Tuesday 16 November 2010

Business Making Money



Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.



There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.



The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.



The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That's partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It's essentially free money to America's Big Money economy.



Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They're merging and acquiring other companies.



And they're going abroad in search of customers.



Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They're selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America's biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.



So don't worry about America's Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.



The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.



But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.



Last Friday's jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That's better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.



Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of the labor force -- including everyone too discouraged to look for a job -- we're down about 22 million.



Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.



One out of eight breadwinners is still out of work. Most families in the Average Worker economy rely on two breadwinners. So if one out of eight isn't working, chances are high that family incomes are down compared to what they were three years ago.



And that means the bills aren't getting paid.



According to a recent Washington Post poll, more than half of all Americans -- 53 percent -- are worried about making their mortgage payments. This is many more than were worried two years ago, when the Great Recession hit bottom. Then, 37 percent expressed worry.



Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.



Most people in the Average Worker economy own few shares of stock, if any. Their equity is in their homes. But with all the delinquencies and distressed sales, the housing market has a glut of homes for sale. As a result, home prices are still dropping. So the net worth of most Americans is still dropping.



And even though interest rates are falling, most people in the Average Worker economy can't refinance their homes. They can't get home equity loans. Banks don't want to lend to the Average Worker economy because people in it are considered bad credit risks. They still owe lots of money, their family incomes are down, and their net worth has fallen.



And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.



Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.



Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.



But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.



Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.










Group buying site Groupon is growing so fast that its “deals of the day” are attracting the attention of big brand names like the Gap. One small business owner believes this growth is making Groupon “greedy,” so much so that it chose not to honor a signed contract because the agreed upon margins were too small. This is his story.

In January, small business owner Gregroy Yonke used Groupon to run a Featured Deal that gave buyers half off his Phoenix, Arizona Entrees to Go guided cooking sessions. Yonke couldn’t have been more pleased with the results — Groupon delivered new customers who became repeat customers, he says.

After taking the summer to explore working with a bevy of new Groupon clones, Yonke got a call from Groupon indicating that the company was interested in having him run another featured deal. And so, Yonke put off his other marketing plans for another go-around with Groupon, because in his mind, “Groupon is bigger than all the others combined.”

Talks progressed and eventually the terms of the new deal were decided. On September 7, Groupon e-mailed Yonke a merchant agreement and asked him to reply to the e-mail with “agree” in the subject line. Yonke did so on September 14, believing this meant there was now a contract in place guaranteeing him another featured deal within four to six weeks time. That time frame had been discussed in the e-mail exchanges, but was not, in fact, included in the agreement.

Then, on October 11, Yonke was notified that his deal had passed through the “vetting” stage, meaning it had been approved for scheduling. Yonke was anxious to view and approve the deal copy, but his Groupon representative wrote to inform him that the deal would be prepared after it had been scheduled.

This is when things started to go awry. On October 19, Yonke e-mailed his rep to once again press to find out the date on which his deal would run. Here’s the response he received, with confidential information redacted:

“After further deliberation, we have decided that we are not going to be moving forward with the rate confirmation for Entrees to Go. After running the numbers, we don’t feel it is the right move for us at this time. I appreciate your interest in running again, and unfortunately, we were not able to make it work on our end for a second feature. I wish you the best moving forward.”

Astonished, Yonke e-mailed back asking, “On what basis are you making this decision?”

Groupon’s response was as follows:

“With the margin in place, we will be at a loss running this feature. It simply is not in the best interest of Groupon to run Entrees to Go at this time. Per the rate confirmation, Section 1.3, ‘Groupon will offer the Vouchers for sale on dates in its discretion.’ We are choosing, with all due respect, not to move forward at this time. I appreciate your patience and apologize that it doesn’t work at this time.”

In a conversation with class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable, Yonke explained that he was quite taken aback by the response because he believed that there was a legal contract in place guaranteeing him a featured deal for Entrees to Go.

Yonke also shared that at one point Groupon pressured him to “sweeten the deal,” which he agreed to do, but only if Groupon agreed to take the same dollar amount — i.e. not the same percentage of sales — as agreed to in the initial deal. Groupon, however, wanted the same percentage, and that was just something “I couldn’t afford to do … I was already losing money on the other deal,” he said.

Earlier today, Yonke was again contacted by Groupon, but this time offering him a personalized deal, and not a featured deal. Personalized deals are only sent out to select, more targeted, audiences in the Groupon subscriber base, but Yonke was only interested in the featured deal, which would have gone out to all of Phoenix.

For Yonke, this Groupon deal represented the entirety of his marketing strategy, and it was the only way in which he was planning to attract new business at the Entrees to Go store he owns with his wife Dorothy.

