Pokémon Go is an app that has exploded in popularity, getting users to go outside and collect virtual creatures called Pokémon – and one Edmonton business is using it as a new way to generate foot traffic.

Warp One Comics, not unlike other stores along Whyte Avenue, has window displays to attract foot traffic. These days, the store has also gone virtual and started catering directly to Pokémon Go players (known as trainers).

The store has a ‘Poke-stop’ outside (a location where trainers can go to collect items) it was generated in the game, without the store's involvement, but the business has also been buying in-game items called lures in an effort to draw the virtual creatures, and trainers.

“People get to see about a kilometer away, a large beacon that says ‘Hey, we’re sponsoring this location’,” Christopher Ehli with Warp One said.

Usually, a ‘lure’ lasts half an hour, but on the weekend, the store kept one going for an entire day, at a cost of $1.60 an hour.

“It’s driven a lot of people who wouldn’t normally come into our business, into our business, even if it’s just something in the augmented reality world,” Ehli said.

Plus, there’s also a virtual ‘gym’ at the store, a place where trainers can battle to see whose Pokémon are stronger.

There are a number of the so-called gyms throughout Edmonton, in a variety of locations – including in the middle of the cemetery on 107 Avenue.

Ehli said gym locations were carried over from another augmented reality app the developers had previously created.

“It was absolutely not manually placed there,” Ehli said.

Since it was released in early July, a number of stories have surfaced over where the game was being played, including the Holocaust Museum in the United States, and Auschwitz – officials at both locations have issued statements asking people going to both locations to not play the game while inside.

The app which pre-dated Pokémon Go tracked foot traffic volume – and Ehli said there is a way to request a gym be removed online by providing some identifying information.

“The exact name of the Poke-stop, and the GPS location, and a description of why you want it removed,” Ehli said.

With files from Jeremy Thompson