[brm]

Making a poor business decision and then somehow blaming Groupon for it is no better than building a house in a flood plain and not having flood insurance.

Groupon works wonderfully for businesses with predictable fixed costs and decreasing marginal costs - bowling alleys, stadiums, art museums etc... It does not work well at all for businesses who need to source product, prepare goods, or provide service - restaurants especially

[potatolicious]

> "It’s because we cannot afford to lose any more money on this terrible decision I made"

Quote from the end of blog post. Having read through the whole thing I do not believe at any point she blamed Groupon for her predicament - she walked into it eyes wide open and appears to acknowledge this.

It does, however, raise interesting questions about Groupon's relevance to the small businesses they purport to help. Groupon is supposed to be a win-win for consumers and small businesses alike, but it would appear this may not be the case. Seeing as how this is core to their business model, if this is a regular case I would expect this to sink Groupon sooner or later.

[anigbrowl]

Sounds quite similar to the problems people have reported with Yelp in some ways. Stories like poison the well for anyone trying to sell net services to small businesses later on, too, even if the deal is much better value. I gather a lot of cafe owners are done with the free wifi too.

[alanstorm]

It doesn't seem like Posie's is "blaming" groupon, the owner owns up to their mistakes

From http://posiescafe.com/wp/?p=316#

"the single worst decision I have ever made as a business owner"

"we cannot afford to lose any more money on this terrible decision I made"

Jessie owns up to being the one at fault here.

Beyond that though, what does it say about online marketing, and our industry in general, that high pressure sales tactics are leading small business owners into bad decisions like this?

An industry based on caveat emptor, a lack of trust between actors, zero sum games, and the love of a quick buck over all else leads to an ugly future.

[codexon]

An industry based on caveat emptor, a lack of trust between actors, zero sum games, and the love of a quick buck over all else leads to an ugly future.

That's how capitalism has worked for hundreds of years. It was only relatively recently that western nations have slowly shifted away from this model with the publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and the Sherman Anti-Trust act in the early 1900's.

Of course you still have libertarian thinkers paid for by Koch Industries who preach that two greedy people will always cancel each other out, and benefit the market.