Groupon doesn’t save you money – Despite what you might have heard, Groupon does not save you money, it makes you spend your hard-earned cash on things you would not otherwise buy. Even if you want something they're offering, you're probably still succumbing to the marketing, because you don't actually need the service or product. There's a difference between want and need. Moreover, a scientific study suggests that such coupon/discount services might actually damage the long-term reputations of the brands who sign up to this approach to marketing.

“One of the biggest internet phenomena in recent years has been the rise of daily deal sites such as Groupon or Living Social. These sites offer discounts, generally of between 40 and 60 per cent, for products and services available in specific cities around the world. These deals are expensive for merchants: Groupon takes about half the revenue that the vouchers generate. But although merchants may make a short term loss during the deal, the potential benefit is of long term growth due to the repeat business from new customers.” Now, an analysis from the first half of this year’s deals looked at Yelp reviews and saw a negative correlation. They collected 56,000 Yelp reviews for 2,332 merchants who ran 2,496 deals and examined merchant reputations before and after a Groupon deal. “Their analysis shows that while the number of reviews increases signifificantly due to daily deals, average rating scores from reviewers who mention daily deals are about 10% lower than scores of their peers.”