Paper coupons can boost a retailer’s appeal to customers who are older or who don’t have the latest iPhone, according to Kroger executives. Kroger Chairman and CEO Ron Sargent said the company is reintroducing paper coupons in every store as part of an effort to simplify its promotional offers. “Our customers are recognizing these changes, and they’re giving us credit for them,” Sargent said. “We know this because customer price perception improved in nearly every division this quarter, and we saw another quarter of sequential improvement in share.” Sargent said that he had talked with “hundreds and hundreds” of customers over the past six months and heard that older consumers who may not be as digitally proficient as younger ones want to get the same deals that are available on smartphones. “And so we wanted to give them an equal playing field,” Sargent said. “And I think the end result, we’ll get incremental business from that.” Sargent said he also found that customers “who don’t have a $600 iPhone” were disenfranchised by digital coupons. “So, we’re really trying to appeal to a broader customer segment, not only people that are very digitally savvy, but also people who are not or not able to be,” Sargent said. David Kennerley, chief financial officer at Kroger, said the benefits of paper coupons are measurable in terms of increases in unit sales and positive feedback from customers.