The Decline of Groupon...What Happened?
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- čas přidán 19. 09. 2023
- Groupon has fallen significantly since its peak over a decade ago. This video attempts to explain why it was once considered so promising, and why it has not lived up to those expectations.
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Who else used a Groupon for a local business for the deal AND KNEW they would probably never return and pay full price??
but they did return and pay full price
To be fair that's always the risk of normal sales/deals/coupons.
I used it a little bit, never thinking of future patronage. But, since I can't keep track of coupons to save my life, I gave up on it. The restaurants that have kept me around offer things I'm always needing: good flavor, good regular prices, fast service, and friendly meeting spaces.
I mean, I used a Groupon only ever for a restaurant I found before the offer and continued after until it went out of business so. :V
If the restaurant was great, ofc I'd return, if not, I might not, unless it's affordable etc!
All I remember about Groupon is how many people complained that a business wouldn’t honor their Groupon. There were enough instances that I was wary of even trying it.
Yep. Happened to me. Really frustrating.
Never happened to me. One hotel even accommodated me when my groupon was soon to expire and they were fully booked.
Happened to me as well. Tried to obtain a refund but they denied my PayPal claim.
You had to call them and ask and most of the time it was like no
Same. It was great until companies began rejecting them.
I remember purchasing a Groupon for a shooting range date years ago. We showed up and we’re told we would just have to wait until one of the ranges were open because we weren’t members. We sat in the car for HOURS! Even fell asleep at one point before we gave up and left. We tried it again a few weeks later and the same thing happened! Eventually I found out that is how they treated Groupon customers because they really didn’t want us coming there. Never bought another Groupon after that
Well that's just rude in general. Groupon or not
The setup is bad because the company already has what little money they are going to get out of the Groupon sale. So it works out better for them to block you out and let others take that range who won't pay up until they get it. They already have your money, but not everyone else's.
Bruh, I make $50/hour. How many hours is your time worth that you can spend hours in a car waiting so that you can save $20? Worse, you gave up AND came back to waste more time.
@@sneksteppyDamn have you never heard of weekends before? Have you never had a day off from work before? Maybe that’s why you’re so mean to strangers on the internet. Poor you
@@sneksteppyjust oozing SDE
I was one of the first few businesses to run a deal when Groupon opened up in my region. I had several hundred sales, and it took about 5 years before people stopped calling about them. There was less than 60% redemption rate when all was done. Only a fraction of the people ever came back, but most of those that did went on to become extremely loyal clients, some now worth tens of thousands of dollars. The Groupon deal was a fairly miserable grind, but in many ways it generated the momentum that ultimately carried us on to become a successful local business.
Lotta hate in these comments but these are the real stories... TONS of small businesses started from zero, no upfront marketing costs by using Groupon. 25% of the money for your work sucks but viral marketing was hard to beat! 💯
@@WatchJRGoit's not hate. It's just criticism. It's not like I think Groupon is some evil company or anything and the people are bad.
Groupon all things considered is a very expensive ad campaign with limited reach.
If you were to post 50% off on your door, you would probably get better reach. Than giving customers 50% off and letting Groupon take 25%.
I did ads on yelp, google, mail, community flyers. All things considered Groupon was pretty meh.
The best was probably some sort of community flyers and I'll add a coupon that's 25% off. It's cheaper to do and I often get more turnover.
@@iankmak oh I know, working for free but it worked super well to build the customer base
You bring up a good point. IMO, Groupon messed up by featuring bigger cities in their searches... it was only really going to work in smaller towns (or for the first few businesses through the door in a region, such as yourself), where businesses don't have as much competition and therefore folks couldn't hop from discounted business to discounted business with Groupon. They pretty much had to become repeat customers. So the "advertising" it offered was worth it. I'm glad it worked for you so well!
@@iankmak This was more or less my modern take away, too. But if I could go back and do it again, I probably would. There wasn't as robust an ad marketplace at the time, and there was a lot of excitement around Groupon in general. Since my business was new and didn't have much of an audience, or any real budget to borrow someone else's audience through ads, Groupon basically allowed us to only pay if someone made a purchase. It was expensive, but it had a reach and enthusiasm that was mostly unrivaled at the time, and a model that did not risk losing money up front, which was pivotal for us. So, I think you're right in your assessment now, but I think at that unique time in history, the math was different for some businesses in some places.
One of the problems I noticed is participating companies started to provide diminished services for Groupon customers. If you asked the businesses, they kind of despised the Groupon customers. The Groupon customers didn't come back that often. It got toxic
Watered down botox is notorious with Groupon deals
I used to use Groupon when I was a barber and they'd never come back after the deals. One Indian dude managed to keep getting them some how, after I cut the promotion off. It shut it down all together.
True. I experienced that with some of the automotive maintenance groupons. However, I found one spot that I saw was a complete local place that was well run, honest, and quite frankly good slat what they did. I talked with the owners wife that ran the office and payments.
She gave me the whole first guest greeting and since it was Groupon she even said they love the new guests. It was so friendly and they were up front with all pricing for various services. I even asked various things like brake jobs and tune ups, and the pricing they gave, they even had a printout of common services, and they weren't bad prices from my experience.
I have used them for maintenance as well as some emergencies like when my fuel pump gave out. Always fairly priced and always up front.
During the covid times when they were short staffed because a few of their workers were sick with covid they told me up front they couldn't do the brake job I needed that day, but did say if I was available in two days they could do it that same day. I opted to wait two days, as my brakes weren't critical, and by golly they did it that day, dropped off in the morning, got a call at 1pm my car was ready for me to pick up.
But ya, I have experienced a lot of shady businesses that I would get a service and then just monitor every time I go by to see them go out of business or change names at some point. Idk, if you treat a certain customer poorly because of a service meant to bring in business, how do you expect recurring business? But hey, it's America, people who have no clue to run businesses are allowed to run businesses.
