The guy who owns the salon where I get my hair cut probably wouldn't do a Groupon deal because of adverse selection effects -- he would be worried about attract

The guy who owns the salon where I get my hair cut probably wouldn't do a Groupon deal because of adverse selection effects -- he would be worried about attracting a bunch of cheap people who wouldn't pay full price for his premium-ish services and, by virtue of buying into a Groupon, don't have loyalty to their stylists. However, he is willing to discount services to customers who are likely shopping for a new salon. A few years ago, he signed-up for a service which would send an elaborate snail mail invitation for a set of heavily discounted salon services to people who recently bought homes in certain high income zip codes around his business. He owns some pretty sophisticated salon management software which can track conversion rates (and therefore lifetime customer value). I think he wasn't getting enough conversions to justify the price (a few dollars/invite), but he'd be interested in other such services with the proper selection biases. Could someone compete with Groupon by offering very selective discount offers? How much would it be worth for Grocery Store A to target those who shop primarily at Grocery Stores B? Could Visa use its credit card data to build-up such a list? Could it legally use that list to drive such marketing endeavors? Would consumers opt into having their purchasing data used in that way if it meant being offered amazing deals from time to time? How else could one offer up to businesses highly selective campaigns? The problem with Groupon is that it attracts customers who aren't especially valuable, and businesses have to hope to pick up the minority of those who represent profitable new business.