I got a Shopkick account in middle school. My parents and all of my friends teased me about always having my phone out at the mall trying get my Shopkick points or “kicks” as Shopkick calls them. Now, as a freshman in college, Shopkick has become a slight obsession of mine. It’s a great way to pass the time if I want to get off campus, a great way to get exercise, and a great way to get free Starbucks. That’s right. Free Starbucks.
Shopkick is an app that rewards users for walking into stores. Users don’t even have to buy anything! All users have to do is open the app, turn on their Bluetooth, and wait for the points to roll in. Also, if users take a picture of the barcode of a specific daily product, they can get more points. Once a user gets a certain number of points, he or she can redeem those points for a gift card or item, like a restaurant gift card or a Vespa (okay, the Vespa requires almost two million Shopkick points, which might be impossible, but it’s still an option.)
The stores that partner with Shopkick include grocery stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and Hy-Vee, but the majority of Shopkick stores can be found at shopping malls: JC Penney, Macy’s, American Eagle, Vanity, and Yankee Candle, just to name a few. On a good Shopkick day, I can walk into each of these stores and get my kicks. Now that I live in Tulsa, I have to drive about 25 minutes to get to the closest mall that has these stores. This is quite a difference from my hometown in Missouri—the mall is a quick ten-minute drive from home. Needless to say, I only go to the mall to get points when there are lots of potential kicks available at the stores that day. I’ve only been to the mall in Tulsa three or four times. It’s huge, and I get lost every time I go. I have to say, getting lost in a mall trying to find specific stores is a unique way to exercise. (Along with Shopkick, I’m a little addicted to my Fitbit and always want my 10,000 daily steps.)
When I talk about Shopkick, lots of people are skeptical. They ask me if I have ever actually traded in my kicks for a reward. I answer by showing them the balance on my Starbucks Gold Card. The substantial amount of money on my Starbucks card is because of Shopkick; I have cashed in for at least eighty dollars worth of Starbucks gift cards. Maybe I should be spending my kicks on Target or Wal-Mart gift cards because I am a college student without a job, but you know, I can only brew my Keurig coffee so much before I crave a solid latte.
Although I may look silly driving by Best Buy slowly while holding my phone out the window because I don’t want to park and go inside to get my Shopkick points, the app is totally worth it. Even if a user doesn’t go to the store or the mall that often, the points accumulate, and they never expire. Just like that, a Shopkick user can cash in and start enjoying new clothes from TJ Maxx, a meal at Cheesecake Factory, free movie tickets, or, like me, free Starbucks lattes just for running daily errands. Who knows, I might even be driving that Vespa one day.
