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The Groupon Before There Was Groupon
I plan to devote the majority of this column/blog to some of the secondary and tertiary players in the deals market. For all of the adulation that Groupon and Living Social receive by deals savants, it always baffles me that you rarely hear about the smaller players that offer deals just as good and sometimes better (and more local).
One of my favorite sites is Restaurant.com, what I call “the Groupon before there was Groupon."
With a little marketing other than word of mouth and email reminders, I always wonder if they could have been a bigger player, even the dominant player.
After all, versus today’s daily deal sites where there might be one or two deals, hopefully in your area, Restaurant.com offers hundreds of deals, in every area, at a steep discount, available immediately, with no expiration date.
As a brief recap, Restaurant.com currently has about 650 restaurants in the DC-area that offer discounts, the most common being $10 or $15 for a $25 voucher. Some restaurants offer up to five discounts, maybe a $5 for $10 voucher, a $10 for $25 voucher, a $20 for $50 voucher, a $30 for $75 voucher, and a $40 for $100 voucher.
Just buy the voucher and print it up and use it the same day if you like. As an added bonus, Restaurant.com vouchers do not expire.
Here’s the best part. Sign up for their emails and they’ll let you know about their promotions (several times per month) which drastically reduce their voucher costs. When I say drastic, I mean almost nothing. It’s not out of the ordinary for them to run an 80% off promotion, meaning that $25 voucher is now $2.
Really the only tip slash gotcha that I can offer is to make sure you read the fine print as the vouchers typically have a minimum purchase necessary, such as a $35 or $50 minimum to use your $10 for $25 voucher.
Looking for somewhere different? Run a search at Restaurant.com next time and print up a voucher.
Find yourself eating at the same place frequently? See if that place is on Restaurant.com and print up a voucher once a month (that’s another small rule).
As always, please add your two cents in the comments section below if you have any further suggestions or recommendations.
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Tim aggregates DC-area deals on a per-city basis daily at www.TIMS.US, featuring daily deals, current promotions, regular promotions, introductory offers, daily specials, discounts, coupons, email club offers, Facebook offers, Twitter offers, Foursquare offers, and more.
Tim Boone
3:27 pm on Monday, December 26, 2011
Speak of the devil. They're running a $2 for $25 voucher promo thru December 31. http://www.restaurant.com/consumer-promotion/lp_9.asp.
rara reston
5:12 pm on Friday, January 6, 2012
Too many restrictions and too difficult to use. It's definitely NOT a good deal. You often have to buy $50 of food to get the $25 voucher, AND buy a minimum of 2 entrees, AND pay 18% fee on the undiscounted total, AND the Restaurant.com coupons usually only work M-Th, dinner only (not lunch).
Dr. G. C. Powell
8:21 am on Tuesday, December 27, 2011
On the surface, $25 worth of food for $2 sounds like a great deal. But like you said, the stipulations set forth in the fine print are what getcha. It would be great to be able to buy just $25 of food. Not a chance! Most restaurants make you buy $50+ worth of food, or purchase two full priced entrees with beverages. Then, they automatically tack on an 18% tip to the full undiscounted bill! Most of the savings from the voucher end up going out the window. To make matters worse, many restuarant.com vouchers only work M-Th, and not on the weekends. I think Groupon, Living Social and all the rest offer better deals, such as true 50% discounts on food.
Tim Boone
9:12 am on Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Yep, it's definitely situational. Not saying one is better than the other, but it's nice to have a last minute option. I go out with a couple of neighborhood guys about once a month and I always buy the $25 certificate to the local hangout knowing we're going to spend the $50 minimum.
Uncle Smartypants
2:18 pm on Tuesday, December 27, 2011
I just did a restaurant.com search of every restaurant within 10 miles of 20190. There were 104, and one I'm interested in patronizing. And that was JV's - my favorite dive bar. But you had to spend $25 thfor lunch! That'd take four people. All for a $5 discount. That's www.notworthit.com. Good restaurants don't have to do this. It reminded me of those entertainment coupon books in the days of yore. I'd buy it for $35 from somebody at work who was raising money for something and then as I flip through it I think "I don't go to any of these places or use any of these services."
rara reston
5:12 pm on Friday, January 6, 2012
Too many restrictions and too difficult to use. It's definitely NOT a good deal. You often have to buy $50 of food to get the $25 voucher, AND buy a minimum of 2 entrees, AND pay 18% fee on the undiscounted total, AND the Restaurant.com coupons usually only work M-Th, dinner only (not lunch).
Tim Boone
6:36 pm on Friday, January 6, 2012
Hi Rara... My goal with this column is to point out all sorts of discount options. I'm not necessarily saying Restaurant.com (or any others that I write about) are better than others, but it's nice to have a lot of options to save. In your example, if you're going out to dinner on a Tuesday and plan on getting 2 entrees and a bottle of wine and spending $50, saving $25 (minus the couple bucks to buy the voucher and the tip %) is still better than saving nothing. Also, I've used many Restaurant.com vouchers (I'm using one tonight - Friday) that don't have the weekend restrictions. In any event, again to me it's options, options, options! I want as many as them as I can find! Thanks again for the comments... I'll take dialogue over no dialogue any day of the week!