I used Groupon once and that's exactly how I felt.
yup. "i hAvE a GrOuPoN" became a phrase uttered by karens who think it means theyre VIP
I worked at a salon in Chicago and we ran some Groupons when we were starting out. The company took SUCH a big cut that we barely made anything on them. It was basically just in hopes that the client would return, but many were just serial coupon-users who would never come back and pay full price, no matter how good the service was
Well even if they didn’t return hopefully there was some value with word of mouth. If your service was as good as you claim people would have complimented their haircuts and would ask where they got it from. I’ve never used Groupon but when I get compliments about my hair people always ask where I go. As a business owner you always have to look at the bigger picture of things or else your business Will unfortunately not last and someone else will end up succeeding!
@@jon6309unfortunately that's the corporate speak people used to get you to do a Groupon.
I used Groupon back in 2011 and the turnover was just nonexistent.
My sales didn't go up above and beyond regular projected growth.
One big issue is the massive discounts you are expected to give. I tried doing $75 for $100 credit (25% off) and basically nobody bought it. The average expected discount was 50% off. So I redid it at that price.
So $50 coupon for $100 credit. Of that $50 the customer pays, Groupon takes 50%. So I'm getting only $25 (75% discount).
I sold 100 groupons so I'm getting $2500 and giving away $10000 worth of product.
Essentially this is a $7500 and campaign to reach 100 people. If I put it this way, does it make sense to you?
It was just a super expensive and ineffective and campaign. I can stand in the street corner and throw $7500 worth of $20 bills at people to make them come into my store and probably get better reach.
I guess you can say it doesn't cost me $10000 to do $10000 in sales but still, it was a pretty expensive ad campaign. I lost money per coupon sold.
I would be one of those. It's because I can't afford it at standard price, especially regular visits. I would buy a Groupon as a treat. I always tried to leave good reviews if they were warranted, but I really couldn't afford to keep coming back.
Same experience. After we gave the consumer a discount and Groupon took all the money we lost money on the platform. It’s just not worth it.
Yeah, when I first started the video I assumed it was going to be a way to get reasonable quantity discount. But then it got to ”2 for 1”, half prices and ”Groupon keeps half the money” and I just felt like theres no way the businesses benefit from it.
I owned a restaurant through the two thousand teens, and Groupon was 1) a waste of table space. Rarely would customers return and pay full price. They also were the loudest complainers and 2) they were RELENTLESS. They would call day in and day out trying to get you to do another deal, regardless of whether you told them you werent interested already. I finally instructed my staff to tell them I died.
Yep exactly. I own a business. Got a few good clients from Groupon 90% of others were bottom dwellers and clients you really don’t want
Did you really die though?
I ran a small hotel in the early 2010s and was going to comment but you've basically said what I was going to say. NONE of the Groupon customers paid a penny above rhe offer price, they complained significantly more than regular customers and none would ever come back unless there was another offer. Which in our case there wasn't.
As one does.
@bayupran yes he did! He's now a zombie and life's never been better
Now that I think about it, the Groupon model was backwards. Normally, you charge customers regular price and then reward them with a discount for returning or making making multiple purchases, but through Groupon, customers are offered the discount on the first purchase and hope they came back to pay regular price after that.
I’ve used Groupon for mani pedis. A few of the nail salons said they’d match the Groupon price , just don’t buy the Groupon. The deals cost the merchants money So it was cheaper for them, not to participate in Groupon, but still honor the price
Groupon's business model was give away other people's money for an agency fee. A very very expensive agency fee.
There are more efficient means to give away your money than through Groupon lol.
I discovered this quickly, as well!
Yes! My family's business did this too😂
I imagine that went against the agreement the businesses made with Groupon. 😔
that’s what the oil change place i go to do as well
As I understand it, Groupon is basically a way for businesses to get rid of excess inventory and fill empty seats. I know that in the beginning there was an initial hype behind it. But when that hype died down and business owners figured this won't be repeat business it wore thin on the owners themselves.
That’s what made not selling to Google for $6 billion at its height all the more moronic
@@Radiohead801There IPO was 16 billion dollars
Honestly, if I were running a movie theater or something like that, I'd be giving out free tickets to fill seats. If I had excess inventory, I'd just put it back on the shelf and sell it for 50% off the original price.
Yeah it was awesome at first. When I lived in San Diego I used it for all kinds of events like concerts and comedy shows. Never had an issue. But as the platform/app got bigger, it seemed to offer less deals and businesses were not honoring them 🤷
@@CoasterMan13Officialthe real problem would be your otherwise regular customer will now start waiting for the tickets to be put up at 50% off rather than paying the full amount for it.
Groupon was just a digital version of the coupon books you used to get pitched by friends for 100 bucks, contained thousands in " savings".
OMG-I remember those costing $30.
I used to love those little Entertainment Subscription coupon books in 2016. Got me a free sub at Subway at least once a week 😅
@@aFloridaRealtorpaid
I worked my way through college as a waiter at two fine dining restaurants. Hated those Entertainment Coupon books. The people that used them were the rudest most overly-entitled customers and never came back for full price. Plus they’d tip on the discount price even though the book clearly recommended to tip on the full price. It sucked.
I don’t think it’s the fault of customers to tip on the net paid price or decide to not come back. Business should not participate if such a problem. But might be why we no longer have. A customer should not be faulted for wanting the best deal. But rudeness is not acceptable
My Groupon experiences were mostly restaurant related. I had some lovely dinners in places I wouldn't usually afford. However when you saw a Groupon meal next to the "full customer" version of the same meal, it was clear you were paying half, and getting half.
I unironically would love it if some of the places I like would offer half portions for a lower price. Like one has a giant and delicious Homer Simpson sized burger for $20 but I can only eat half of it. I'd gladly pay $15 for a human sized one and not have a bunch of useless leftovers.
