For the past couple of years, I’ve heard Groupon extol the virtues of their daily deals email system, repeatedly waving the “we’re all about locally owned brick and mortars” flag. Well folks, my blood’s boiling right now–that flag needs to be planted on someone else’s planet.
From Saturday’s Groupon email for the Minneapolis-St. Paul market (click the image to see full scale):
Strike one: Redeem online? What happened to Groupon’s claim they’re all about driving traffic through local doorways?
Strike two: The merchant is located in El Segundo, California–half way across the country from Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Strike three and call-your-agent-you’re-finished: The presumed storefront retailer actually isn’t. The street address given on her website points to a printing company, showing her as an “affiliate.” The phone number on her website is located in Redondo Beach, five miles from where the printer is—and not associated with any physical storefront I’ve been able to find after exhaustive online searching.
Translated? I’ll bet my bottom dollar this California e-tailer is a home-based business. Not exactly the local brick and mortar flag Groupon likes to wave.
Making matters worse, check out the side bar offer for the custom alphabet frame. Yup. You guessed it. That one’s located in Tennessee.
Groupon didn’t just drop the flag. They tore the thing to shreds, then buried it in the back yard.
As for where that back yard’s located, well…. The definition of “local” is apparently up for negotiation.
Click here to tell me what you think....
You should not be too surprised by this, as companies get bigger they start to look at the cash creation cycle, not how to continue their original mantra of helping the local business. My guess is that with all the movement inside this industry (I have seen tons of new coupon sites) they are trying to get revenues faster and move away from the local business.
old news…Groupon Rejected $6 Billion…
http://www.conceptsnews.com/groupon-turns-down-a-6-billion-buyout-offer-from-google/84033/
Groupon is the 300 lb Gorilla.
Editor’s note: Not sure how turning down a buyout offer ties to the topic of the column–Groupon contradicting their own pro-local spin–but thanks for joining the conversation!
Great article I have been in the process of gathering research and writing an article on the same topic. Not only does Groupon not support actual visit to brick and mortars it doesn’t facilitate customer retention and loyalty and that is what local businesses need more than a big deal to drive customers to them, they need a steady flow coming in.
I would like to encourage wise people who use their heads for more than a place to park a hat to pay more attention to what a company DOES than what it SAYS it is doing because their true intent is often far different – or even diametrically opposed – to their claims.
Groupon does not even accept many small businesses because they’re “too small”. The most likely affect it has on small businesses is negative. The good news is being turned down by Groupon may be a blessing in disguise.
There are many excellent posts about the drawbacks to Groupon and similar types of marketing. Since I don’t know how you feel about links I won’t add them, but instead here is what I found and how I found it.
I searched zuula.com for +groupon +”small business” and the first page of results was full of merchants and their experiences. Click on Blog to resort results by recency or just check out whatever descriptions catch your eye.
One last thought. Pay attention when a company supposedly turns down a major offer from Google or Facebook or any similar major player. If that company suddenly starts getting continual, massive media coverage someone has a horse in that race. Remember Twitter.
I always thought this was a really bad idea. If you want to save 50% on an order, call me. We’ll talk.