Posted on 12/05/2012 8:19:40 AM PST by PJ-Comix
So Groupon and Living Social are in trouble. Color me unsurprised; I never got the Groupon business model. Well, I guess I got the business model--it's not that complicated--but I never got why people thought that eventually this model was going to be worth a zillion dollars.
Coupons basically serve two functions for businesses--advertising, and price discrimination. Advertising means it brings in new customers by making them aware of your service, or giving them an incentive to try it. Price discrimination, on the other hand, is what food processors do with grocery store coupons: it lets them sell their products to customers who are very price sensitive, without lowering the price paid by people who are too busy or embarassed to clip coupons.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Throw in some dijon mustard and you've got yourself an afternoon!
Heard of them, never seen one, don’t know how to get them, don’t care, because it clearly involves effort I’m unwilling to put in. I believe very strongly in the time value of my money. My salary translates to a bit over $30 an hour, so if it would take more than an hour of effort to get that $30 coupon I come out behind. A $5 better take less than 2 minute of effort, or again I’m behind.
I don’t chase money, not in either direction. Just doesn’t seem worth it. I used to, when I was climbing out of poverty, but I’m out now, been out for a while. Now I chase enjoying money.
***I guess you don’t use propane because one of my GroupOn coupons is for propane.***
I’m on natural gas.
***I guess you didn’t want Thanksgiving turkey because I used coupons to get mine for FREE****
Buy so many dollars in groceries, get one free. No coupon.
I just got our newspaper. Full of coupons for groceries, sandwiches, pizzas, ect. None of these stores are close to me. The cost of gas to go get them is more than the cost of the same item when bought at our local Pizza place, and our local pizza is lots better.
Actually its a $5 off $30 purchase and the only time and effort I put into getting them is a simple button click on eBay.
p.s. Keep in mind that is $30 BEFORE coupons so if your coupons add up to $25 you get the entire bundle for FREE after you hand over the $5 off $30 coupon.
I sort of have this thing down to a sort of automatic mental process that many local couponers consult me on the latest deals. For example, I got 3 calls today from couponers asking my advice on the new Publix Green Sheet deals coming out this weekend.
Yeah, well all my Thanksgiving trimmings were also FREE via coupons.
LOL! Well, I for one, won't flame you. I'm so tightfisted, even my husband gets annoyed at me sometimes!
I don’t e-bay. And $5 is meaningless money to me. I tip $5 on a $15 bar bill.
Only time I ever got $25 of coupons on one purchase was dumb luck, there’d been a bunch of durable goods I’d been thinking about replacing soonish, got a mailer with a bunch of coupon for durable good, most of which were on my “one of these days I gotta” list. Went to Target, got all that stuff, it was like $25 or so off close to $100. Don’t even know how I got the mailer, would have bought the stuff soon anyway.
I used to coupon a lot. But I moved on. The effort level stopped being worth it. I no longer need to pinch pennies, hell I no longer need to pinch Jacksons, I can even chuck around Benjamins without too much concern. I’ve just plain got better things to do with my time than chase $5 coupons all over the internet.
I buy the $5 coupons in bulk. Hardly chasing them around the web. Plus I estimate I save a couple hundred bucks a week at a minimum. Oh, and this computer is no small change. I saved almost $400 when I got it FREE a couple of years ago. BTW, I am now preparing a survivalist stockpile obtained via coupons.
You had to go find where they are, that’s chasing them around the web. A couple hundred isn’t that big a deal, especially if you consider the time put in. Really think it through, to find these coupons, save these coupons, sort these coupons, research the deals, go to the proper stores, remember the coupons, remember the loyalty cards, don’t buy that here there’s a better deal at this other store to go to. To do ALL that does it take you more than 10 hours a week? 10 hours of labor for me pays over 300 bucks, a couple hundred buck on saving from that makes it a value loss.
Computers are small change if you amortize it over the lifetime. I’m sitting in front of a 600 dollar computer I bought 5 years ago and intend to keep another year and half-ish. I’m going to spend more on movie tickets in that time than the computer, and I’ve got friends in the right places, I get into the movies free a lot.
For you it might make sense, you seem to enjoy it, I don’t enjoy any aspect of chasing money, one of my basic life rules is to not put more effort into spending money that I did making it. And I’ve got a cushy software job where we haven’t worked any over time in longer than I’ve owned this computer, my spending effort threshold is low. Awesome for you if this works for you as value or just as fun. For me it would work out in neither way, it’s a lifestyle I lived when I had to, but I don’t have to anymore, and I didn’t enjoy it. I’ll still use deals and coupons that land in my lap, but they better light up and announce themselves because I’m not paying much attention to that stuff.
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