@@Necromas where dat burger at?
There was a steak sandwich place that perpetually ran these groupons around here... almost exactly this. Groupon users got almost exactly half the meat in their sandwich vs full price customers. 😊
I agree with you on that one. Portions are so big no matter where you go. I almost always waste half my food going out if I don't eat the other half later. I've noticed a few places that do offer smaller portion prices and options. I hope it becomes more common because so much gets wasted and I think more people would dine out more if they had the option to pay less for less food they can actually finish.
I used Groupon once last year for a "deal" on deep sea sportfishing out of Newport Beach, California. The Groupon deal was supposed to reduce the usual ticket price from $110 for one angler to $70 for one angler.
Instead, Groupon charged me $140 for a single ticket, then the sport fishing place charged me another $70 simultaneously. The total "discounted" price for one angler with Groupon was now $210, or exactly $100 more than the typical ticket purchased direct.
I was on hold with Groupon customer support for two hours before an agent finally emailed me a refund, which Groupon did follow through on. I'm not the only person this happened to according to Yelp reviews of the sportfishing company.
Chargeback
blame the fishing compoany. they know how it works and still chose to rip you off
I’ve never thought it was fair for people to leave negative reviews on a business because of a Groupon mess up.
@@pegcity4eva That's just fraud. If you bought something from a store at regular price, you can't do a chargeback because you wanted it at a lower price
@@mikea5745 chargback the 140 from groupon, then you only pay the 70 like the agreed deal
I LOVED groupon in the early 2010s! It really helped me explore the city ib my 20s, and I became a long-term customer of many of the service businesses and restaurants I found on the app (and yes, I would always tip heavily on the ORIGINAL price).
But eventually, companies started treating me poorly for having a groupon (I literally remember waiters arguing over not wanting to serve me). Also the good options became so scarce! I got tired of scrolling through sweaters, yoga pants, and photo frames to find actual local experiences. Or all the deals were $5 for $10 worth of sandwiches at the local greasy burger hub.
You don't have to explain spending limitedly while have not much money. That's simply being rational and responsible. Groupon had its rightful place in time.
No options at the local non greasy burger hub??!?
Waiters are some of the most ungrateful ppl, that's why I stopped tipping altogether.😂😂😂
Exactly! That’s how I originally found a salon I used for years until I left the country. I had a Groupon for threading and ended up falling in love with a hair stylist. If anyone if in the Fairfax Va area, I have a great stylist for you.
@@soberanisfam1323 You never 'stopped tipping'. Having your mommy give you five dollars to leave on the table for the waitstaff after she takes you to Golden Corral doesn't count. She just doesn't pay in cash anymore.
Groupon also employed shady tactics. For example, if a local restaurant signed a deal with Groupon for 500 deals (meaning that the deal was supposed to be limited to 500 customers), Groupon would often sell more than the limit in hopes that the business didn't keep track. So, when the customer went to the restaurant, and the groupon deal wasn't honored, they'd go back to Groupon and complain, where some outsourced customer service agent would simply give then a credit on Groupon for the amount and not provide a refund. I wonder how bad their chargeback metrics were.
Nice video. Back when Groupon was at its peak, we had moved to a new place. We needed a dog groomer so I found one on GO that was a little more than half off. I scheduled the appt and show up and they start telling me it's going to be another $20 because she's over 50lbs, another $15 b/c she's long haired (which she isn't) and then wanted to charge so much per hour if I didn't pick her up within 15 minutes of when they called to say she's finished....I just wrote off my $30, walked away and they never got another dime from me. I found another place that got my biz thereafter.
as a business owner who had been approached by Groupon sales reps in the past, it always set off my spidey senses. felt like a scheisty scam vibes, never gave me any long term assurances in my own business growth. they felt more like locusts waiting for the next deal to swarm upon, decimate and then move along.
I started became a regular costomer to several places through groupon.
Cool story
Same here. I don't see what the scam could be. It is meant to get people into your business. If they like the service, they go back and pay full price. @@benjaminwatt2436
They hit me up for lawn sprays- I wasn't into taking a hit on materials and labor for potential clients that want to bargin.
@@benjaminwatt2436
No you didn’t - you were the locust. Business isn’t business with you people and it’s really obvious.
Given that the founder never intended to be in that position and was rather cavalier about the whole thing (which I, frankly, appreciate), it makes the refusal to take Google's money and run all the more surprising.
Honestly, I think at the end of the day that was by far his biggest mistake. It also demonstrates that the founder never intended to be a startup owner while growing up, because people who found startups are typically in the business of growing their business enough to be able to cash in by selling it.
6 million would have been plenty to live on while he got his music career off the ground. If part of the payment was in Google stock, he wouldn’t even need to be good.
@@Benzene265 mind you it was $6 BILLION! He could have been set for life, and then some!
@@Benzene265 Bro, it's was $6 BILLION that Google was offering. And he probably would have gotten the lion's share of that monstrous wealth. He could have funded whatever kind of musical career he wanted and lived like the most decadent rock star the world had ever seen. It's mind-boggling that he turned that offer down.
@@JL-sm6cghe could have been set for several lifetimes
My dad's a business owner. When the customer called asking about the deal he talked them out of purchasing the Groupon and he would still honor the price listed, obviously taking home all of the profits rather than splitting it with Groupon lol He would still honor the ones who purchased and ask them to just call in next time.
Your dad is a cheating hypocrite. He is fine wirh letting groupon lose money as long as he gets free advertising.
I remember when Groupon hit, a lot of the deals would also be overbooked. Where the business would be overwhelmed, make no money , and users would either get a real shitty service or just not get the service at all, and then getting money back was like pulling teeth. Complete overhyped disaster from the start.
