so obviously it wasn’t stellar.

Thats the impression I have, too.
So you had to buy those tokens from a shop, and if you purchase a good you give them back to the shop on top of the price. And then the shop does what with them? Sell them again to someone else? And of course they hand all the money from it to the tax office, right? Which would work just as well without those tokens...
Ma be they got rid of them soon because the noticed its just a epic waste of time and money. :)