I was reading the NY Times article this morning about Groupon, and some commentary entitled Who gets hurt if Groupon Collapses and I realized these articles and commentaries were solidifying an opinion that I’ve nursed in my breast since the start of the whole online-coupon service. I have irrationally felt that this was never a good idea, without thinking about why I felt that way.
I used Groupon a few times and eventually decided it wasn’t for me. For one thing, it’s just one more thing in my email every day I have to look at; that doesn’t take long, but I get a lot of email. For another, if I want to go explore, I don’t need Groupon to do so, so perhaps I’m just not the customer for them. Mostly, however, I felt that Groupon was too much work, for too little gain. The Groupons I’d been involved with were couched in “Do this, get this” type language, more like a sale at a department store. That didn’t make me want to use it. “The more you spend, the more you save!” was never a mantra that sat well.
Most of these daily deals and online coupon and the various other services that have popped up just aren’t for me. I was given a Restaurant.com gift card as a thank you gift a few years ago. On the face of it, I thought this was really cool, but then discovered that in order to use it, I have to spend money. Basically, I have to buy a coupon ahead of time, with restrictions, to the restaurant I want to go to, and all of the ones I looked at back then had a “Get x off a 2x meal” policy. This was too much work. ((As a note, if you’re getting me a gift like this, please get me something redeemable as cash, or as like-cash. Don’t make me spend money to use your gift. Thanks.))
Anyway, I can now rest on my laurels, happy in the sublime knowledge that I was TOTALLY RIGHT about Groupon.
Or I can just rest seeing that my irrational prejudices are being upheld by the market. We’ll see if that statement is actually true as their IPO moves forward.
I’m with you (although that hasn’t stopped me in the past from getting a Groupon or 2 that I had a specific plan for). I noticed something else terrifying in the article though: “Groupon uses money from new deals to pay off merchants from previous deals…” Isn’t that the exact definition of a Ponzi scheme?!
I believe that for it to be a Ponzi scheme, it has to actually hide the fact that it’s using recent revenues to settle older receipts. It’s like social security in that way.
It’s always been a time thing for me. I don’t see how these deals are cost effective when my time is involved, unless you like chasing around for deals and etc., which I don’t.