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VIDEOGroupon 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.

A single mother-of-three has revealed she was dumped by the man she was dating and was embarrassed to leave her home after a botched microblading treatment left her with four eyebrows. Jami Ledbetter, 42, from Kansas City, Missouri, told WDAF-TV that she was initially excited when her daughters bought her a $250 Groupon for the treatment last November because she was born without eyebrows. However, the discounted microblading session went horribly wrong, and she ended up with four brows instead of two. Not only did the end result shatter her self-confidence, but it also led to the demise of a...

In the wake of two videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted fetal body parts, Republicans in Congress are working to ensure that Planned Parenthood is stripped of its federal funding. However, it’s not only the government that fills Planned Parenthood’s coffers. According to 2nd Vote, a website and app that tracks the flow of money from consumers to political causes, more than 25 percent of Planned Parenthood’s $1.3-billion annual revenue comes from private donations, which includes corporate contributions. 2nd Vote researched the corporations and organizations to find which supported Planned Parenthood and found that more...

More than 200 years after Alexander Hamilton’s death, an online coupon company has given the Founding Father a historic promotion. Deal website Groupon launched a Presidents Day tie-in of $10 off when customers purchase a $40 coupon for a local business. The problem is, the promotion honors President Alexander Hamilton -- who was never president of the United States. According to MyFoxNY.com, the promo calls Hamilton "undeniably one of our greatest presidents and most widely recognized for establishing the country's financial system." Hamilton, the nation's first secretary of the Treasury, was killed by Vice President Aaron Burr in a pistol...

Starting tomorrow, Groupon ( www.groupon.com ) (NASDAQ: GRPN) will be kicking off Presidents Day weekend by giving customers 10 dollars off 40 dollars when they purchase a deal for any local business. The $10 bill, as everyone knows, features President Alexander Hamilton -- undeniably one of our greatest presidents and most widely recognized for establishing the country’s financial system. Beginning Saturday, Feb. 15 at 9 am CST, shoppers will be able to redeem this offer by using the promo code “10OFF40LOCAL”, which isn’t very catchy, but neither was President Hamilton’s famous saying, “nobody expects to trust his body overmuch after...

"...The timed sales aspect is an impetus to get consumers to act more quickly but that alone is not what makes Groupon successful. It is a necessity more than anything and not the reason why consumers are there in the first place. What I believe is the key to Groupon's success is that many consumers, myself included like ..." (continued)

Do you agree with Groupon's decision to pull gun-related promotions? Yes(34%) No(62%) Not Sure(4%)

Groupon has canceled, at least temporarily, all of its scheduled and ongoing gun-related promotions, Matt Brownell at Aol Daily Finance reported. “All scheduled and current gun-related deals featured on Groupon North America, including shooting ranges, conceal-and-carry and clay shooting, have been placed on hiatus while we review internal standards that shape the deal inventory we feature,” a Groupon spokesperson told Daily Finance. “The category is under review following recent consumer and merchant feedback.” Michael Cargill, the owner of a gun shop in Texas, said that his Groupon deal — for a concealed handgun training course — was canceled and that...

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...

One of the biggest misconceptions about GroupOn is that it is strictly for restaurants, entertainment, and travel. Well, your humble correspondent has taken advantages of those discount offers but for the most part, I have used GroupOn for "meat and potatoes" necessities. And one of my favorite necessities is propane. You might remember I had a post in this blog last year about getting FREE propane and guess what? I did it again! I bought the propane last year in August but used my GroupOn coupon in January to score my FREE propane. Well, since I use the barbeque...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 23, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Morality In Media today announced a national boycott of Groupon because twice this year the coupon company has offered discounts on tours of torture porn studio, Kink. “Selling coupons supporting the degradation of women is as low as a publicly-traded company can go,” said MIM executive director, Dawn Hawkins. “Groupon frames the tour as a historic one, comparing the opportunity to visiting the Smithsonian Institute because the building that houses Kink has an ‘historic history in San Francisco.’” Kink advertises that they have “young sexy teens who are overwhelmed and outnumbered…who need to...

Groupon Inc. said Friday it plans to “significantly” cut its online marketing spending, an apparent reversal of its chief executive’s earlier boast that the discount-deal site spends an enormous amount on that effort “because it works.” Chicago-based Groupon made the disclosure in a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with its much-anticipated, but controversial, initial public offering. Groupon said that while it spent $345.1 million on online marketing in the first half of 2011, “the resources presently being devoted to online marketing initiatives are not yielding sufficiently attractive investment returns.” It said it would “significantly” decrease...

Think "propane" and probably the first thing to come to mind would be Hank Hill of "King of the Hill." Lately, however, when I have been thinking of propane, the word "expensive" comes to mind. I used to get a tank of propane for a mere $10 per tank at the City of Sunrise. Years ago that town had a fleet of vehicles that ran on propane (and what happened those vehicles?) but as that fleet was drawn down they still had a big propane station. So what they did was offer really cheap propane to the public. I...

The Groupon Guide to: Shame Like all emotions, shame sneaks into the pit of your stomach when you least expect it. Sometimes, however, biological or environmental triggers may cause you to feel shame even when you've got nothing to be ashamed of. Here's a guide to feeling shame appropriately: The Situation: You've been caught cheating on an exam. Shameworthy?: No, unless the exam proctor explicitly forbade cheating by tattooing "No Cheating" on your forearm before the exam, or if the test questions were arranged to form an acrostic that spelled "DON'T CHEAT." If not, then cheating is not just allowed,...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - An African-American political advocacy group is targeting "Celebrity Apprentice" star Donald Trump in the aftermath of what many feel are racially tinged political comments made about President Obama. On Thursday, the organization ColorOfChange launched a Twitter-based campaign to persuade black "Celebrity Apprentice" cast members Star Jones and Lil Jon to denounce Trump for what the group terms "race-baiting." Trump has made headlines in recent weeks by repeatedly questioning whether Obama was born in the U.S. Obama released his longform birth certificate April 27 with the hope of settling the matter, but the issue has been...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Guns, abortion and Donald Trump: Three topics so controversial that Groupon doesn't want its brand anywhere near them. The daily-deals website said late Thursday that it will pull its ads from the website of Donald Trump's television show "The Apprentice" to distance itself from the "political criticism" swirling around Trump and his presidential ambitions. "Enough consumers have contacted us to warrant ensuring that we don't place ads on the 'Apprentice' homepage in the future," the company said in a post on its blog. "It's the same reason we don't run deals on guns or abortion ......

By 2015, consumers in the U.S. likely will spend nearly $4 billion on daily-deal offers provided by companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial, says a report released Thursday morning. The report, by research firm BIA/Kelsey, offered a three-level estimate for the amount of spending on daily deals. It said $3.9 billion is the “most likely” scenario to play out by 2015. But under the most “optimistic” scenario, it says sales could reach $6 billion, while the firm’s “low-end projection” is $2.1 billion.

Talk of bubble trouble is rife again in Silicon Valley. Private internet companies with names barely known in the financial world a year ago are suddenly the focus of heated price-talk – even if they have yet to prove they can raise money at some of these lofty levels.

The deal didn’t tip after all. Chicago-based Groupon Inc. has turned down an acquisition offer from Google Inc. and is staying independent, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said Friday. The two companies had been engaged in talks, with speculation about the marriage reaching a fever pitch over the last week. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google reportedly had offered between $5 billion and $6 billion for the daily deal start-up.