Revisiting Grouponomics

Two items of news came out this week regarding Groupon, the daily-deals company. I first wrote about them here in response to Felix Salmon's thoughtful piece.

Restaurants in Westchester are unhappy about Groupon-type deals "sucking $280 million from independent restaurants". (link) Wasn't it not long ago that we were supposed to believe that Groupon is "free advertising" for restaurant owners, and brings a lot of new customers to fill the empty seats? Time to re-read my earlier post to see why this scheme doesn't work for most.

Meanwhile, Groupon stock is in the cellar, and its controversial CEO has been kicked out. (link) He did make himself and a number of other people extremely rich by pushing the IPO out with not even two years of operational history. Well-timed.