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Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

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Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#151

Post by maaku »

noodle wrote: post #150
bane wrote: post #16

I'll be honest, I know Groupon and its ilk are terrible business, but as a user of the service I've had lots of fun exploring activities and restaurants that I literally would never have bothered with or known about. In the last few weeks I've taken a Scuba lesson, a Horse Riding lesson, an intro to art class, found a couple new amazing sandwich shops. I took an amazing trip to Ireland for something like 50% off the…

> A less "grow fast and explode like a Unicorn" business model would probably make it work better for participating businesses. I know a few more local versions of groupon who went into the game with this game plan. They all failed or pivoted out of it. It seems like a product that can only succeed by going big.

It's not clear that Groupon succeeded.

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#152

Post by shostack »

sirtastic wrote: post #85
deepanchor wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experiences with Groupon mirror your own. Whenever my friends and I would show up to a business with a Groupon, we would be treated with bad attitudes, worse service and just general reluctance when the exact opposite should have been true. I mean, that is the entire point of Groupon right? To promote a business -to spread the word on the street about how great your restaurant/bowling alley/pub is. Sadly, it has b…

My experience has been different. I used a Cheesecake Factory Groupon once and was given a special meal that reflected the "value" of my Groupon. It felt like a complete rip-off on top of a restaurant that was already overpriced. $30 for Cheese, bread, and a few grapes and strawberries? I stopped using Groupon after that. It reminds me of Massdrop. You expect to get a deal by purchasing something in "mass" with other…

Yeah, this was one of my increasing issues. As soon as word got around that lots of businesses were taking a bath because they weren't getting repeat customers, or the expected alcohol sales to make up the difference, etc. because hey, shocker, Groupon purchasers were looking for low-cost deals, they started with this approach.

Groupon then became a way to drum up business when things were slow while still hopefully making some margin on them by using the cheapest ingredients, smaller portions, offering a less costly (ie. higher margin) experience, etc.

Ended up leaving a bad taste in the customers' mouth almost guaranteeing they wouldn't return.

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#153

Post by ghaff »

nate wrote: post #89
bane wrote: post #16

I'll be honest, I know Groupon and its ilk are terrible business, but as a user of the service I've had lots of fun exploring activities and restaurants that I literally would never have bothered with or known about. In the last few weeks I've taken a Scuba lesson, a Horse Riding lesson, an intro to art class, found a couple new amazing sandwich shops. I took an amazing trip to Ireland for something like 50% off the…

Thanks for posting this comment. I think you raise what most of us should really think hard about when we see the struggles Groupon is going through. We like to throw them into a big, bulk, category and dismiss the entire thing as "bad business". But just like you pointed out, you really enjoyed it as a consumer. And I know businesses that have been running groupons for years, because they also get a lot out of it in…

Kozmo also had no delivery fees as I recall. The services you mention have either delivery fees, substantially larger purchase lots, or some combination thereof.

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#154

Post by antsar »

kentt wrote: post #112
sirtastic wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience has been different. I used a Cheesecake Factory Groupon once and was given a special meal that reflected the "value" of my Groupon. It felt like a complete rip-off on top of a restaurant that was already overpriced. $30 for Cheese, bread, and a few grapes and strawberries? I stopped using Groupon after that. It reminds me of Massdrop. You expect to get a deal by purchasing something in "mass" with other…

I guess we're a bit off topic, but I look at Massdrop as a curated list of competitively priced items. I agree they're pricing isn't rock bottom, though they imply it, however, I still think it's a great service because it's always a good price and generally a good product.

How does this set it aside from Amazon, aside from "generally a good product"? Massdrop marketing seems to be all about the pricing when in reality its just a curated list of (ostensibly) good products.

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#155

Post by shostack »

ceejayoz wrote: post #7

Anyone getting their emails has known it was coming for a long time. They used up all the good places pretty quickly - they got the return customers and didn't need to re-run coupons. Now it's all weight loss scams, online courses "worth" $2k but sold for $20, and even sex toys lately.

You hit on something interesting there. If Groupon delivered great long-term value, they'd have repeat customers. But that wasn't the case. One might then think "that's fine, I'll just use it once to launch my business" and that could be fine for some time as there's always new businesses being started. However once word got around that it wasn't worth it and didn't drive repeat business, that was the other shoe dropping.

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#156

Post by coffeedrinker »

tedunangst wrote: post #101
dasboth wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my experience too. We had a 7-course taster meal in a restaurant in Shoreditch and the waitress turned from delightful to rude in an instant after hearing the word "Groupon"...

Based on her likely experience with the previous ten groupon customers, you basically announced "I intend to tip you 25% of what you were expecting."

But rudeness in wait staff is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They treat you poorly so how can they expect a generous tip?

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#157

Post by rhino369 »

nck4222 wrote: post #26
rhino369 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was a scam they would have cashed out at the top.

Well, they basically did. "Altogether, $946.8 million, or roughly 86% of the funds raised across the three investments, was paid out to Groupon directors, officers and stockholders. Just $151.4 million was retained by the company to use as working capital and for general corporate purposes." June 2011 - http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/groupon-cash-out/#AoBOlTTNEqk...

Wow I didn't know that.

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#158

Post by organsnyder »

tcdent wrote: post #136
deepanchor wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experiences with Groupon mirror your own. Whenever my friends and I would show up to a business with a Groupon, we would be treated with bad attitudes, worse service and just general reluctance when the exact opposite should have been true. I mean, that is the entire point of Groupon right? To promote a business -to spread the word on the street about how great your restaurant/bowling alley/pub is. Sadly, it has b…

This is the same reason why I'm careful which site I book hotel rooms on. Years ago I thought hotels.com was great and convenient, now I realize your experience is tainted from the moment you book with a third party. Now I make every attempt to book direct.

I had a bad experience with hotels.com a few years ago where the hotel didn't honor my request for two beds—a request that I thought was guaranteed. Reading the fine-print, I discovered that it was completely up to the hotel; not surprisingly, my booking got very low priority. I now book all travel—hotels, airfare, etc.—directly with the provider. The service ends up being a lot better, and the cost is usually the same.

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#159

Post by toomuchtodo »

justhw wrote: post #146
tcdent wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same reason why I'm careful which site I book hotel rooms on. Years ago I thought hotels.com was great and convenient, now I realize your experience is tainted from the moment you book with a third party. Now I make every attempt to book direct.

For hotels the majority of bookings come from third party sites. Why would hotels use third party sites regularly if they hate serving customers that book with them?

Some revenue is better than no revenue.

Re: Groupon Is Laying Off 1,100, Shutters Operations in 7 Countries

#160

Post by briHass »

amatix wrote: post #148
tcdent wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same reason why I'm careful which site I book hotel rooms on. Years ago I thought hotels.com was great and convenient, now I realize your experience is tainted from the moment you book with a third party. Now I make every attempt to book direct.

though, hotels often do themselves no favours here. If an aggregator has rooms for $200 a night and the hotel gets 80% of that, you'd think the hotel would take 100% of $200 from a direct booking, but often it'll be $300+... Conceptually, booking direct should be cheaper since the hotel sees all of the money (and users of an aggregator pay for the convenience/discovery/ease factor)

Haggle.

I find saying something like: "I'm confused, because I can find a better price online for this room of $XX.XX" works every time that I've used it. I've never even had to apply the additional pressure of: "It seems unnecessary, but if you can't match that, then I guess I'll have to book online."

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