I heartily agree, personally.

But people often like games because of the hoops they have to jump through, not in spite of them.

Shopping is a game to many people. You can't "win" unless you get a lower price than other people.

While anecdotal, I can personally confirm this. my wife LOVES shopping for "the deal" -- it's all a game to her. I tease her a lot because there are countless times where she comes home with widgets that we don't immediately need, but were purchased solely because of their discount %.

For her, something at a low price point to begin with appears cheap, however you take that same item and slap a high MSRP on it with a 50% discount down to that same first price point... now we're talking!

All that you need to do is turn it into a real game by having a website which let's you compete against your friends and strangers for who got the "best deals". Turns it into a game that the retailer is bound to be very happy about.

A friend of mine (a woman) posted on Facebook once saying how she had saved $X by using coupons.

I replied that I saved more than that by not buying the stuff in the first place.

She couldn't understand what I was talking about.