No more bargains lost in the laundry
LOS ANGELES--It's the discount hunter's nightmare. You get to the cashier sweating, with a cart sagging under the mountain of sodas, washing detergent and toilet paper that will be sooo cheap with those little coupons you cut out of the mail in the morning.
You load everything onto the conveyor belt, browse your pockets, purse, wallet and your pockets again for the precious pieces of paper. As the groaning of the long line behind you increases, you realize that the inconceivable has happened: You have forgotten your coupons at home--again.
Brent Dusing, CEO of the San Jose-based company Moonstorm, went through that scenario one too many times. "Paper coupons are very 20th century," he said during the OnHollywood conference here. "You leave them on your refrigerator magnet, drop them between the seats of your car or wash them in your blue jeans."
Dusing's weariness of lost bargain opportunities led to the creation of Cellfire, a free mobile software application that stores discount coupons on cell phones.
The beta version is currently running on Cingular in California only. The final product will be available for download nationally and through several operators in June, said Dusing. Among the advertisers are TGI Friday's, Supercuts and Hollywood Video.
The deals can be national or local. When the program is downloaded from Moonstorm's Web site, it asks for the phone owner's ZIP code, which can be changed whenever one goes travelling. Find an interesting discount and the program lists the stores in the area where it can be used.
There is a hitch, though. If you have a habit of sneaking into your neighbors' mailboxes to snatch their coupons and use the offer twice, that practice will become harder. Each coupon has a number that has to be presented to and registered by the cashier. The offer disappears when you have used it or it passes the expiration date.
