They’re talking about installment plans through your credit card. You pay a fee to split a charge into monthly installments, usually of your choosing. By paying the monthly installment and the rest of your balance from other charges, you can avoid interest kicking in, even while you owe the full amount. The fee is usually a % of the purchase, like 3% or 1% per month or something.
It can make sense on a large one-time purchase, but it’s weird to do it for frequent purchases like groceries.
I agree it is, but if you spend that amount regularly, it’d be better to try to reduce your budget, painful as it may be, than to snowball toward ever-increasing payment obligations that match or surpass your monthly total for grocery trips anyway.
These articles make it seem like it’s a routine. If it’s for one-time temporary relief, then that’s another thing.