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Some Shops Cashing In On Pokémon Go Craze, Offering Players Discounts

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pokémon Go could be good for local businesses that are savvy to the latest fad and technology.

"You think there are real business opportunities here?" KDKA money editor Jon Delano asked Dan Robinson, who owns Kaleidoscope Café in Lawrenceville.

"Oh, I do, I do," replied Robinson.

Robinson is trying to cash in on the mobile game, but first, he says, you need to know the game.

Players download an app on their smartphones that helps them identify and capture Pokémon -- or Japanese created animals -- as the players walk or travel out in the real world.

"It's pretty addictive. Like, over there, I almost caught a dragonite," says Kevin Zhang of Shadyside.

Players do seem addicted.

"It's a good way to meet other people who have the same hobby," adds Kate Sweeney of Regent Square.

Like Kaleidoscope, Biddle's Escape, a coffee shop in Regent Square, is already a "Poke Stop."

So how can local businesses take advantage of this Pokémon craze?

Well, some are lucky.

They've been identified as "Poke Stops."

But then the issue is how do you get the Pokémon players inside the store like Biddle's Escape.

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Businesses say they've got a couple strategies to do just that.

Robinson saw Pokémon players stop outside his café but not enter it.

"So, we decided to give a 10 percent discount for anyone's that playing," said Robinson.

Customers love it, saying they are more likely to go to a place that offers a discount.

"Totally. Yeah. Sure," said Erica Quigley of Etna.

Besides offering discounts, shops can also place something called a "lure," which attracts the Pokémon animals that players want to catch.

"We were walking yesterday and we saw a lure up on a church, and we specifically changed where we were walking to up to the church," recalled Ty Sweeney of Regent Square.

"So I can see if someone is walking around in the neighborhood, they can say, "Oh there's a lure at Biddle's, we'll come to Biddle's and sit for a while."

That's exactly what Biddle's owner Joe Davis hopes, and he promises more for Pokémon players.

"Probably some discounts and probably giveaways, trinkets of some kind. I have lots of stuff to give away," adds Davis.

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