[Mark Slaney]

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/groupon-fights-life-daily-deals-060235541.html

 
 

[Craigp]

Well then sent alot of small businesses to the wall.

Lets hope this fad of exploiting small businesses with this dumb model is over.

[Simon Gerrard]

Yeah, good riddance to them.

[Allan Simmons]

Yep, finally enough brown stuffs hitting their whurly thing.  Good riddance, it just made people think you could get anything for nothing.

[Kev Loomes]

Totally agree. It did 2 things:

1) Tell the public that everything can be had for next to nothing (and so breeds this mentality in to normal everyday behaviour).
2) Extract money from the pockets of hard working (sometimes vulnerable) individuals, with empty promises.

See ya Groupon

[Adrian Marsh]

As I've posted on other forums, I REALLY hate these vulture companies that feed off your money. If, at last, they have had their day then so much the better.

I can't get my head around some who use this type of "marketing" to build a customer base. It only attracts price shoppers, they very same customer we (mostly) don't want.

[Paul Moss]

I agree with the above

[derek west]

i know a few who swear by it. 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Some advertisers see it as an easy way to get work if the advertiser is clever they can make it work but groupon made the rules to suit themselves setting some prices to make it work for them and not the advertiser.

This kind of advertising IMO has put the industry back just like the half price in your area cleaners did.

Shaun

[Phillip Mold]

What can I say? I'm gutted. I missed out on the opportunity to build my business.

[robert meldrum]

As previously posted............we have people charging as little as the Groupon deals via Gumtree and on the 'net. One has a fully wrapped van and boasts about their T/M which is what they mainly use.

I think their name is ............Perfectly Clean

[Allan Simmons]

This kind of advertising IMO has put the industry back just like the half price in your area cleaners did.

Shaun

Spot on!

[Paul Clapham]

..........shame if they do go , I'll miss all the golf , and horse riding deals !

[JandS]

Some of the meal deals are good and the holiday
breaks too.
Probably works for them but not for trades people.
It has its place, after all we are all price shoppers.

[Paul Clapham]

My wife and I are going on a hack next week which I purchased from Groupon , The stable sold over 800 hacks @ £18 each usual price £40, when Groupon take their cut + vat , the stable are going to be working at a loss, as there will be 2 leaders with us for 90 mins at min wage , its the first time they have done the deal don't think they will again .

[Buckland]

The yahoo report is about the us company (shares gone from $20 a year ago to $2.76 now - ouch) but there is no reason to suppose its any different for them here - worse probably as our wild frontier of consumer law is slightly less wilder than the US

The report says:
"The top reasons cited were high commission rate and low rate of repeat customers gained through offering a promotion.
The survey also found that 32 percent of the merchants reported losing money on the promotions, and nearly 40 percent said the Groupon offer was less effective than other types of marketing.
"I've always maintained that this is a hype driven business built on an unsustainable business model both for the merchants and for Groupon," said Rakesh Agrawal, principal analyst at reDesign mobile, a San Francisco consulting firm.

Lets hope the public will forget the 'get something valuable for nothing business principle' as quickly as they took it up...

[Adrian Marsh]

I have actually done several "after Groupon" cleans recently. As soon as the client has informed me they had "A Deal" done a few months ago and weren't happy with it, I always state that there's no way I'm going to be anywhere near the Groupon price. Strange but I haven't lost one yet.

[Neil Williams]

Lets hope this fad of exploiting small businesses with this dumb model is over.

Doubtful looking at the profile history of the guy running Groupon.
Personally I couldn't give a hoot either way. Business owners who were stupid enough to be prepared to work for 25% or less of normal profit margins, or customers who think you can get something for nothing without there being reprocussions somewhere along the line.

[derek west]

not without a fight there not.

http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/manchester-special/Deluxe-Home-Brands/13055896?nlp=&CID=UK_CRM_1_0_0_320&a=2703

877 vax's sold. thats 877 jobs we aint competing for this xmas.

[AshWhite]

not without a fight there not.

http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/manchester-special/Deluxe-Home-Brands/13055896?nlp=&CID=UK_CRM_1_0_0_320&a=2703

877 vax's sold. thats 877 jobs we aint competing for this xmas.

I might even buy one for my 'maintenance' cleans