81–90 of 130 posts
Who is GlennKelman and why is he/shey only submitting redfin articles and who are redfin and why are the articles deliberately contrarian and who is upvoting them?
Glenn also won a "best startup blogger" award in seattle. He's got some really fabulous posts.
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That's not hard to find out. Glenn Kelman is the CEO of redfin, which has a very cool Google Maps-like real estate search. I haven't done business with them, but have used them as another tool during my house-buying searches. I wager that Glenn (or someone on the redfin team) is using HackerNews as yet another place to market. Personally, I don't mind. It's interesting reading.
You know I'm getting sick of the downvoting to the depths of hell any post that crosses the group-think party line of this place. I don't think that it is okay that a CEO of a commercial site is cross-posting here to boost traffic to his website. So what if you've used their services in your personal life and found them useful? How does change anything? My expectation of a site like HackeNews and SlashDot or anywhere…
Personally, I do think it's ok that a CEO is posting here, even if it is for financial gain. I feel like this site is like a tech-news link aggregator with a business spin. Having a CEO of any company is (I think) of value to the community since they can share their experiences in starting a company (it looks like Glenn Kelman was a co-founder of Plumtree as well).
In any case, if you disagree with the article (i.e., you think it's crud), then say why. Let's have the discussion. Complaining about it isn't going to get you upvotes, if that's your thing.
Take it easy. No harm, no foul.
Capitalism / evolution says they had it coming. Yes, Groupon certainly took the assholish route, but taking advantage of stupidity is within their rights, and even within expected behavior in a marketplace.
FYI for future sales through any intermediary: know your terms. If they charge $X, and you want to sell something for $X, don't do it because you'll be left with $0 (unless that's what you want). If you might not be able to handle above a certain volume of takers, restrict the number of sales.
Who is GlennKelman and why is he/shey only submitting redfin articles and who are redfin and why are the articles deliberately contrarian and who is upvoting them?
Futhermore, if he didn't post it here it may or may not ever be read. Given the great discussion happening about this particular topic, I feel that would be an unfortunate loss. From these comments I have gleaned more information on marketing and the actual costs of certain types of marketing than I have in months. Thanks GlennKelman for instigating the discussion.
The biggest goal of merchants signing up with these group buying sites is to get customers and hope that a big chunk of these turn into repeat customers. Unless the merchant is selling distressed inventory (eg: slow business hours etc.) the merchant is not making money on these deals.
And thats the number one thing we strive to accomplish at BloomSpot (shameless plug here). After all, if there's no value for the merchant in such deals, eventually, they'll just stop participating. We want to make this a win-win for both the merchant as well as the end user.
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Are you familar with the restaurant/food industry? For most places, profit margins are pretty awful. I'll admit ~14% is low for the type of venue this is, but believe me this is common
I think you're confusing gross margins on individual items with the overall profit margins. My understanding - and I'm not especially familiar with the industry - is that markup on individual items sold is high (after all, how much does a cup of coffee cost to make?), but the fixed costs - rent and employees - are also high. I'm saying the number didn't make sense because you have to look at the marginal cost of serv…
Retail is all about generating enough volume to cover fixed expenses.
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Agreed. She should have constrained what it could be applied to so she could manage her losses. If I was going to embark on a Groupon campaign, I'd want to look at how much money I would lose per Groupon and then figure out how many Groupons I could afford to sell. If you just open the floodgates without calculating how much you can afford to lose, it's not Groupons fault, it's your own. Even a layman should be able…
Angie's List (my company) has created a similar group coupon system (The Big Deal) as Groupon, but targeted to a more niche market. We actually allow companies to set a hard limit on the number of coupons that can get sold. This allows businesses to offer really great deals that they expect may do negative revenue just to bring in new customers, but control the loss with the limit. I'm surprised Groupon doesn't do th…
Making a poor business decision and then somehow blaming Groupon for it is no better than building a house in a flood plain and not having flood insurance. Groupon works wonderfully for businesses with predictable fixed costs and decreasing marginal costs - bowling alleys, stadiums, art museums etc... It does not work well at all for businesses who need to source product, prepare goods, or provide service - restauran…
It doesn't seem like Posie's is "blaming" groupon, the owner owns up to their mistakes From http://posiescafe.com/wp/?p=316# "the single worst decision I have ever made as a business owner" "we cannot afford to lose any more money on this terrible decision I made" Jessie owns up to being the one at fault here. Beyond that though, what does it say about online marketing, and our industry in general, that high pressure…
That's how capitalism has worked for hundreds of years. It was only relatively recently that western nations have slowly shifted away from this model with the publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and the Sherman Anti-Trust act in the early 1900's.
Of course you still have libertarian thinkers paid for by Koch Industries who preach that two greedy people will always cancel each other out, and benefit the market.
I just took a look at their Wikipedia entry and noticed that they received investment from Vulcan, founded by Paul Allen. No wonder they called Bill Gates a hero in their previous blog post.
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But this is exactly what a small business is buying from Groupon. If the quality of their lot is worse than other advertising, then more the reason not to partner with them.
> But this is exactly what a small business is buying from Groupon. But this is not what Groupon is billing themselves as providing though...
From the website:
Groupon for Businesses
With an unparalleled ability to drive hundreds - even thousands - of
customers through your door ...