I'm not sure if they have this in the states, but here in Taiwan convenience stores have a genius invention. They provide these little stickers every time you make a purchase over a certain value. Usually that value is somewhere between 2 and 3 dollars. You then collect those points and you get can get things.
The things you can get are pretty varied. It can be some free drinks or snacks from the convenience store. Better for me is it can be some good deals at other restaurants and shops. I haven't paid for Coldstone in years as I always use a coupon from having enough of these stickers.
The most popular thing to get with enough of these stickers are usually some little "cute" toy that on that convenience store has. Usually a toy of whatever is popular at that time (angry birds, hello kitty, etc.) and similar to the type of thing that you'd get in a happy meal from mcdonald's. Needless to say, I don't collect these.
However these stickers are very powerful things. They always make people spend enough money to get one. For example somebody might just want one drink, but they will scour the store looking for something else they can buy just to meet the minimum requirement to get these stickers. I do get sad that my friends don't see that they are being tricked, but on the other hand it works out for me as they always say "do you want anything?" so that they can meet the quota.
Recently though, I have noticed that this also makes people go to only certain convenience stores. A week or two ago I was walking through part of the city with a friend. It was a particularly hot day with the sun scorching down on the city. My friend was visibly in pain as she suffered from dehydration. But while thirsty, she refused to stop anywhere unless it was the specific convenience store chain that she collects the stickers from. This is when I learned that while in Taipei there are always 2 or 3 convenience stores on every block, there is not always the specific kind you want. Granted before then I had never looked for a specific convenience store as that would take the word "convenience" out of the whole thing.