I recall my mom use to use Groupon all the time back then, which made going to restaurants far more accessible for us .
the time* there fixed the sentence for you.
same for me.
It's "used to use."
Half the Groupons I ever used were either: (1) from really shady as f businesses or (2) aggressively upselling me to make up for the discount or (3) tried to nickel and dime me on “undisclosed extra mandatory” charges. I don’t fault Groupon so much, as I fault more these shady businesses that “bait and switch” to churn up that cheap-skate business.
Omg, wow, I forgot about the bait and switch pricing, yep definitely agree the undisclosed surcharges were awful, it was like thinking you got a score on a luxury, only to find out you didn’t have enough components for the base model. Wtf. Like it was always on things you thought would naturally be included in the deal, for example a game of bowling for 80% off, only to find out that your deal didn’t include the mandatory shoe hire....yeah after a few of those experiences I avoided it or rigorously read reviews first
I completely blame Groupon. They demanded such heavy discounts of businesses that profit was impossible.
In 2010, I bought all kinds of Groupons with false pretense that its really good deal. In reality the retail owners treat Groupon customers differently from regular cash customers, and it looks stupid showing coupon vouchers. If it doesnt meet the restrictions the store say sorry we cant honor it. How embarrassing it is.
>Be you
>See product being sold for $20
>product normally sells for $458
>No intention of being a returning customer
>Dying business hopes to upsale you extra quality services for 0.05¢ more.
>"How dare you?! I'm reporting you and giving you a one star on Yelp".
@@sneksteppyit's never ".05" more though. Stop lying
Groupon was awesome but then the quality of businesses using it declined. You explained why, the good businessmen realized it wasn’t worth it and pulled out.
Great episode, please do NewEgg next!
Newegg has declined since it was bought by a Chinese company. But where else should you shop?
@@LeoInterVir Amazon is pretty much the only other alternative for PC hardware.
Microcenter if your city has one.
NewEgg sucks now
I used to work at a water park in warehouse and stock the various restaurants and bars. We had a widely used groupon program that discounted a bundle ticket and food option.
However we had two stacks of prduct. Normal sized and groupon sized. The groupon burgers, hot dogs, and other products were about a third smaller. It's still a good deal, in my opinion, but something never communicated to the customer at all.
It's not surprising that they had a 'groupon size' but it also completely defeated the purpose. If groupon users all thought they were getting normal size, why would they return and pay full price for it?
I really miss the frequency of Groupon concert tickets. That was a good way of affordably seeing bands, usually either by buying tickets way in advance or by getting really poor seats.
Now those seats are all bought by machines and resold for 10x the price just because they can lol
At this point last minute tickets have become a total godsend because of how indiscriminate block buyers have become. The failed attempts at scalping leave hundreds if not thousands of premium seats at a fraction of the price if you don’t get anxious not having the tickets until the day of the show. Unless you’re seeing something in ridiculously high demand like Taylor Swift you can almost always find seats.
@@jaredbellow I miss the days of certainty lol. It’s hard enough to get people to commit to plans let alone plans that may or may not happen
@@jaredbellowwhat platform do you use to buy these secondhand tickets? I'm interested in following suit.
@@jjerkamillo Vivid Seats is my favorite but there’s several apps out there. I was on the field at WWE Summerslam in Detroit for 150 dollars with fees, probably a 500-700 dollar ticket on Ticketmaster bought the night before the show.
Last concert I went to we got seats in advance because my dad was coming in from out of town for it and we had nice seats but first row were about 2/3 of what we paid day of
For real! In San Diego I used to buy $15-30 Groupon concert tickets. Big name artists at arena venues. Any time rows weren't filled or people left early, staff let us move forward...miss those day!
I got in many good rounds of golf and on courses I could not comfortably afford to pay at normal prices thanks to Groupon !
Wow. I completely forgot about Groupon. I remember it being a heavily advertised company in the early 2000s.
I used Groupon in Russian province back in 2011 or something like that while in the university. I bought a coupon to a business English course in a language school. Got to know a medical student from Zambia who's been teaching there on the side. We made pretty good friends. One day he got into hospital with a case of appendicitis and my mom was kind enough to cook him some food to brighten his day. Then he went back to Zambia and I believe he's working as a neurosurgeon now. So yeah, it was a thing back in the day.
wow!
Lol. So he was the smartest person in Russia in 2011?
Gosh! I can’t believe it feels just like yesterday when Groupon was new. Now, I totally forgot it!
Every Friday my mom and I would meet up after work and go to Ruby Tuesdays and pull up our Groupon app to see what deals were available...that was like 10 years ago. I miss those days 😢❤ Great video!!!❤
😢
Heard way too many horror stories from both ends to ever buy in - businesses not honouring deals, customers trying to claim more than they were entitled to, it was just a huge mess.
I have a friend who ran a wellness center and the co-owner coerced her into offering Groupons. They typically had a high customer-return rate, like nearly 100 percent, but of the hundred or so Groupon customers, only one ever returned. As you said, they moved on to the next Groupon experience. Also, the Groupon customers were the most entitled and few of them tipped the therapists.
Tipping therapists now? Jesus, H Christ.
What next? Tipping your dentist?
@@HaggisMuncher-69-420Dwight from The Office said he tips his urologist.
For me, once companies started complaining of Grouponers as if they were "lesser" consumers and offered lesser services/products for them, I stopped. It also began to be for businesses that were crappier quality anyway.
@@ithecasticyou completely missed how groupon created customers that would otherwise not know of your business, it wasnt just savey spender but people trying new businesses to be met not wells. You blame the customer when the business wasnt great
I still use Groupon when I visit a new city and find things to do there, but it’s becoming more lackluster
Groupon really contributed to the business I worked for going broke. People would come with the coupon, which absolutely undercut the value of our product, and then they could always get more Groupons so they never had to pay full price. We literally couldn’t survive on the Groupon price and they never came back and paid full price.
