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"I’m tired of seeing small businesses get screwed." I really don't understand this as a rationalization for the somewhat skewed portrayal of Groupon that this

by 9999 15y ago

"I’m tired of seeing small businesses get screwed." I really don't understand this as a rationalization for the somewhat skewed portrayal of Groupon that this guy has been giving. I'm sure some small businesses have been screwed by choosing to do a poorly thought out Groupon. Groupon's business plan does not rely on them screwing over small businesses, in fact, they're heavily reliant on small businesses having a positive experience with the company. From all of the stories I've seen, it seems like there have been some nasty Groupon sales guys that may have took advantage of a small business owner, but it seems like Groupon is not encouraging that behavior in the long term. It's obviously not in their best business interests to do so, and Andrew Mason, being neither a fool nor a monster would not allow the business to lose sight of its longer term goals. Also, the fact that he took a very low payout tells me that he may be in it for the long haul.

mgkimsal 15y ago
What's a little bit hard to swallow is seeing a company get big by employing those tactics, and the penalty is "well, we had a few bad apples, and we're disciplining them now". Whether right or wrong, all we heard about for a while from real users was the horror stories, giving the impression that most deals were bad for the small businesses using them. My gut reaction is "sure, I could make money hand over fist by lying (or misrepresenting things) to customers - making money by being honest is much harder". In some ways it's a bit like the old MS stories. "They just did good business!". Well, no, they quickly established a monopoly then proceeded to abuse the hell out of it with several partners, which kept them entrenched and on top far longer than they would otherwise have been there. "Hey they don't do that anymore!" That may be true, but the damage is done, and they get to reap the rewards for a long time with relatively minor punishments. There'd be much more expense in doing long term education and one-on-one counseling with the small businesses that use groupon, and probably a MUCH higher satisfaction rate with them from a merchant standpoint, but they wouldn't have nearly the marketshare they do by going that route.

by 9999 15y ago

mgkimsal 15y ago

What's a little bit hard to swallow is seeing a company get big by employing those tactics, and the penalty is "well, we had a few bad apples, and we're disciplining them now". Whether right or wrong, all we heard about for a while from real users was the horror stories, giving the impression that most deals were bad for the small businesses using them. My gut reaction is "sure, I could make money hand over fist by lying (or misrepresenting things) to customers - making money by being honest is much harder". In some ways it's a bit like the old MS stories. "They just did good business!". Well, no, they quickly established a monopoly then proceeded to abuse the hell out of it with several partners, which kept them entrenched and on top far longer than they would otherwise have been there. "Hey they don't do that anymore!" That may be true, but the damage is done, and they get to reap the rewards for a long time with relatively minor punishments. There'd be much more expense in doing long term education and one-on-one counseling with the small businesses that use groupon, and probably a MUCH higher satisfaction rate with them from a merchant standpoint, but they wouldn't have nearly the marketshare they do by going that route.