Today my wife introduced me to a new site, and I instantly loved it’s concept; it’s called GROUPON. Similar to Craigslist, it has city specific pages (limited to USA & Canada). Groupon, each day frequently, has  a deal offered from local businesses. However, for that deal to be valid, a minimum number of people (for example, 30 people) will need to buy it by certain time (for example, within couple of days). If the quota of minimum people is not materialized, the deal is off, but the buying can continue even after surpassing the minimum alloted number. You will get an email with the coupon and redemption instructions, after the deal gets valid.

There are lot more other “Deals” sites, and I use them frequently too. But either it’s Groupon or the other sites, one should always read the fine prints.  Looking at these “Deal” sites can make you a compulsive buyer, buying something that you will seldom use; I am a living example of it :D One should always be smart when it comes to buying, get your priorities straight; and ensure that these coupons are used before they expire.

I am not into advertising a “Deal” site, especially the one that I knew of just this morning, and have only few hours of cross checking. Like I mentioned above, I was fascinated with its concept, the power of collective buying. The thing that encouraged me the most to sign-up were some of the past deals (all from local businesses), like wine tasting, guided trip to new york, culinary classes, all for very good prices. It was not just about prices, it was more about quality ideas on spending your time on things that you might never had thought of.

Again, I hope you all are responsible enough to restrain yourself from being a compulsive buyer. But, I see no harm in signing up and seeing what local deals are available. I am still learning more about it, why don’t you give it a shot too?  Click here to go to the Groupon site. I have default city as Baltimore, you can change that using “Visit More Cities” on the center top side of the page. Sign up, and good luck :)