Groupon Responds: Too much of a good thing? • Hacker News Board

Re: Groupon Responds: Too much of a good thing?

#51

Post by smackfu » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 5:16 PM UTC

maddalab wrote: post #14

I do not get it. So groupon responds with some marketing spiel about how their offering have worked for a number of businesses, and like he say some corporate BS about win-win. Nothing about speaking to the specific small business owners that got it wrong by using groupon and what groupon has done to prevent other small business owners from failing in the same manner. How groupon has extended or enhanced their offeri…

Yeah, it's basically a standard blog BS post bragging about their service with a bit about the controversy tacked on the front so it gets linked all over.

Re: Groupon Responds: Too much of a good thing?

#52

Post by sokoloff » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 5:41 PM UTC

megablast wrote: post #25

enjo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it IS the shops fault. They entered into a bad deal that they apparently didn't have the fundamental business to handle. It was a terrible business move on the shop owners part, but I don't see a single thing that groupon did wrong in this case. It's not their job to audit your business and make sure you can handle it. They're in the business of brokering specials to large groups on behalf of the business. That's…

Sure, it is the shop owners fault, she admitted that. Still, a partner that drives you out of business is not good to have. This is not good for groupon, they should have done things better, made sure that the owner could afford the deal for one. If margins are that thin, maybe they should be looking at not such a good deal, or no deal at all.

Many people are casting Groupon as a "partner", not as an advertising vendor, which is all I think they really are.

A partner may understand my business and be in a position to help me improve it. A vendor is not. When I buy yellow pages ads, AdWords, or direct mail postcards, I don't expect my supplier to give me advice on my business. Why should Posie's expect Groupon to give them financial advice?

Re: Groupon Responds: Too much of a good thing?

#53

Post by exit » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 5:54 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #35

alanstorm wrote: post #17

Smart of them to respond quickly and swiftly, but the core issue of this specific case wasn't addressed. A naive business owner was aggressively sold into a plan that wasn't sustainable for their business, and by all accounts wasn't aware of the cap system which Andrew says "has always been Groupon policy to allow merchants" to have. So the PR responses read wells to people who have already decided Groupon did no wro…

"A naive business owner was aggressively sold into a plan that wasn't sustainable for their business" I agree with you here. However, as someone who has been on the ad sales side of the equation, I can tell you that all sales are emotional and the more time you spend explaining to people how to properly price out the product the less likely they are to buy. Literally the more rational you make it for the person to bu…

> because the rational part of the brain isn't the part of the brain that buys stuff.

i think you might also be admitting that most stuff isn't worth buying.

Re: Groupon Responds: Too much of a good thing?

#54

Post by Jun8 » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 6:17 PM UTC

Excuse me, but this post just doesn't cut it. He seems mystified by the bad experience although such stories are too often heard to be a rare, mystifying occurrence.

Actually, this is a very good opportunity for Groupon to create a new revenue stream. For a (small( fee they can offer consulting services for small business. Say, for $250, before you invoke the Groupon horde, you have Groupon prepare a brief case study on your with expected numbers of customers, expected revenue, etc. It's easy for Groupon to create this, since they have all the data. Not only this will stop the bad publicity ("Hey, you had a chance to get consulting, but chose not to"), then they can turn around and sell these reports to larger consulting firms, too.

Re: Groupon Responds: Too much of a good thing?

#55

Post by gabrielroth » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 7:23 PM UTC

100k wrote: post #48

People who are blaming the coffee shop owner are missing why this incident is bad for Groupon. First of all, she acknowledges that it was her fault for not doing the math. However, what she learned from the experience (besides losing $8,000) is that Groupon customers are worthless. They are cheap (duh) and they don't come back -- probably off to the next Groupon deal. [1] These are not people you want in your restaur…

>In fact, it gives me a startup idea: the OPPOSITE of Groupon. People pay extra for a limited number of guaranteed spots at exclusive establishments.

If exclusive restaurants wanted to do this, they could easily do it themselves. (The fact that they largely don't is interesting and much-studied by economists.) What value would your hypothetical startup provide them that they couldn't attain simply by raising their prices or charging extra 'table fees' for popular times?

Re: Groupon Responds: Too much of a good thing?

#56

Post by harryh » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 7:32 PM UTC

gabrielroth wrote: post #55

100k wrote: post #48

People who are blaming the coffee shop owner are missing why this incident is bad for Groupon. First of all, she acknowledges that it was her fault for not doing the math. However, what she learned from the experience (besides losing $8,000) is that Groupon customers are worthless. They are cheap (duh) and they don't come back -- probably off to the next Groupon deal. [1] These are not people you want in your restaur…

>In fact, it gives me a startup idea: the OPPOSITE of Groupon. People pay extra for a limited number of guaranteed spots at exclusive establishments. If exclusive restaurants wanted to do this, they could easily do it themselves. (The fact that they largely don't is interesting and much-studied by economists.) What value would your hypothetical startup provide them that they couldn't attain simply by raising their pr…

Interestingly enough, Aviary (Grant Achatz's new restaurant in Chicago) will be charing more $ for more highly desirable reservation times. Curious to see how this will work out for them.