry a phone around and be at the beck and call of the world ... I don't need one. When I left my last employment (almost 20 years ago) I handed back my phone, in bits, in a plastic bag, after stamping the life out of it - I had been subjected to calls at all hours of the day to 'advise' on someone elses problems, solve their issues, update on a situation, be told where to be for next meeting, when to be there, how I would be taken there ---- the bloody thing controlled my life for years.
PS @LiteralHiker you are incompetent in this bit of life
Cambridge English Dictionary: incompetence = lack of ability to do something successfully or as it should be done:
But don't worry too much - that shop girl would probably die up on the trails you travel

2

I think we all living that getting this app for this or that,,if we got all the apps we would not have any room on our phone for anything else,,usually if I do not get it the first time,I jist leave it and eventually it comes to me and I go back to the phone and do it electronics

2

Someone told me it's all Appening on your phone,
I do believe it, I do believe it's true
Whoa oh whoa, Whoah oh Whoa
On your phone, on your phone, on your phone

twill Level 7 Aug 3, 2019

Dang that's good! Well done!

2

EVERYBODY asks me to download their app - stores, banks, health club, even my electric company!

Virtually every business.

2

You can always delete an app if you don’t like it.

@indirect76

Thank you.

Giving Joann's AP my email would result in 10,000 emails/day, I feared.

@LiterateHiker These days any moderately well know company won’t deluge you with emails and will provide a simple way to unsubscribe within any email. For the most part they want you to enjoy the email and unsubscribe if it’s a bother.

2

I've tried one for a local grocery that I like (Sprouts) but I've found the app more trouble than it's worth. For my wife and I it's much easier to go through their weekly and online ads for specials.
Maybe if the store and what we wanted there were more complicated I guess.
It's still on my phone but we never use it. My wife doesn't even have it.

2

The play store is just a name and is used for much more than games. That is where you download and install any and all apps that can be useful.

@jlynn37

Thank you for the explanation.

@LiterateHiker There is a flashlight app that could be very useful while hiking if you are caught out after dark (I'm sure you carry a flashlight) and it is installed from the play store. Just one example. It may already be on your phone.

@jlynn37

While hiking, I carry a headlamp in my pack. This leave my hands free.

I carry extra batteries and a lightweight, Mighty Bright LED carabiner flashlight.

Phones go dead. There is often no phone service in the mountains. Idiots think their smartphone will save them when injured or lost.

@LiterateHiker it'll still work as a satnav without mobile coverage. You just have to make sure you download the appropriate map first.

@MrBeelzeebubbles

@MrBeelzeebubbles

You are mistaken. In Washington and Oregon, there are no detailed electronic maps of hiking trails high in the mountains.

The best are highly detailed, topographic Green Trails Maps.

For my 60th birthday celebration - celebrating 40 years of passionate hiking- I planned to backpack to beautiful Necklace Valley. Extremely steep, you hike to a high alpine valley with beautiful lakes and waterfalls, carpeted with wildflowers and wild blueberry bushes.

I dried and made all of our meals. The ONLY thing I asked the man I was dating was six Green Trails maps needed. I took care of everything else. Living in Seattle, Michael could get those maps at REI, unavailable in Wenatchee.

Michael showed up 2:00 a.m. the night before with a GPS unit as my birthday present, and no Green Trails maps. "I downloaded hiking maps for Washington and Oregon," he said excitedly. My heart sank.

The goddamn GPS had insufficient detail. Weighing one pound, it ate batteries for breakfast. You had to stare at and follow a stupid arrow: unsafe while hiking. I want to see what's around me. We scrambled up a large talus slope (rock slide), watching for cairns showing the way.

I made him carry the GPS. The result: we couldn't get to the highest, most ethereal lakes, shown in the picture taken by Karen in 2018.

@MrBeelzeebubbles

The only way we knew how to get to Necklace Valley was because I copied and printed pages from the book, "100 Hikes: Washington's Alpine Lakes" by Ira Spring, et. al. Copyright 1985 and 1993.

