The monster that is Groupon just won't quit. Wounded and bleeding, nibbled almost to death by imitators (notably Amazon Local, Living Social, and the nCrowd group's Tippr), its stock price derided by investors, its business practices castigated in the press, its reputation as a shameless corruptor of free markets and destroyer of small businesses no impediment, the Great Satan of the Internet somehow stumbles on.
It's apparently not enough that Al Silverman's Bite of Seattle assembles the worst and wurst of local restaurants for a weekend pig-out on the grounds of Seattle Center (and a mystery why the city, normally so protective of its citizens health would accede to this annual request), but now the entire event is to be called the "Groupon Bite of Seattle."
And this morning, news that Groupon wants to muscle in on another restaurant scam, online reservation systems. Restaurants that use OpenTable pay a hefty fee for each booking, and Groupon apparently sees this as easy pickings.
Groupon spent $20 million last year to buy a company called Savor.com and acquire the technology behind the discounted reservation service.
So the next time you visit your favorite bistro, you might wonder: that four-top by the window, are they paying full boat or did they stumble in with a sneaky, last-minute 40-percent-off voucherless Groupon? And if you're the restaurant owner, why would you offer multiple prices for the same pork chop? I know, I know, it's all about yield management, doing whatever you can to put butts in seats. Pork butts.
Coming to Seattle later this year. Enjoy your meal.
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