Warren Berry wrote about Cellfire, a neat service that sends money-saving coupons to mobile phones:
Why is it that shoppers who produce coupons at checkout time are always looked at as if they were dinosaurs by younger consumers impatiently waiting in line behind them?
Maybe the young shoppers will start saving some money, too, now that the coupon has gone cellular. Using a free service from a new company called Cellfire, they can download coupon numbers onto their cell phones, show the code number to a salesclerk and get the same price break as the person clutching those ragged old paper coupons.
Right now it's a free service, as long as you have established a text service with a phone company, point out the consumerists who run the Telecommunications Research & Action Center (TRAC.org).
Today. About two-thirds of the users of these new "mobile coupons" are between the ages of 18 and 34, Cellfire says. That's probably because they're accepted at Papa John's Pizza, Domino's Pizza, Subway, TGI Friday's and Cold Stone Creamery, and they work with Alltel, AT&T and Verizon Wireless data plans.
Long term. With easy-to-use "mobile coupons," retailers may enjoy redemption rates in the double digits instead of the paltry 1 percent they get now, according to Frost & Sullivan, the market consultants. And it'll be a lot cheaper than mailing them addressed "ATTN RESIDENT."