Could you not put a limit on how many they could purchase or how many you would honor for each customer? Was it like something like a restaurant where you're not keeping track of customers? I wanted a handful of facials before my wedding. I got a 3 pack Groupon. Bought a couple more, and they said they'd honor it, but it's supposed to be one per customer. I said "Oh, I already bought a third." They said I'd have to go to Groupon for either a refund or credit for the third; I don't recall which. So I did that. She said Groupon was supposed to put a line about a limit on it, like "one per customer"/"first time customers only" but didn't.
A business who advertises needs to pay for that advertising. Groupon provided advertising AND 100% guaranteed (reduced price) clients as well. And you GOT PAID in advance for that advertising, so why complain when each client was converted into a physical customer?
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Any business who went broke by accepting Groupon was a fail anyway.
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Of course they could limit the quantity of Groupons sold, as well as any other special terms they liked. If they didn't get good return customer rates, then why continue to promote yourself using Groupon?
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The whole idea of advertising is to pay money to build your business. You know exactly what your costs are, and it's not about making profit... It's quite the opposite. The whole idea of Groupon is that you take a loss to fill your tables or get your product out there or whatever. It's idiotic to expect to make profit from something that you *knew* wouldn't be profitable 🙄
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Then to give Groupon clients WORSE service that other customers, or driving them away is probably the dumbest business decision you could possibly make. Talk about _"shooting yourself in the foot"_ or _"scoring an own goal"_ 😢
When you’re a coupon user, they treat you differently. It’s sad.
Only times i used groupon was for a cheap hotel, cheap oil change or cheap phone screen repair.
& i remember the phone repair shop telling me, next time i come in. They will just honor the groupon price without having to split it with groupon. Lol
But yeah never went back lol
I used Groupon in 2012 forgot about it for a decade, then wanted to get my car detailed and found out its decline.
My mother-in-law only used it once for a restaurant that she did like and we went on the night after an episode of diners, drive-ins and dives, featured the restaurant on their show and it was not a great experience. We were pretty much ignored due to how big the place got because of that show. And she never used a Groupon after that again.
I keep seeing people say things like that--poor service or half price food at restaurants. Did restaurants require you to show the Groupon first? I don't remember doing that, though I definitely used Groupons at restaurants..
This is one of your best videos in a while. I think the setup of how fast it grew and the pace of your explanation for their decline was really well made.
Groupon is a Chicago company and as a Chicago guy, we are known to be the Sales capital of the US (not the tech capital). Lying and exaggerating is just accepted practice here. The concept is solid, but it needed to have better ethics and policies. The Close the deal at any cost mentality is what killed it.
Chicago is corrupt and shady, but is still a nice city.
Do you mean New York is the sales capital of the US? The revenue isn’t even close comparatively. But yes as a New Yorker I can agree that those are the same things you find within our businesses here. Lies and deceit lol
@@zacwoodsI think he means metaphorically.
@@biancam153 even still it’s incorrect. New York City is the first place people think of when you think “sleazy businessman” not Chicago. In almost every piece of media that trope is almost exclusively a NY thing. It’s how they used to communicate to viewers that a character was from NY/NJ along with the stereotypical accent that many of us don’t even realize we still have
Chicago hasn't cornered the market on lying and exaggeration.
You should look into Angie Lists. As a business owner, their practices were deceptive.
Yep now it's called Angie an also Tumi.
Yeah.... In order to be recommended by Angie's list. You have to be a licensed contractor and you had to pay "*angie's list fee*" Their recommendations were absolutely *NOT* based on how good the contractor was.
Yelp. Yelp censored my honest slumlord review.
I think the 4th point of Groupon being a bad business model is the most valid.
After a couple of years of existence there were a LOT of both consumers and businesses who did not want anything to do with Groupon anymore. Consumers who had gotten burned more than once from a business who wouldn't honor a Groupon or ended up paying more for the Groupon than they would have if they had paid normal price. From a business point of view there were plenty that had gotten burned by having customers that would ONLY visit if they had a Groupon and/or lost money on every Groupon they honored. Not to mention problems where they had a flood of customers one day, none the next day and so on.
In order for Groupon to be successful and grow they need both consumers and businesses to repeatedly participate. Having large chunks of both groups ignore Groupon makes for a bad business model no matter what shape the economy is in.
Wait until you see Groupon still selling deal for the restaurant that already close 1 years ago😂😂
I did one for a half priced Big Mac and fries offer. You paid half price to Groupon and got 10 vouchers for free redemption at McDonalds. It went well up until I got near the end and then a McDonalds made me pay the other half of the price. I complained to Groupon and I think they refunded me the entire price of the offer.
I was a contractor for Groupon. Their building was wacky, and the office felts fun. Not like "How do you do fellow kids" like most tech companies, but actually fun. Otherwise it was just like any other tech company.
I worked in that building. It was originally the Montgomery Ward warehouse. I remember the Groupons office had the long tables with computers and funky chairs for employees
What's the difference?
Tech company?😃 Another con. Lots of cons in, "tech."
@@halfdome4158 true. Usually all the cons are outweighed by the insanely inflated paychecks though 🤷♂️
I did like groupon and living social for trying out restaurants and for activities for my kid and her friends (zoo admission, etc) but I saw problems with personal service places (nail and hair salons) where there were clear rules spelled out that people ignored, and then bad reviews would show up on Yelp. I did try one once for housecleaning. I got one guy who cleaned two bathrooms in two hours. I was supposed to have gotten two people for two hours. So I just stopped buying them because of that and there really weren't any good deals anymore.
