The businesses that use Groupon are either close to going out of business or of the variety that regularly charges 2X what something is worth and offers a 50% discount. Groupon's spurning of Google's $6 billion offer was insane but equally insane was Google's offer. Both sides of that transaction should cause investors to take pause when they consider either companies "management" abilities.

Groupon has been great for us. We usually find a great deal once or twice a month for many of the restaurants and stores we frequent. We have also had some great opportunities to try things we have always wanted to, but are typically a bit too pricey for us in this current economic state we are in. The other nice thing with Groupon is for the majority of the Groupons you get they will last for about one year from the purchase date, giving plenty of time to use them at your convenience.

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I simply do not like the fact of what a business has to give up to offer a deal on Groupon/Living Social & etc. Yes I get a good deal ($10.00 for $20.00 in food) but when my friends (restaurant owners) can't pay their bill because they gave away too much that's not right. I found another deal/coupon site (www.freefu.com) and I have recommended it to everyone that I can because all a business has to do is offer a "loss leader" in the form of a free item, ex. free drink with purchase. My friends love it, and I love it because it's completely free and I find great deals.

As a business owner, I'd use these on a very limited basis and very strategically. I'm not sure that many of the small business owners have the marketing savvy to understand the pitfalls. As a consumer, they are a bonanza. These things may go the way of the dinosaur eventually, but until then, I'm taking huge advantage of the opportunities. I'm saving a lot of money and discovering some new places as well.

I've used LivingSocial and Groupon both. I've been very pleased and have not been gyped. I'll continue to use them as long as the deal offered appeals to me. Oh, and I'm over 50 too!

I agree that you can get good restaurant deals, but I've found that a lot of the service offerings (manicures, massages, etc.) are usually businesses that need a boost in their customer base. Once they are slammed with reservations from Groupon customers, the quality of their services also suffers. I've also found they they will strip the "perks" of being a normal customer (i.e. offering a complementary glass of wine at a nice hair salon) if you are a Groupon customer. I'd rather pay full price and know I'm going to get consistently good quality service, rather than waste my money and be disappointed later!

 I've checked into them, most offers are for things I wouldn't eat, use, etc..

See, here's the thing. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it with or without a coupon. Conversely if I don't feel in the mood, I'll refrain from said purchase or activity.

Also, typically, most "deals" have limitations on them regarding what I can or can't do, how much, what dates, and so on. PLUS what they're peddling tends to be shopped the f*** out when they offer these deals. So for events, you end up with 3 million other people attending, hoping to get their slice of "free pie", and the whole situation is just uncomfortable (hell truly is other people), or if it's a product, you're either fighting for first dibs, or stuck having to sift through the mangled, beat up remains of what everyone else left alone.

So in general, I just try like hell to avoid coupons and be frugal otherwise.

Besides, why shouldn't I pay what something is worth? why should I obsess over "deals"? I also hate haggling. If I haggle, it typically means I piss off the retailers, cut into their profits, and if everyone does it, it means lower profits and lower wages as everyone races for the bottom, and quite frankly, that obsession over money is probably hurting the economy more than anything else. (capitalism and the free market is sort of the snake that swallows it's own tail).

So yeah, screw it. I'll save my cash, and spend it when I feel it's appropriate.

These coupons are a great way to get a client inside the business doors. Its a great way to offer a client a discount in order to have the opportunity to have a long term client. Ive used a handful of local deals and have had great experiences. Now I'm looking forward to spreading the word to all my family and friends with www.eddie2011.thecustomeradvantage.com to help my local businesses find more customers and also receive small commissions when anyone uses a coupon. This is a win-win-win, for the business(new customer), us(commission) and the end user of the coupon (discount and possible commission).

Groupon makes it affordable to do fun things with my kids, like go to the Aquarium or Children's museum. We would not be able to afford to do any of those things without Groupon.

My husband and I use Groupon for restaurants. We fall out of the demographics....well over 40 and married.

Consumers will move towards "on demand", "location-based", "real-time", "intelligent" deals accessed via their smartphone. The deals will be more and more competitive as all the players vie for a "good vendor's" business. The "Deal 2.0" will begin and it will be good for consumers. Our company in Seattle, Pirq.com, is doing some interesting things to innovate the "Deal 2.0" space.

I always wanted to get laser hair removal but could not afford to spend $600, for example. If I can get the 6 treatments for $99, why wouldn't I, especially with summer coming? Same thing for a haircut. Everyone needs a haircut, so this would also be a good deal if you're getting it at a fancy salon for less than what SuperCuts would charge.

I understand things like sky diving, paintball, or botox may not be necessary or even appealing to some, so in that case, these would be the deals you can decide to pass on, but if you can find deals to good restaurants, boat tours, fun activities/services you have always wanted to do but couldn't afford, then why pass up the chance?

My sister uses the LivingSocial Escapes for hotel stays when she travels with her boyfriend, but they are wealthy and would travel to these places regardless of the deal, but now they can get half off a nicer hotel than what they would have initially booked because they are getting a fancy hotel for the price of a mid-range hotel in a foreign country. They don't just decide to visit that particular country just to use the hotel.

You are free to decide if the deal is worth it and something you'd use/enjoy or if it's a waste of your money and/or if you feel it's still not enough of a discount. If you cannot have a certain level of control over your spending and engage in purchasing every deal you see, then maybe that is something psychological that you should address, but don't blame these sites for "making you broke", they don't make you buy the offers they send you. Use common sense, think it through, and at times, exercise some restraint.

BooHaHaHa. The second DOT COM bust is proceeding exactly as planned.

Mr. Wolk, a contributing MSNBC reporter wrote on the accompanying article "6 reasons not to buy" said, "You probably will never get a chance to find out. Highly anticipated stock offerings like Groupon’s are typically allocated by stock brokers only to their biggest and best customers, including big investment funds and “high net worth” individuals."

This is what all investment brokers do or are told to do isn't it. Sell the high net worth people's investment when it starts going down to people that normally aren't offered the investment while the high net individual buys something new going up.

Wasn't Mitt Romney a big investment fund manager who turned into a high net worth individual.

1. Barrier to entry in this market is relatively low, once the NY-Times starts offering group coupons they will make up for much of the classfied's revenue they lost over the years, and take major swipe at Groupon.

2. Number of competitors is heating up, and niche competitors which specialize in type of service (beauty services, restaurants, travel) will just continue to arise

3. I use GroupOn b/c the discounts are huge, but I have not been, and probably will not be a repeat customer.. this point is huge.. b/c as more merchants realize they are giving away services at a 75% discount (GroupOn take a big fee), they will begin to back off the group buying euphoria.

Groupon will face more competition and changing market dynamics... eToys back in the dot-com days had great prices, supply chain, and management, but lost out to reality.. toys were just cheaper and more accesible at Walmart. But the inside investors in GroupOn are not stupid, they are moving the IPO to pump this baby up, and cash out asap before the business model collapses.

Groupon is killing our tax revenue streams. At some point our government officials will be sitting around the table wondering where the heck the reveneus have gone and why they can't fix the roads or pay the firemen and police.

Discounts like this need to obligated to pay their portion (retail) of taxes to protect our communities and our way of life.

This type of marketing eventually devalues the product beyond a repairable state. If I can always pay less, why would I ever pay retail. Let's put our small businesses out of business....we don't need them right?

 Andrew Mason, chairman and co-founder Eric P. Lefkofsky and chief financial officer Jason Child are complete idiots. Invest in these 3  tricksters who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as greed, both dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naïveté. 

The same people who believed that the world was going to end on May 21 will buy those stocks in the secondary market.