App Kicks Back Savings To Mall Shoppers

ROSS TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- Shopkick, a free app for your smart-phone, gives you "kickbucks" for clicking on the app or just walking into a store.

Allison Robostello, of Shaler, says a girlfriend just turned her on to it.

"Before you go into a store, you'll turn it on and it will register what store you're in, and you'll get points. You get free things. She's got gift cards from it before. She's got money from it before," says Robostello.

Lots of stores are participating like Macy's, Best Buy, American Eagle and Target.

Inside the store, if you hold your phone to certain product bar codes, you get even more points without having to buy the product itself.

And here's a special deal. Just for stepping into South Hills Village or Ross Park Mall, you get 75 kickbucks.

"It's really slick," says Mike Gianoutsos, Ross Park Mall's marketing director. "You pull up the app on your smart phone and you see all the deals that are right in your location."

Gianoutsis says the mall has nine detectors that emit a sound that signals your smart phone.

So collect enough kickbucks and click the app to get the rewards.

"It varies from gift cards to a Coach handbag to a cruise," says Gianoutsos.

Obviously it's going to take a lot of kickbucks to get a cruise.

More likely, you will pick up enough to get discounts on products, $25 gift certificates and the like.
But since you don't have to spend any money to get it, it's all good.

Of course, given the technology, you will be leaving a trail of the stores and products you click on.

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