Well you may be sitting there wondering what's happened in Perth in the last 12 months. Not much unless you have an internet connection in which case you would have noticed an avalanche of group buy deal websites like Scoopon, Jumponit, Cudo, Spreets, Stardeals and on and on and on.
What's a Group Buy?
Well, you know how you used to go to FAL to get stuff cheap because you would buy things in bulk? Well, some websites decided to source deals that would only get activated if a number of people bought in on it. Your local restaurant will give a 50% off if you can find 100 other people to also prepay for a voucher.
Who wins?
Well depends. The website wins because they get a cut of every coupon sold. The customers win when they use the coupon (often, its more like if they CAN get to use the coupon.. more on that later). The restaurant wins when you don't use your coupon cos they still have your money.
Yeah, so why this website?
Everyone jumps on a bandwagon but often many people fall off it and get hurt. However, the bandwagon carries on its merry way. We don't like this. Many people get stung by deals that go sour and nobody gets warned about it as the bandwagon rolls back into Perth.
On the OTHER hand, some wonderful deals are to be had and businesses to be praised for their response to honouring the coupons that they put out. If you have had a great or a bad experience with group buy websites, we want to know the details. We'll improve how we do this as we go along but for now, feel free to leave comments to the posts.
