RETAIL/LEISURE

School Aid: The Catalina Marketing Corp. in Anaheim has found a way to incorporate its supermarket check-stand coupons into a promotional program aiding schools.

Giant Food Inc., a regional supermarket chain in the Washington and Baltimore areas, has sponsored a program in which it donates money for computer equipment to schools based on grocery receipts the schools collect from shoppers. About 2% of the receipts’ total goes to the schools for purchase of Apple and IBM computers and software.

Now Giant Food is expanding its “Apples for the Students” program with Catalina’s computer-generated check-stand coupons. Customers give their Catalina-produced manufacturers’ coupons to the schools, and the manufacturers donate the full face value of the coupons to the program. In two years, the Giant chain has given away $13 million in computer equipment.