How many daily deals sites do you subscribe to? Since Groupon’s explosion and constant decline, daily deals and coupons are more or less becoming looked down upon as a stigma when you attempt to use deals in restaurants and retail stores. If you take a Groupon to a restaurant, the waitress likes to assume you’re a cheapskate who won’t tip based on the original price of the meal regardless of what you had planned to do. And it’s not their fault. Some people do use daily deals as a way to try out more expensive things they ordinarily would not have been able to afford without it.
So why deal with the stigmas and stank eyes to begin with when you can use daily deals on an online retailer? Many deals aggregators have attempted to offer this, but with the amount of deals sites out there, it was only a matter of time before the Internet got all meta and sold deals … on deals. Just look at today’s Google Offers deal Betabeat spotted for a 50 percent discount of a voucher to use at OneKingsLane.com, the site that offers deals on home furnishings. Can you handle enough sales on sales on sales?
The trend surely isn’t limited to just Google Offers. We did additional research and found this other deal in our inbox that is quite similar to the Google Offers sale. The formula is the exact same as Google’s: Wine.com is a site to buy discounted bottles of boozy liquid grapes, gift baskets, and membership to wine tasting clubs. This AmazonLocal deal offers a 50 percent discount for $40 to spend on Wine.com. Seriously, what will they think of next? Despite the “Local” in the aggregator’s name, the deal is hardly narrow since Wine.com will ship to any state of America.
Or how about this LivingSocial deal for Overstock.com, known for extreme deals on liquidated items in practically all departments of online shopping? You can buy furniture, fashion items, toys, electronics and more on Overstock … now with additional discount if you buy this LivingSocial deal that offers, you guessed it, 50 percent off a voucher to spend on the site.
We understand that daily deals sites are ways for local businesses and online retailers to attract new customers to their shops, but it is a pretty hilarious trend to see extreme deals on top of more deals. Not that we’re going to complain, of course. Our favorite ones were still 50 percent off Amazon gift cards from a few days ago, 50 percent off vouchers to Whole Foods, and last year’s LivingSocial deal for two Fandango movie tickets at $9. Some of these deals definitely prove to be more useful than other thanks to the wide range of items one can purchase off a certain retailer or big discount on an increasingly more expensive activity. Just remember: Do not buy a deal simply because it seems like good discount. Only purchase something you are sure you will use.
