the only one "coupon" I ever bought was for a $20 Amazon Gift card for $10 on Living Social.
All those other coupons are almost always junk. The only reason it works, is that out of millions of people out there, there are a few for whom that one coupon was actually relevant.
So essentially you sign up for 364 days of worthless spam, to save $10 once a year
Agreed, I only bought the $20 Amazon deal at Living Social since it's a guaranteed $10 savings at a company I frequent. Even then, I was hesitant to pull the trigger because I had to go through the registration process and opt-in to spam.
While it's not my concern, I don't see how some of these deals by large, nationally recognized companies (ex: Gap, Amazon, B&N) would be sustainable. I'm sure they can charge it to marketing, but they're increasing sales by offering a substantial discount that makes them lose money on short term, small transactions. I assume they hope 1.) new customers are attracted, 2.) customers spend much more than $20, or 3.) customers who don't normally visit are attracted.
I wonder how much the average Groupon user actually saves in a month/year. I just glanced through the last three month of groupon spam in my inbox and the only deal that I would be remotely interested in was $6 off at some pizza place I don't normally order from.
It almost certainly works out that if you are a Groupon customer you spend more money than you typically would - in your lifespan of Groupon. Whilst you save money on the first purchase, would you have bought it at all if not for Groupon? What about future purchases? You probably wouldn't have ever considered Balloon lessons if not for Groupon...
All those other coupons are almost always junk. The only reason it works, is that out of millions of people out there, there are a few for whom that one coupon was actually relevant.
So essentially you sign up for 364 days of worthless spam, to save $10 once a year