"But that's not aligning with Groupon's interests..." Have you visited their site? Have you looked over the separate site for businesses? Groupon's interests co

"But that's not aligning with Groupon's interests..." Have you visited their site? Have you looked over the separate site for businesses? Groupon's interests cover not just themselves but also their community AND the SMBs. How else to explain the fact that 97% of businesses would do another Groupon offer? Separating a Groupon offer from its residual effects is the same short-sightedness that Posie's suffers. Like many other commenters have said here, it's marketing - the cost of customer aquisition. What a company does with the customer once they're through the door is critical. The Posies blog post sounds like lots went wrong - misunderstood goals for the Groupon itself, ill-conceived deal (perhaps even a bad fit for a Groupon at all - too small of a deal), ill-prepared staff. Time will tell if the Posies Groupon created any new loyal customers - that's the whole point.