In a world where everyone constantly tries to get you to use their app, I was surprised to find out that Target has a discount, savings app that I didn’t know about.
While in Target looking at leftover, clearance Halloween stuff, we also checked out some Christmas lights. In particular they have these new app controlled Christmas lights called Illuminate by Phillips, which are really cool and can be controlled to do all manner of different things. But, they are very pricey for Christmas tree lights.
Then, a Target employee walked by and “reminded” us that there was a 20 percent off coupon in the Cartwheel app if we were going to be buying lights. I thanked him, then as he walked away, I whipped out my phone and searched for Target Cart Wheel app, and sure enough, there is such a thing.
Cart Wheel App by Target
If you are familiar with the grocery store apps, like those from Safeway or King Soopers, the Cartwheel app works a lot like those. You scroll through a list of discounts, or coupons, and add them to your account. The difference is that the grocery story apps add those coupons to your loyalty card, so when you scan it, you get the discounts. The Cartwheel app generates a bar code on your cell phone that the Target cashier scans.
You start out with 10 slots for adding discounts, but you can “earn” others. Basically, the first time I used it, I got four new slots. One for using a discount, one for using a discount that expired within 24 hours, and so on.
Some of the discounts are pretty limited. 30 percent off of marshmallows isn’t exactly something you break down the doors to get, but 30 percent off of $100 worth of Christmas lights is a real bargain. They also routinely have 20 percent off in housewares, or 30 percent off of clothing, or whatever.
Unlike a lot of other bargain shopping discount apps, the discounts here are not available without the app. So, there is no sign, or way for the average non-app holder to get that extra 30 percent off discount. Furthermore, it works on sale prices too. So, if you can get 30 percent off Christmas decorations, that works, even if the decorations are already $5 off, or whatever.
As a double bonus, the discount stacks with your Target Red Card discount if you have one of those. So, if you buy $100 worth of electronic games, and you have a 25 percent off Cartwheel discount coupon, then you pay $75. Then, if you have a Red Card, you get 5 percent off of the $75, or $3.75 off, for a total of $71.25. Not bad, all together.
The one drawback is that the discounts are not valid online, unless they say otherwise, and I haven’t seen any of those yet, so it’s basically an in store only thing.
If you’ve got room on your mobile phone, and you shop at Target on a regular basis you should probably download it and check it out. My advice is to use it for discounts on what’s already in your cart and just use the search function to find out what there are offers for. Remember to search generically too. Sometimes there may not be a discount for Mattel, but there might be a discount for Toys, for example.
With Christmas coming up, it’s just one more way to save a little bit of money on gifts this holiday season.