We used Groupon, Scoopon, living social etc to sell tickets on our wine tours. Was great for us for 5 years pretty much every tour was booked out sometimes 5-6 weeks in advance. Approx 30000 customers brought in using these deals. But of course it was very important that we made sure the amount we received doing it this way resulted in a viable business plan. Most of the complaints I see from merchants really boils down to them not understanding their business properly.
So happy to see this! I worked night shift Customer Service at Groupon 2010-2014 and it was truly surreal. Loved working for Andrew. He was so hilarious and his rock album Hardly Workin’ is great. 😆
I had to call Groupon customer service once and waited about an hour and 30 minutes before.
@@ns-si5wbthey were busy listening to Andrew's Rock album
Groupon was… interesting. College kids loved it, and when they started offering reduced gift cards and clothing deals, that also gave Groupon the win. But when they started offering all the massages, cosmetic treatments, and packaged vacations, they began missing their key demographic.
not because they want to offer those its because businesses are losing money to sell on groupon, only those that dont COST anything to operate can offer deal on groupon.
College kid age demographic don't have much to spend, that's why they extended it to include the paying crowd - the earning adults.
Man I remember every bit of this. I worked for the company that actually sent their emails (exact target) so we were really close to this whole thing. Brings back crazy memories.
I remember geting a Groupon for a Birthday Present, still felt gibbed to this day
That's nothing. One Christmas, some short, stocky, bald guy in the office gave me a card that said a donation had been made in my name to The Human Fund.
I had not heard again of Groupon since the time I was at uni around 2012-13 and sometimes with my coursemates we were looking for deals. I also remember the reproachful and annoyed looks on the business owner's venues when you walked in telling you had a Groupon...
To be honest, it was a good opportunity for broke students, but it was quite obvious that as a business model it could not be sustainable.
why would they be annoyed, if they agreed to the groupon?
@@benjaminwatt2436why are you spamming every comment with a defence of groupon??? Are you CEO or something
Groupon customers have a bad reputation with many businesses. The customers who pay the least are often the rudest. I know a lot of people who wouldn't advertise on Groupon because they were warned by others in their industry about how rude Groupon customers could be.
@@LucidFL
Yes it seems like..
@@thatgoodpainthe only part people got rude about is the turn around on the Groupon. Half the time the business will treat you bad so if you're going to treat me bad it's goes back on you.
Used Groupon quite a bit. Went to a 4 star restaurant. Told the manager we had a Groupon right up front. We started to order from the menu. The manager stopped us and told us. Groupon has a special menu. It was really limited. I got a refund because of this. I should have been able to order anything off the menu. A few other restaurants tried the same thing. That was the last time I used Groupon.
I will say the founder's rebellious attitude makes me smile when i think about the only time I've used Groupon was for my first visit to the medical marijuana doctor. Haven't used Groupon since but still renew my prescription at the same place so it worked for the business this time at least.
When I worked in a restaurant the owner hated the Groupon customers so much I had to give them poor service in order for them to leave quicker 😂
His statement after getting fired was hilarious and iconic and very on brand lol.
I don't know of very many local businesses in my area that ran a groupon more than once. That tells you something right there.
I actually still use Groupon for things like oil changes and wheel alignments. However, I have noticed a decline in deals which is why I don't use them as much. I was recently about to purchase a deal for romantic getaway through them, but they deal was barely a deal. I was slightly cheaper than the original price, but not so discounted that if I missed out and had to pay full price, then I wouldn't feel so bad because I wasn't saving much to begin with.
Wait, Groupon is still in business? Wow, I'm kind of shocked. I thought they came and went with so many other fundamentally bad tech businesses founded by people who were just not prepared to run a major corporation.
The first and last time I used it was for a $150 "3 night getaway at a luxury northern resort and includes $50 voucher for on site steak house". We drove about 3 hours into the absolute middle of nowhere, some tiny blink town with nothing around. Room was messy, sheets hadn't been changed, nothing to do or eat, the steak house only opened at night, we had to drive 1hr into the next town just to get some food. The reviews for the place on trip advisor were hilarious.
LOL. I think I remember this Groupon deal. Absolute joke. What was the place called again
@@noreplyzone-ef7uz I forget the name, it went bankrupt shortly after their groupon scam. The town we drove into to get food was Bancroft and it was a good 45 min each way from what I remember. They got a LOT of people with that one, as I said the reviews were hilarious. They had a 1 star rating on Google as well.
Wheee was this.
I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did; the whole "people wont come back to the same businesses and pay full price next time" was very apparent from the get go.
The other weird thing was that an episode of this year's Quantum Leap had a storyline where Ben saved a struggling Indian restaurant by setting up a Groupon. Very unrealistic, and since it mentioned Groupon by name I assume it was sponsored.
My uncle and my mum actually used groupon back then, (I think they still use some derivative of groupon). They explained how it worked to me, and I thought it was pretty interesting.
From this video, I guess it’s one of those good ideas that unfortunately just doesn’t gel with the economic model. I feel like every couple years we go through “economic troughs” where these companies would be great,but you can’t just put a company on hold until the economy goes bad.
I think there are some businesses that have opportunities that quickly get cheaper to deliver as they scale. For example i work in printing and if i can get an order of 1000 units instead of 10, the per unit cost goes waaayyyy down. Do 10,000 and it can be much less per unit. And more profitable overall - and per unit.
So getting a bunch of people together to go in on some things can work i think. But one has to be selective.
The best butcher shop near me closed shop because of too many groupon deals. Such a shame because Surf and Turf was the best!
Omg yes! It got to the point where they had empty shelves because they were selling things at a loss from Groupon and couldn't afford to buy more product. 😢
@@MissMTurner Nice to see someone else from North Pinellas! Yeah and the gigantic lines took forever too.
@bf0189 omg yeah the lines!! Holy crap those were crazy.
Why did they keep offering deals if it wasn’t good for their business?
