[mikeryan]

and should know that whatever money they recoup from selling the deal will at least cover their costs.

I'm not sure if this is possible with Groupon. Between a discount good enough to be accepted and Groupon's cut taken out you'd have to be running an extremely high margin business to still cover costs.

[clayturk]

Which is why WHO you have distribute your deal is so important. If you are a small business, do your research.

Again, I get what you are alluding to, but the fact of the matter is you are only speaking generally, this is possible, and in fact happens every day. Maybe not with Groupon per say, but there are others. If you are a small business, adility.com is your friend.

This model is designed to get mass exposure, but it is ultimately up to the business how massive the outcome will be.