Kmart gets stung with viral internet coupons

Just last week, Kmart launched a geo-targeted email campaign with a coupon only available at certain stores. Within hours, the coupon hit the deal sites and blogs and went national in a way they clearly did not intend. What ensued was short of mayhem. Consumers were printing and attempting to redeem them at their nearest Kmart store without knowing that those stores would not accept them. Furthermore, several incidents at non-participating stores involved store-manager accusations of consumer-fraud. In one documented situation, the manager of one store even threatened to call the police on a consumer trying to redeem the coupon. Wow! Check out the full blog post here.