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10 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JANUARY 2020 THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! Reader Disagrees: Says App Is Great! By Steve Benoff Au contraire, mon ami. Well, Steve Katz didn't really start his email to me that way, and I don't even know if he speaks French. In fact, my French was so bad in college I had to cheat on a test to get through my foreign language requirement. But that's the only time I cheated in college. For the life of me, I can't justify taking French rather than Spanish which would have been far more helpful as a construction subcontractor in Southern California. Nevertheless, Steve has a retort to my December review of the Albertson's app. Since this is the first time in over three years of writing this column that I've had a written disagreement with my opinion of an app, I'm going to quote his email in full. "After reading your app article in the Breeze I just had to write to you. My wife and I have been using the app for almost two years. We save between $30 to $60 a week! Our record saving was $78! We always joke that Albertsons just bought us lunch(es) out. As the savings are weekly, which is a lot for us on a fixed income. "As the app is simple AI. They track our buying habits and offer personalized savings. We even asked the manager if there was a coupon for Slim Fast. The next week we had a $2 coupon online for us. The savings cover everything in the store including OTC medications, meat department, my wife's makeup and hair products, even booze. They also give us points on what we spend and special offers. The points can be used for cash savings and/or free products. Seven points is a cash saving of $10. "I hope you will consider amending your review, as saving $200 a month on groceries is a big deal for us on a fixed income. "I will agree that the list we print out doesn't follow the store flow, but for saving $200 a month on groceries, we can handle it. "The checkout register knows what special priced item we have in our cart and deducts them and any free items or cash savings." Steve, consider my review amended. I'm not changing my grade, however. As I stated last month, we react to apps from our own particular point of view. I'm not into coupons and that affects my view of the typical grocery store app. All of our foibles can always be blamed on our mothers. That, no doubt, has influenced my view of coupons. I remember taking my mother to the market and having to wait for her to go through her coupons in each aisle looking for particular products, and then waiting even longer as she presented each coupon to the cashier. I'm not talking ancient history; this is only 20 years ago. Before that I didn't have time to deal with coupons. Since then, I've looked for stores with cheaper prices rather than use coupons. That's why I usually shop at Walmart. But Steve emphasizes my point about individual approaches to apps. Steve would likely give the Albertsons app an A. Clearly his view of grocery store apps are more in line with the general view. That's why grocery store apps emphasize coupons and not the attributes I consider worthwhile. So, while I'm not changing my grade, which after all is merely my own opinion, I will concede the point that most people would likely agree with Steve rather than me. If you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. Steve vs Steve

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