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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

#61

Post by toomuchtodo »

hnal943 wrote: post #41
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…

I stopped using groupon because of the near-universal resentment I felt from the employees of the stores selling the groupons. Clearly, these businesses weren't getting the value they thought they would get, but I wonder how much of that was the way they treated the new customers that the groupon generated.

I think it was a feedback loop. More often then not, Groupon's provided no return business, so you'd continue to lower you expectations about the people who were buying them.

I'd compare it to how hotels will sometimes give you the worst rooms if you booked through an online site that gets heavily discounted inventory.

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

#62

Post by saalweachter »

mooreds wrote: post #9
kardos wrote: post #2

Looks like businesses have collectively realised that groupon is a miserable deal and it's finally caught up with them, after having been running on fumes [1] for a couple years now. [1] http://blog.bodellconsulting.com/2013/03/01/groupon-a-bad-de...

My brother in law runs a restaurant back east, and he said that Groupon has been a great channel for driving business. Anecdata, I know. I think there's a business opportunity to help people running groupons capture the most value out of the leads (at the least, sign them up for an email newsletter).

It could also vary widely based on whether or not advertising was a business's greatest problem. If your biggest problem was that not enough people know about or had tried your restaurant, Groupons probably did a lot of good.

If your biggest problem was that your food wasn't really that great or your prices were too high or you were in a terribly inconvenient location or your staff was unbearable, then getting more people in the door doesn't really help anything in the long run.

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

#63

Post by loco5niner »

hnal943 wrote: post #41
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…

I stopped using groupon because of the near-universal resentment I felt from the employees of the stores selling the groupons. Clearly, these businesses weren't getting the value they thought they would get, but I wonder how much of that was the way they treated the new customers that the groupon generated.

I got a groupon(or similar) for a straight-blade shave. The guy was using replaceable blades, was obviously using and old blade, and absolutely tore my face up. Nicks and blood everywhere. When I didn't give him a tip, I could tell he was upset.

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

#64

Post by deepanchor »

hnal943 wrote: post #41
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…

I stopped using groupon because of the near-universal resentment I felt from the employees of the stores selling the groupons. Clearly, these businesses weren't getting the value they thought they would get, but I wonder how much of that was the way they treated the new customers that the groupon generated.

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 been my experience that a lot of the businesses that sign up for Groupon don't know what they are getting themselves into and as a result, take out their frustrations on customers when they can't break even for the month... which is, I think, a fatal flaw in the human psychology aspect of the business model. I'd rather just pay the sticker price and enjoy better service than have to deal with all that.

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

#65

Post by [deleted] »

eloisant wrote: post #48
mikepurvis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always seemed strange to me that the coupons were essentially "get a $30 gift card for $15, to use whenever", when it seems like a lot of the deals could actually be good for both parties if structured more rigidly. For example, selling a $5 cinema pass for a specific day, time, and show. So they book the whole screening room, sell exactly as many passes as there are seats, pack the house, and hand you your popcor…

I think a lot of the hype and interest generated by Groupon is that they were very good deals for the consumers. If they were just regular coupons, consumers would simply dismiss it with a "meh" and forget about Groupon.

[deleted]

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

#66

Post by fredkbloggs »

adventured wrote: post #15
antidaily wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it running on fumes? They still have significant revenues and loyal customers and a million sales people.

It's not running on fumes. It would have been more accurate to say that it is growing more slowly (and as of the last few quarters, has seen its growth flat-line). 2012: $2.33b in sales 2013: $2.57b in sales 2014: $3.19b in sales Their biggest problem is the inability to achieve profitability on $3 billion in sales after so many years in business. They still have $1.1 billion in cash however, and have reduced their b…

> Their biggest problem is the inability to achieve profitability on $3 billion in sales after so many years in business. They still have $1.1 billion in cash however

Doesn't this just mean the investors would be better off winding it down and investing the $1.1b in something that is profitable, or at the very least has a higher ceiling? It doesn't seem all that likely that the latest round of cutbacks is going to turn this into a profitable company and even if it does, the scope for profits is very limited. As you say, they've been going for a long time and nothing is really getting better. Even the 2.5% you get from the S&P 500 would be a better use for that billion in cash.

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

#68

Post by [deleted] »

hnal943 wrote: post #41
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…

I stopped using groupon because of the near-universal resentment I felt from the employees of the stores selling the groupons. Clearly, these businesses weren't getting the value they thought they would get, but I wonder how much of that was the way they treated the new customers that the groupon generated.

[deleted]

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

#70

Post by nadams »

hnal943 wrote: post #41
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…

I stopped using groupon because of the near-universal resentment I felt from the employees of the stores selling the groupons. Clearly, these businesses weren't getting the value they thought they would get, but I wonder how much of that was the way they treated the new customers that the groupon generated.

> I stopped using groupon because of the near-universal resentment I felt from the employees of the stores selling the groupons. Clearly, these businesses weren't getting the value they thought they would get

I think that's just a misunderstanding on the stores part. A groupon is just another form of advertising (which costs money) - but businesses believe that by offering groupons they will come out ahead.

I've personally gone to places I wouldn't have normally because of groupon and usually spent extra.

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