I get the daily emails from Groupon, too. There have been offers for massages, facials, laser hair removal treatments, teeth whitening and numerous other offers.

I'd recommend signing up!

I think it is amazing for businesses too. I just looked at our coupon for the day and over 1,200 coupons have been purchased with a limit of 2 per person!

Nothing in ND. Wish there was.

Nearest one to me is at least a 6 hour drive. Too bad. It sounds like a great site!

I just signed up recently and bought a $7 coupon for $14 food at a local burger joint. Great deal. I'm waiting for the next one I want to buy. I get the email every day but so far, aside from the one coupon, I haven't been interested in anything else. Admittedly, I'm a tough audience!

I signed up last month, when they had a coupon for $50 of Gap clothes for $25. I've also purchased $30 of miniature golf for $15 and the recent $30 Shutterfly book for $10.

I just checked out recent offers for my area and I didn't see anything I would really use. Chances are there would not be enough offers I would use in the year to make it worth the time to read the emails. LOL

It's mostly restaurants and businesses I wouldn't care for. Fakey high end stuff. Some of the "deals" they offer for more basic stuff are available at no cost in local ads and coupon books.

I can't see buying a coupon for a furniture store unless there is something I've actually seen at the store I plan to buy right then and there. I can usually negotiate a good deal for myself when buying things like furniture or appliances.

Say I have $175 off that I paid 40 dollars for. So the real saving is $135.00. Now if I go in to buy a good quality sofa it will run about $800.00 or better. If I can talk them down just 15% I've "saved" $120. If I talk them down 20% I've "saved" $160. Then I start negotiating free delivery and get even more "savings". If the item is on sale I can still negotiate without a coupon. But with a coupon there are generally stipulations about not combining offers. Plus the clerk knows I have the coupon and have paid for it. So the salesperson knows he has a buyer with "motivation" to buy.

Now I feel like if I walk into the store with a coupon I've sort of given up some (actually a lot) of my bargaining power. Also the business has to share some of their profit with Groupon so they are going to stick hard and fast to the terms of the voucher. I'd rather cut out the middle man and negotiate on my own.

So it seems to me Groupon is great for those who flit around and buy things "because they are a deal". Those of us who are loyal to certain businesses and don't buy until we need aren't really good candidates for their offers.

Hmmm... I just bought $50.00 worth of food and beverage at a local coffee house that I frequent once a month, for $20. I have six months to spend and can spend any amount from $1 to the total $50 per visit.
They don't really negotiate there, so I really cannot imagine that I would have been able to get a better deal.
Now, if I get hit by a bus before I get to spend the first $20.00, then that's a shame, but that is a risk I'm willing to take.

Someone I know was just talking to me about this last week. She is supposed to be sending me a referral code-if I sign up she gets $10 I believe. I plan to sign up and check it out.

Wildchild, it's like anything else. If you buy *only* because there's a coupon, it's never a good deal. And I get what you're saying about removing some of your negotiating power, but you have to know that lots of people can't or won't negotiate, except maybe at a car dealership.

I bought two coupons for things I regularly use and one for a place I'd heard about and wanted to try. Seemed like a good deal to me.

A friend at work was talking about this just last week.

Evidently a couple times a year, this area has a coupon for a significant savings with an area cleaning service. She likes to get those and have help with her cleaning. Sounds like something I could use!

Today's coupon here is sold out -- $29 for 29 guest visits to an area health and tennis club, up to a $435 value. For someone who likes to play tennis or enjoys visiting a health club, that would be a TERRIFIC purchase! It would be a wonderful Christmas or birthday gift for a friend .. lots of possibilities!

I'll sure be watching their coupons to see what interesting offers come. It only takes a moment to read the email, and if I can save big bucks once or twice a year it'll be worth it to me.

i just bought my first last week. it was $20 for $40 at The Bistro on Park Ave in Winter Park. i often shop Park Ave in Winter Park but never eat at this restaurant because i thought it would be very expensive. well after checking out the restaurants' website i found out it really is not, infact sunday brunch is almost cheap lol. next time DH and I are shopping all day there we can actually eat there for only $20 :-) and we will eat there often, now that i know it's not $50 a person for lunch. i have not seen anything since then worth buying to me or that we'd use.

that said Groupon is a chicago company and the Chicago Tribune recently has done several articles on them. this article was actually what got me looking into groupon....it basically said it is not good for business since many groupon buyers are one-time customers. when it coss biz $80K in raw materials and they make $15K that's BAD, REALLY BAD for business. ~ liz

Here is a link that might be useful: tribune on Groupon bad for biz

I just saw an ad for it on a website over the weekend. Never heard of it before.

What happens if the business fails before you use your coupon? I had it happen to me when I bought a gift certificate for a restaurant that went out of business the week after Christmas. I had given it as a Christmas gift. There was no recourse even though the restaurant had another location. Even the local district attorney who handles consumer affairs could do nothing because the restaurant had different partners at each location so they were seperate businesses. Never again will I buy a gift certificate.

redcurls, I had a similar experience with a gift card years ago. My son had received a gift card at a particular store. A couple of months later, we went to spend it, and it was out of business. No recourse. So, it's the same theory. Advance payment carries a risk.

I agree that it's only a good deal if it's something you are going to buy anyway. Coupons for a restaurant I already go to or want to try, for example. Furniture stores? For me, not so much.

It's just like anything else you buy. It's important to know the value of what you're buying, know comparitive prices, and buy because you really need (or want) and not just because there is a discount.

The emails are easy, by the way. You can pretty much tell what they're selling that day by the subject line without even opening the email. I only open it if it looks like something I might be interested in.