Kroger now accepting city coupons for yard waste bags, reversing earlier decision

Kroger is now accepting coupons from the city of Lexington that residents can use to get free yard-waste bags, reversing an earlier decision to reject the coupons.

City officials announced Monday that Lexington’s largest grocery store chain had opted not to participate in the popular coupon program because the city and Kroger could not come to an agreement on how much to charge the city for the bags.

The city’s annual budget for the coupon reimbursement is $175,000. Since January 2015, Kroger has received $202,924 from the city through the program. That’s roughly a third of the annual budget.

Another issue: the city doesn’t pay retailers for coupons that are left blank or have expired.

Less than 24 hours after the city made the announcement, Kroger decided to honor the city’s coupons while the government and grocery store work out an agreement.

“As we continue to work through our payment concerns, Kroger thought it was important that citizens are not inconvenienced. We absolutely agree,” said Dowell Hoskins Squire, commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works. “We appreciate Kroger’s decision to start redeeming coupons again. It’s especially important right now when the leaves are falling.”

Residents can also redeem the coupons at Walmart, Meijer, Lowe’s, Home Depot or Chevy Chase Hardware.

This story was originally published November 14, 2017 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Kroger now accepting city coupons for yard waste bags, reversing earlier decision."