Worked at a barber who used Groupons, when there was a Groupon appointment the barbers would complain and try to push it off to other barbers. Their time and skill was paid 50% of what it's worth because the owner wanted to be on Groupon. I used a few here and there and started to be embarrassed I had one, cause I knew the businesses hated me for it, and it showed.
6:00 Yep, that’s accurate! I worked for a Groupon clone in Philadelphia called “Zooyan”. It only lasted about a year, but those were fun times.
I knew merchants who would have no customers without groupon since their normal prices were too expensive.
That's just a trick they use to work with Groupon. Groupon encouraged businesses to offer at steep discount. So merchants would artificially raise their prices so that they could get what they were comfortable with while working with Groupon.
That's pretty shady@@thatgoodpain
@@Risu1177 it is. There is a lot of shadiness around deals. I saw a CZcams video a while back stating that those TV's you get for cheap on black Friday are lower quality TV's made to go on sale. They were never meant to be sold for the price they are being discounted from.
Shady, and ubiquitous
@@thatgoodpain That's how DoorDash and other gig work services operate, too. DoorDash charges the merchant between 30-50% of the order, so the merchant raises the costs to cover the difference.
Hilarious timing. Watched the quantum leap last night and he jumped back to 2008 and used Groupon to save a struggling restaurant. I had forgotten it existed.
There are glitches in the matrix.
I lost way more than I ever saved using Groupon.
There was also the classic old school bait and switch with many of the businesses. I always wanted a remote stater for my car, and I bought a groupon for myself and for my friend for Xmas. Of course, they price they gave you was cars that didn't have anti theft microchips embedded in the keys- which is just about all cars in the last 25 years or more. If you're car had that, it was much more beyond what the groupon covered. So in reality, it was going to cost you double the amount for everyone who bought the groupon.
I really liked Groupon because I started to do things I otherwise wouldn’t. I used it to try yoga, get a massage, try zip lining. But admittedly I stopped at some point. I did go back to some businesses after though and became a regular, but the pandemic happened and I got out of the habit.
I worked at a small escape room from 2018-2021 and about 90% of our customers paid with Groupons. We were really struggling to book the rooms, from beginning to end, so Groupon was our best shot. Part of that was the pandemic, part of it was only having two scenarios (customers wouldn't come back after doing both)...for most of that I was the only employee and I still only served ~20 groups a week.
Escape rooms are "event" type places where people are going to come back every 6 months to a year at best. Unless you're getting people to travel across the country, like theme parks do, it's not a great business model. Even if they escape rooms constantly change scenarios, I see it as just a fad that wasn't going to go on that long.
Heh. Actually this explains the demise perfectly!! (Of both places ironically)
Those Escape Rooms were HUGE craze’s between 2015-18. But people went in GROUPS. So Groupon worked for customers because NOBODY will pay full price for a group!!
But when the money dries due to profit margins….🫠😰🫨
I mean yeah COVID did these guys in. But the group discounts didn’t help these places so when they STOPPED OFFERING these discounts people left and Groupon needed to find…other places.
They became a “lynch” for struggling businesses. But if your focus is on bad business….you’re not making money either!!!
😫😖
To be frank, escape rooms never made sense to me from a business perspective. It's a business constantly relying on new customers. Pretty much ever escape room in my area was killed by the pandemic, but I'm not sure they'd be around if the pandemic didn't happen either.
Well, it’s an escape room. Why would anyone voluntarily be locked in a room with other people?
@@Prettykittychimi It's like a puzzle where people work together to find a way out. I've never done one, but I've played video games that have the same concept and I would see how it would be fun to do with a group of people and why it would be popular for corporate outings, etc. I just don't feel like it's something people are going to want to do often
In theory, it was a pretty sound idea for many business, but definitely not all. Businesses needed to think of it as cheap advertising and people in door, and I think too many looked at it from a revenue generating perspective- which in the moment it often was not. They got bitter about the lack of short term revenue, so they weren't excited about it- and as a result, the customers often felt they received a short-change experience. So now you've got a middle man pitching to both unhappy business owners and customers- burning the candle at both ends. Not saying it was all bad, but heard of that synapsis many times.
Even if those customers got a 5 star experience only one or two return to pay full price. Waste of time and resources for any business selling at deep discounts
@@noreplyzone-ef7uz I think it depends on the business. I once purchased a Groupon for the installation of a remote car starter. I vaguely new about the place that sold it prior to the Groupon, but had never been in there. But how often are you going to have that kind of work done? They did custom car stereo installations too, just not really my thing at this point in my life. In that case, I agree, it doesn't make sense. However, something like a restaurant I might not have tried had it not been for the Groupon, I have gone back and paid full price.
I'm not gonna lie. Groupon made me hate my old job. I was in the service industry for quite a while, and the last two years I was there, we had many people coming in using Groupons. They were always the first to complain about something, the first to request freebies, they were notoriously bad tippers, and I rarely ever saw them again after the first visit. I can't comment on whether or not it helped businesses, but it definitely hurts the employees.
I had a girlfriend who was all into Groupon. We did try a lot of restaurants but I don't think there was a single one of them that we went back to. It was obvious most of these restaurants were in disarray and on their way out. One Groupon restaurant had a kitchen fire going on while we were walking in. I got as a present from my wife, a Groupon for a massage. So I show up to the massage place, Groupon in hand...Funny story, funny, funny story. Anyway, the vice squad did not raid the place while I was there.
It's weird how ClassPass has taken off so strongly in my area, when it's basically just Groupon for gyms and fitness classes. I wonder if it might not be suffering from the same lack of valid fundamentals.
Never heard of ClassPass 😮
@@edfig that's what I like about this channel, learning about new companies.
@@Merle1987 Thank you for sharing 👍
ClassPass also embraces a similar broken model.
