There’s a new coupon website called Groupon.com that capitalizes on group buying power. Everyday Groupon has one deal you can buy into for a limited time. For instance, a few days ago they had a deal on discounted boat tickets to Catalina Island. The price was $49 RT, a 41% discount off the normal rate of $83. Other deals include discounted paint ball tickets and 50 percent off restaurants.
Groupon stands for group + coupon. They have sites in 17 major cities, including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Washington D.C.
As long as enough people buy into the deal everyone gets the lower price. If not, Groupon does not charge your credit card. If Groupon meets their quota, they email everyone who signed up with a link to print out the coupons. Then you call the business to make reservations.
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
Great post! I blogged about the same thing just last week, you can check it out here: http://yellowzip.com/blog/2009/08/get-your-groupon-coupons-for-exploring-your-city/
In general, Groupon’s coupons are really fun — I’ve gotten discounts on yoga lessons and soccer tickets. Unfortunately it doesn’t help anyone who doesn’t live in any of the cities that Groupon caters to.
Another cool site I’ve found is http://www.woot.com/. This site sends out daily internet deals on cool stuff — and you don’t have to live in a particular city to participate!
Great post, thanks for sharing!
Another great deal. Thanks!
Hey great blog – I can’t believe what kind of deals you guys find sometimes. Sites like your blog and new sites just starting out like this one I found – http://www.zibogo.com makes it easy for people like me to save money and it’s great – Thanks!
I love Groupon, while worried at first it was another internet style scam, I trusted Julia and bought my Catalina tix because I have a trip there coming up next month. I have several friends who also bought. Got the coupon in the mail the next day, called the boat reservations and gave them the coupon number and everything went so smoothly! Saved great moola from this site, and have also now purchased a 2 for 1 for go carting to make a fun date in the future!!! :o)
Glad Groupon worked for you and your friends, Kelli!
There are no savings at all with Groupon. You pay full price: half to Groupon to buy the coupon, and then half to the merchant when you use the coupon.
I joined the Houston group. For my first coupon, I paid $10 to Groupon for a coupon that said “$20 worth of food for $10” at one of our downtown restaurants.
I used it yesterday. Our bill was for more that $20 and, sure enough, the restaurant took off $10, just like the coupon said, giving us $20 worth of food for $10.
Except that I had already paid $10 to Groupon for the coupon! So, I paid $20 for $20 worth of food. It wasn’t half price. You just pay half to Groupon and half to the restaurant: full price, in total.
Mary, you’re an idiot.
If you have bought a coupon for twenty dollars worth of food, they’re supposed to take 20 dollars OFF. Not just ten.
You let yourself get played by not understanding simple math apparently.
Nick,
Read more carefully.
Groupon offered “$20 worth of food for $10.”
So, yes, for my $10 I SHOULD have received a coupon good for $20 worth of food.
But that’s not what I received from Groupon. The ACTUAL COUPON instructed the merchant to give me $20 worth of food for $10. So, the merchant did.
I have no argument with the merchant, who honored the coupon exactly as it was written.
As to my mental status, I will grant you this: it wasn’t very smart of me to pay $10 for something that I could not see until after I paid.
Mary, you should report the merchant to Groupon!! The $10 was only supposed to go to Groupon not the merchant. (Groupon THEN PAYS the merchant)
I think your server was confused and obviously didn’t know the deal was ALREADY PAID FOR. (Or they were trying to rip you off)
If I were you I’d go get my money back from the merchant. I’ve used Groupon in several occasions and have had no problems.
Good luck and give Groupon another shot, its not their fault… and it really does work.