Electronic maps on the GPS unit only showed three of the eight alpine lakes in Necklace Valley. It showed none of the highest, ethereal lakes.

Plus I had backpacked to Necklace Valley at age 30.

@LiterateHiker Oh, yeah, it'll have shit detail in the maps, but the important bit is that it'll tell you where you are to within a few yards. That plus a good map is a hell of a lot easier than triangulating compass bearings, which is what I used to do before GPS.

1

Some request I refuse

1

I revel in my incompetence...

1

They shouldn't require it for those who want a coupon...if anything, they should have some readily available for those who don't want to use apps or who might have missed the store mailers. It isn't like they are losing boat loads of money...

I do have a ton of apps on my phone...some are for stores but a lot of them are just useful things

1

They can keep their apps. I don't shop much so wouldn't save much. Why clutter up my phone (which barely gets used) with shit that will slow it down, yet save me 12$ if I spend 500$?

1

In short, an app is so they can get all your personal information and likes from beign abel to montor your phone use. They collect the data and sell it to marketing companies.

My sister instead of goign with the app asked them to delete, or at least stop sending her, email

There is a point to where technology no longer makes life easier, but makes it more complicated. Just because they want you to do something, and you can do something, does not mean it is in your interest to do it.

1

Living in an area with lousy traffic I have more apps on my phone than I like, most to order food so i can pick it up and eat in a decent amount of time. The idea of a store app is to try and win your loyalty, the business world has forgotten about good customer service and decent prices.

BillF Level 7 Aug 4, 2019
1

No one is forcing you to download the app. But if you want the coupons, then you're going to have to suck it up and download it.

GwenC Level 7 Aug 4, 2019

@GwenC

For years, Joann's has emailed coupons that developed repeat customers.

"All of our customers are downloading our app," Amanda and the clerk at the register said.

They pressured me, essentially saying I am behind the times.

Joann's is making it difficult for customers. Not good for business.

1

I was in Food4Less, the local big box Kroger chain, and saw pasta on sale for $0.49 per pound. Then I noticed the fine print said that I had to use their app. so much for that idea.

1

It seems every business is inviting us to download their AP, if I do as they want my battery would got out in 5 minutes. I just downloaded my basics like GoogleMaps, Pandora and a couple more...

1

Wow, best read ive had allday! Theres a new term I picked up on this week, "LoadRage", I have def felt this before, and its an epidemic I read,lol And it has everything to do with having to do anything online! I have become immune to loadrage finally,lol practiceing loadrage patience has become like a marshall art for me, its to be mastered as best as to my ability,lol.👌👍

1

It should not be necessary to get store coupons without an app. The clerk was uninformed.

I've installed apps thinking they would improve my shopping experience and connection to stores - Sprouts and CVS come to mind. But the apps were klugy, and I get all news about specials and coupons from emails. So I uninstalled them.

1

We know you are not incompetent. I bet you not many there would be able to make a lovely jacket as you are making, or have the stamina for going on long hikes either.

1

I don't think anyone ( at least not people my age ) actually uses these things because they are "bloatware", or programs that provide no real functionality and take up space on your hard drive. On top of this, they can track you and gather info about your spending habits and preferences that will be used to attempt to sell more things to you in the future. This info is bought and sold to other companies that will more or less track you forever.

To many people have voluntarily turned over their privacy. And for what? So you can share cat pictures online? Most people think they are getting a good deal using facebook for free. The reality is you are getting ripped off.

1

You know you can uninstall apps once you use them, right?

1

I'm am often asked for my phone number when I purchase something, I politely say no and sometimes they try to say its required.. It's bullshit...

1

I'm very blasé about my info. I'm a statistical outlier who's broke, so I'm just a bit of random noise in their stats anyway.

Good god you. No profit in you so they won’t waste time on you 😉

1

They do but I ignore them. Never seen any advantage to sharing my preferences to the corporate global world!

1

My kroger app works wonderfully.

I have a couple of friends that work on the Kroger app, so I’ll pass that along. 😃

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