There are quite a few self-proclaimed coupon queens on the Internet, and while I’ll leave it to them to duke it out for the title, here’s a heads up on the new 99-cent Coupon Queen app for iPhone and iPod Touch. This app is from her royal highness Susan Samtur, the frugal shopper behind online coupon club CouponQueen.com. But let me tell you, savvy shoppers, that the Coupon Queen app is not worth a download.
Coupon Queen’s biggest drawback is its lack of stores. Searching for stores near my apartment, Coupon Queen gives the closest match as a Walgreens more than a mile a way. I literally live across the street from a Jewel-Osco grocery store. Coupon Queen doesn’t include Jewel, or any of its sibling stores (it’s part of the SuperValu family, which also runs Albertsons, Cub and Shop’n Save stores, to name a few) in the app. Coupon Queen does recognize Dominick’s (also known as Safeway and Tomthumb, and listed multiple times as such) but only included one coupon for the store—$2 off my next shopping order, but with no instructions on how to redeem the deal. For Walgreens, the app focused specifically on food products, which is probably the only thing I don’t buy at the drugstore.
The location issue isn’t a Chicago-specific problem, either. Testing some former zip codes, Walgreens appeared across the board, but it was the only result for the entire Kansas City-metro area. Users in Omaha, Nebraska, will fare better as the app recognizes Bakers stores, and includes a large variety of deals, which is only indicative of how the app is *supposed* to work. Before downloading the app, I’d recommend you visit Samtur’s website to do a zip code search. You’ll be able to see what nearby stores are included in Coupon Queen’s database, along with the included deals, without dropping a cent on this app.