ClassPass markets heavily towards corporations as a "wellness benefit" for employees
Christmas the year my shopping addict Mom discovered Groupon was interesting. 😂 My brother, nieces, and I got SOOOO MANY "personalized" items and other great "deals" 10+ years later, I still have items, in their packages, that I find in her house. 😂
Ugh, the Groupon "gift"! Yes, my mom gave me a handful of Groupons as presents for Christmas or birthdays. I used some. Others I meant to get to. It was embarrassing so I just never mentioned it to her.
I never knew about this! When I was little my mom would take me on spa trips with her friends using groupon. It was how we found mother daughter things to do. I even just used it back in June to get discounts on a Fondue place I wanted to try with a friend when I was visiting. I think groupon's a good thing to use if you're hesistant to go to some local place or especially when traveling and trying to vacay on a budget.
yay my next dose of corporation male has arrived
Right I love business bro
Corporation male
Male? What? Learn to spellcheck before you brown nose
Capitalist guy is my fav
Corporation Male
I had no idea Groupon was designed that way. The only time I ever used them was to actively use a deal that I guess already hit the threshold. It was for a bar/mini-golf course, and the groupon basically was a round of golf and a beer for two people for $20, which is already roughly the price, but the groupon/promotion also let you keep the glass (shaped like a beer can). My friends and I used that groupon probably half a dozen times, but still went there a few times after the groupon was no longer available.
As a customer it had great saving benefits which i felt wary of but never any trouble using merchant, it's exactly what you and other commenters had explained. 50% discount followed by a 50% split with no return customers at full price. Never lower the price, otherwise that becomes expectations. One way street.
I do remember the few times we used the Groupon at a restaurant that the owner seemed perturbed to have to honour it. So that just made me uncomfortable to continue buying them.
I still use them today for a lot of family and kids stuff.
You still get some great deals
I used it as a customer. I felt mislead & lowballed with regard to local services. When I used it for merchandise, I found most everything poor was quality.
In my experience, the businesses were not happy when i used a groupon. Felt like they stopped caring once i showed them the groupon.
Every business owner I know who tried Groupon reported gaining no new repeat customers who came in with a Groupon but *did* report an increase in demanding customers who could not be satisfied. Not all Groupon customers were like that it seems but almost none of them returned for non-Groupon service either.
I live in Chicago and passed by a gigantic building on Monday with the Groupon name on the top.
I looked at my gf and said … man, I thought they went out of business years ago!
And now this vid comes out…
I used to use Groupon for haircut deals around Chicago. My favorite hair salons and stylists were too expensive, so for a good 6-8 years I Grouponed my way through haircuts. But I never really loved any of those haircuts and they usually assigned their "junior" or less in-demand stylists to take care of Groupon customers. Even for the decent salons I found through Groupon, I would still wait until I was eligible to use another of their Groupons before I visited them again, rather than paying full price. A few years ago I decided I'd rather pay more $$ for a haircut that I actually really like, and stopped using haircut Groupons.
I just started cutting my own hair lol now I have 2 boys and a girl and our hair is not half bad....
My friend used to work there and said it was the worst experience of his life. He said they were told to prey on small businesses and lock them into contracts which he knew would destroy them and make them go out of business. He said owners would call up, crying, and begging to get out of their contracts and he was forced to say no
my wife and i used a Groupon for our 1 year wedding anniversary in 2010 to an upscale restaurant we had never heard of. It was the worst dining experience we ever had, and we never went back nor used Groupon again.
Groupon has always been sort of a scam. The merchants take a beating having to serve customers who will likely never return. A company I used to work for used Groupon, and those customers wanted what amounts to something for nothing.
They deserved to fail.
They will make a come back. Companyman will cover it and there is nothing you can do about it
I can't remember the last public-facing (or business-to-business, for that matter) tech company that wasn't some sort of grift. It's like we forgot how to do anything other than find novel ways to hide rent-seeking behavior.
@@benjaminwatt2436 nope they're gonna go down in flames.
@benjaminwatt2436 without someone as widespread like Google buying the cadaver at a discount i doubt it.
@@benjaminwatt2436 copium much?
groupon failed me because their deals arent as easy as a buy one get one pizza from a local restaurant. Its buy one pizza get one free if: you do dine in only on monday-wednesday, with a party of 4 or more. That's exactly what I experienced with a groupon for a local sushi place. it was pay 40 bucks get 60. We see these at costco all the time but they are legit gift cards for 60 that can be used whenever for 39.99. This groupon's FINE print stated it needed it to be dine in only on a Wednesday, with a party of 4 or more. Its too specific for this day in age when I have 3 kids 2 of them twins and too much on my mind to think about. So my demographic is out.
day _and_ age
Did they count the twins as one person? Those cheapskates!
@@chrissgchriss lol no. But we don't like taking 1 year olds to a sit down restaurant thats why we do take out.
Used to work in the same building. The question about their sustainability was bothering me right from the beginning. Was really surprised they went IPO, and someone was buying it. Eventually, I saw them shrinking giving up the office space.
I didn’t even know about the part where they emailed people to get to a tipping point. I just liked Groupon as a way to search for local experiences and buy tickets all in one place. I would buy them for people as birthday presents. Given that a lot of people never ended up using them, it was just free money for the business.
Now they're called Groupon Coupon, not sure why they felt the need to add the Coupon part.
Used it a few times. Even book a vacation to the DR years ago. Used it in 2020 for axe throwing for my bday with a group of friends. Just booked my lash appointment yesterday with my Groupon. To each it’s own. But I’ve never had any issues.
I loved Groupon. I got sweet deals to go to Guatemala 🇬🇹 , the Bahamas 🇧🇸 ,waxes, makeup artists, food, and so much more. I thought it was worth it
Yup, you nailed it. I loved Groupon when it was first out. I had totally forgot about them until this video.
Huh... not selling to Google was 1 of the Nails in the coffin...