Commissary shoppers have used 4.8 million digital coupons at stores since the program launched in Aug., 2012, according to the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA).
But the biggest change to the reward card program since it started is in just how many coupons are available in the system, DeCA officials said. In 2012 the system launched with 25 coupons, but today users can find an average of 150, DeCA officials said Dec. 15.
That's a big shift, especially for those of us who rely on coupons to give us that little extra savings boost each time we shop.
Officials in August said that 34 million coupons have been downloaded. That means, paired with the use number announced recently, that only about 13 percent of coupons downloaded are used.
That sounds about right to me. Think about paper coupons you clip. If you are like me, you have a giant stack of those you either toss at the end of the month or send to a friend stationed overseas (where coupons can be used at commissaries up to six months after their expiration date). You probably don't use nearly all the coupons you cut.
As of early November there were 320,000 shoppers registered with the Rewards card program.
In this house I use it through an app on my iPhone. I don't carry the plastic card with me, and instead ask my checker at the commissary to enter my phone number (the card's ID) into her system.
The app, which I've reviewed over here, is pretty user friendly. My primary complaint isn't with the app itself - but with the abysmal cell reception I get in our commissary on Fort Campbell. If I don't remember to look up coupons (and remember what I have) before I enter the store, I'm using the whole thing on blind faith, since nothing will load in there.
