Whether
you are an early holiday-shopper or a frequent visitor to your local mall, you
will hardly ever see your favorite stores hand money to you for simply visiting
them. Sure, they may offer you discounts
that will make your mouth water, but rarely will you see a store pay you for
walking in and not buying anything.
Until
now…
Introducing
Shopkick, the most fun way to window shop you never knew existed. Shopkick is an app that does the unthinkable:
it rewards you for setting foot in participating stores, even though you do not
make a purchase. I know, crazy right?
Before
you head out the door, let me share with you how Shopkick rewards its
users. Using the GPS on your Smartphone,
Shopkick will recognize when you have entered one the many stores that are
participating with the app, but you must have the app open, your GPS and, of
course, internet enabled on your mobile device.
Depending on the day and store, you can earn anywhere from a dime to a
dollar for just walking in.
But
wait, it doesn’t end there. If you
actually like the store, you can stick around for a little longer and go on a
little money-making scavenger hunt.
Using the app’s built-in CPU reader, you can scan the barcode of
selected items on the Shopkick app to maximize the return for your visit. Certain stores can pay around 50 cents just
to scan a single item. Imagine how much
you can make by scanning the 10-15 items stores like Target ask you to scan at
times.
I
am the typical guy who does not like shopping. On occasion, however, I look
forward to the times where I can let my wife loose in the store, and I can
begin my quest to obtain Shopkick gift card of choice. You won’t know until you try it…it could
change your shopping life!
You
may even be on the opposite end of the spectrum of guys like me where you
actually go window shopping (Shopkick in hand) and decide you are going to buy something. Why not link your credit card to Shopkick and
get even more from your visit?
Imagine
this scenario: you walk into the store (ding), you get paid. You scan a few items (ding, ding, ding), and
you get paid again. Lastly, you decide
to buy that game, snack, or blouse, and (ding) you can get paid for that as
well! It must be said, the “kicks” you
gain from purchasing are subject to the turnaround time of their return
policy. You know, so as to prevent you
sly ones from purchasing an item, getting the points, and returning those items
the next day. Shame on you for thinking
that!
On
that note, I want to warn you that scanning barcodes from a website and not on
the actual product may get you in some trouble with Shopkick. I’ve thought of trying this myself, but after
a few scans, you get an email from Shopkick where they warn you to ceases and
desist or your account will get deleted.
So, try to play fair.
Shopkick
is really a great app for the whole family!
I’ve actually had my whole family try it one time, and we had a blast
with the scavenger hunt portion of the app.
Plus, we all got paid to do so.
So
the next time you’re thinking of going to the store, don’t forget to register
for Shopkick before you walk in!
