Comments on: Groupon Deal Burns Small Bakery With Orders for 102,000 Cupcakes

By: Debbie

Debbie — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:27:04 +0000

While I do feel sorry for this woman’s business – I wonder how she stays in business – she clearly made a bad professional business move. 80% off – really? No limit – really? How does she stay in business to begin with? SHE made the mistakes – NOT Groupon. I have purchased many, many things off of Groupon for myself and as gifts – they are highly reliable and offer great discounts, although none have been 80% off! Nearly everything Groupon posts has a “limit” to how many you can purchase or “quantity” of coupons available – it is clearly not their fault – SHE made an extremely bad business decision – live and learn – move on – don’t point the finger at anyone besides herself! Put on your big girl panties and accept you made a bad decision and MOVE ON! I do hope she does continue in business and profits in the long run from all of the press she is receiving over this “mistake” – does anyone consider perhaps she did this on purpose to get even MORE publicity nationwide for free??? Hmm – point to ponder, I’m suspicious – how could anyone running a healthy business make such an incredible mistake?! Good luck – I do hope you pull through it – I’m 80% sure you will!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:15:11 +0000

I agree with Maria: the owner should have put a limit on the # of vouchers with a realistic # of what her business could handle and she did offer it at an extremely steep discount. Groupon should have advised her on setting a limit. But she can’t fully blame Groupon. I do hope the owner stays in business & hopefully learns from her poor business decision.

By: jmarklane

jmarklane — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:42:50 +0000

I subscribe to Groupon. I’ve purchased two things, and didn’t end up using either one. I think that’s half their game, like health clubs. I don’t think Groupon is long for this world. It’s a clever idea, but in reality, it just won’t work. People are already getting bored with it.

By: MyTake

MyTake — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:42:24 +0000

I’ll bet that next time she’ll put in a condition like “First 100 customers” like so many store promotions have.

By: consumer

consumer — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:38:04 +0000

Greg,

Don’t blame the people redeem the coupons, they’re just getting the deal the BUSINESS put out there. It’s not the consumers fault the business didn’t look before it leapt!

You’re just jealous you didn’t get in on the deal!

By: greg

greg — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:26:37 +0000

Have to be careful, no small company can afford to sell below cost. All those coupon clowns out there to get something for nothing.

By: ReadBtwnTheLines

ReadBtwnTheLines — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:22:04 +0000

As others have said, she should have done her due diligence. If she had hired a lawyer(or used the one she should already have….as a business owner it’s always a good idea to have a lawyer in your hip pocket), she could’ve avoid this whole mess. If Groupon won’t limit, don’t use ‘em. I believe others will, e.g. Livingsocial.

She can be thankful though that she MAY get future business, inshallah, that will offset this temporary bump in the road.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 23:19:51 +0000

When someone does something like Groupon and they haven’t done it before, someone should be there to kind of explain it to you and how it works. A little advise and this could have turned out so much better. I hope her business recovers!

By: Naomi

Naomi — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:59:16 +0000

That sucks but she should have set a limit on the amount available and limit one per customer. Also she should have kept track when it ballooned out of control to stop it. Also the fact that she said she had to sacrifice quality for quantity she may not get new customers. I feel bad for her but she made a terrible mistake.

By: Maria

Maria — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:44:33 +0000

I’m a regular Groupon customer, and I see two obvious things she did wrong: (1) She didn’t set a limit on the number of deals that could be sold, and (2) 75% off, really?? Most deals I see for food are around 50% off. If she’d set a limit equal to her expectations–a load she could handle, say, maybe a few hundred–and priced them at $20, she would’ve turned a profit. As a business owner, my first questions would’ve been, “So, what if I get a number of orders I can’t handle? Can I limit the quantity sold?”