Can't afford a smartphone? That's going to cost you.
Access to services, benefits and discounts is migrating to mobile apps — and leaving the needy behind.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/04/smart-phone-access-unequal/
https://archive.ph/r1VhF
The gleaming blue booths popped up this year in busy urban spaces such as Dupont Circle, Columbia Heights and downtown D.C., providing convenient, clean and free toilets for people who find themselves in urgent need. Which is a blessed relief — except for those who don’t carry phones, a group particularly populated by old folks, the homeless and the poor. To get into one of about a dozen freestanding Throne bathrooms in the District and certain suburbs, you need to unlock the door with either a QR code or a text sent to the company. Under the provider’s deal with the D.C. government, which signed a $410,000 contract for the first year of service (since extended into next year), Throne offers access for the phone-less via a free entry card available at senior centers, libraries and programs for the homeless.
But according to Jessica Heinzelman, the co-founder of Throne, only 63 cards have been distributed, which suggests that a rapidly growing problem of unequal access won’t be solved with plastic. Too often now, in matters meaningful and meaningless, the good stuff is reserved for people who have smartphones or other digital tools. From parking garages to airplane movie offerings, it pays to be digitally equipped. More to the point, it hurts to be in the technological slow lane. Consider how store deals and discounts are distributed these days: Printed circulars are fading out or gone; instead, would-be customers receive offers via text or email. Nice and clean, but think about who is left out — the very people who could benefit most from cheaper goods.
A public restroom in Fairfax operated by Throne Labs uses smartphones as the primary way to gain access. (Courtesy of Throne Labs)
A few weeks ago, when I pulled into the parking lot at the discount supermarket I frequent, an attendant was warning customers that henceforth, all motorists would be charged $50 if they didn’t check in via QR code for free parking every time they entered. An elderly woman protested that she didn’t have a smartphone and didn’t know how to use a QR code. The response, to a woman who had considerable trouble moving around, was: “You can go park in the neighborhood.” New technologies require new tools, obviously. When the telephone replaced the telegraph, people who didn’t quickly adopt the new device were at a disadvantage. When cars replaced horses as the primary means of getting around, those who couldn’t afford the new technology were literally left behind.
It’s hardly surprising that restaurants are moving toward easily updated QR code menus, or that airlines are forgoing seatback screens in favor of passengers streaming entertainment on their personal screens. Fully 91 percent of Americans have smartphones, up from 35 percent in 2011, according to Pew Research Center studies. The speed of near-universal adoption is astounding, rivaling previous champions of such swift success such as radio and color TV. Still, it’s worth lingering on just who is in that remaining 9 percent: It’s overwhelmingly those who are 65 or older, poor people and — particularly — homeless people. When benefits and services go digital, they pay the price. (My father, despite being an early computer adopter, refused to join the ranks of the cell-phoned because he was a privacy zealot and didn’t like the idea of being tethered to a tracking device)
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Do I even want to know what a "Swish payment" is???
I'm very good at loosing or breaking personal electronics such as phones, cameras, laptops, etc., so they have to be cheap. Rugged slab type smart phones are not cheap.
My current flip phone was free, diverted from the e-waste bins. It replaced a flip phone I dropped in a fish pond. (All I had to do was transfer the sim card, which was not damaged.)
The phone previous to that, I lost. Or maybe it was stolen. Someone found it and even answered once when I called and then hung up. For whatever reason I guess they decided it would be better to throw it away than return it.
I had a slab-type smart phone before that which did not survive a long fall onto rocks.
Etc.
All my medical records before 2014 or so are apparently lost or inaccessible which actually makes me kind of happy. I feel no need to explain some of my scars to doctors, therapists, or anyone else.
I'm glad the apps and technology have been good to you. Please don't leave the rest of us behind because it's convenient. 
I've heard prices are about 50% lower with the app.
I don't feel like installing all those apps...sigh...
OK Shoot me...junk food...
I do have an HEB app, that I used mostly during Covid. But when I was in the store trying to bring up their digital coupon, it kept redirecting me to a store 70 miles away! Different stores have different products and the product with the coupon wasn't available at the store 70 miles away! I did get 50% off the product when I checked out, so I did get my discount.
Oh well, that's life. I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. HEB has kinda gotten away from those digital deals, or maybe they just quit advertising them in the aisles.
Their weekly ads haven't had paper coupons in years. Instead, it's a listing of sales (which require the usual store card) and 4U - coupons you can only get when "clipping" items in the app or scanning codes in the weekly ad with your phone. Screenshot from my phone below to show how it works.
And I always think, "So, if you don't have a smart phone, groceries are more expensive?" And they're already expensive. So wtf.
As ever, being poor will cost you.
There was one in the town where I grew up.
They were getting smoked by Jewel, then Safeway bought them.
Safeway changed the business model (price exclusively over quality) and this market rebelled.
Market share plummeted & the store closings began. Last store closed over 10 years ago.
Whole Foods bought several of the locations.
My mom mostly shopped at Jewel because it was a shorter drive, but went to Dominicks for meat fairly often. Or, I was sent there once I got my license. 