Yonke believes he was overlooked because of the small stature of his business. He points to the fact that the featured deal running in Phoenix today is for Coldwater Creek, a national retailer with a much more prominent brand name. He says, “I get it … they can do a featured deal for the Gap and make $11 million in one day.”

The jilted small business owner reached out to Mashable to share his experience primarily because his marketing plans for bringing in end-of-year business have been stymied. He’s currently offering the deal through the FAQ portion of his own website, but admittedly does not have reach to a large audience.

Given Groupon’s immense growth this year, it follows that the startup will have disgruntled customers from time to time — and we’ve seen this before. While Mashable has confirmed the legitimacy of the e-mail communications between Yonke and Groupon, we caution the reader to remember that this is just one small business owner’s story.

Still, we felt this story to be of particular interest because it suggests that Groupon is shifting the focus of the featured deals away from the small business owners they once catered to. The smaller businesses, instead, seem to be destined for relegation to its personalized deals product or the do-it-yourself Groupon Stores.

Prior to publishing, Mashable reached out to Groupon for comment, and we’re told the company is now looking into the matter. We’ll update this post when there’s an official statement from the company.

For more Social Media coverage:

    class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


eric seiger


Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.



There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.



The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.



The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That's partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It's essentially free money to America's Big Money economy.



Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They're merging and acquiring other companies.



And they're going abroad in search of customers.



Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They're selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America's biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.



So don't worry about America's Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.



The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.



But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.



Last Friday's jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That's better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.



Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of the labor force -- including everyone too discouraged to look for a job -- we're down about 22 million.



Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.



One out of eight breadwinners is still out of work. Most families in the Average Worker economy rely on two breadwinners. So if one out of eight isn't working, chances are high that family incomes are down compared to what they were three years ago.



And that means the bills aren't getting paid.



According to a recent Washington Post poll, more than half of all Americans -- 53 percent -- are worried about making their mortgage payments. This is many more than were worried two years ago, when the Great Recession hit bottom. Then, 37 percent expressed worry.



Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.



Most people in the Average Worker economy own few shares of stock, if any. Their equity is in their homes. But with all the delinquencies and distressed sales, the housing market has a glut of homes for sale. As a result, home prices are still dropping. So the net worth of most Americans is still dropping.



And even though interest rates are falling, most people in the Average Worker economy can't refinance their homes. They can't get home equity loans. Banks don't want to lend to the Average Worker economy because people in it are considered bad credit risks. They still owe lots of money, their family incomes are down, and their net worth has fallen.



And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.



Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.



Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.



But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.



Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.










Group buying site Groupon is growing so fast that its “deals of the day” are attracting the attention of big brand names like the Gap. One small business owner believes this growth is making Groupon “greedy,” so much so that it chose not to honor a signed contract because the agreed upon margins were too small. This is his story.

In January, small business owner Gregroy Yonke used Groupon to run a Featured Deal that gave buyers half off his Phoenix, Arizona Entrees to Go guided cooking sessions. Yonke couldn’t have been more pleased with the results — Groupon delivered new customers who became repeat customers, he says.

After taking the summer to explore working with a bevy of new Groupon clones, Yonke got a call from Groupon indicating that the company was interested in having him run another featured deal. And so, Yonke put off his other marketing plans for another go-around with Groupon, because in his mind, “Groupon is bigger than all the others combined.”

Talks progressed and eventually the terms of the new deal were decided. On September 7, Groupon e-mailed Yonke a merchant agreement and asked him to reply to the e-mail with “agree” in the subject line. Yonke did so on September 14, believing this meant there was now a contract in place guaranteeing him another featured deal within four to six weeks time. That time frame had been discussed in the e-mail exchanges, but was not, in fact, included in the agreement.

Then, on October 11, Yonke was notified that his deal had passed through the “vetting” stage, meaning it had been approved for scheduling. Yonke was anxious to view and approve the deal copy, but his Groupon representative wrote to inform him that the deal would be prepared after it had been scheduled.

This is when things started to go awry. On October 19, Yonke e-mailed his rep to once again press to find out the date on which his deal would run. Here’s the response he received, with confidential information redacted:

“After further deliberation, we have decided that we are not going to be moving forward with the rate confirmation for Entrees to Go. After running the numbers, we don’t feel it is the right move for us at this time. I appreciate your interest in running again, and unfortunately, we were not able to make it work on our end for a second feature. I wish you the best moving forward.”

Astonished, Yonke e-mailed back asking, “On what basis are you making this decision?”

Groupon’s response was as follows:

“With the margin in place, we will be at a loss running this feature. It simply is not in the best interest of Groupon to run Entrees to Go at this time. Per the rate confirmation, Section 1.3, ‘Groupon will offer the Vouchers for sale on dates in its discretion.’ We are choosing, with all due respect, not to move forward at this time. I appreciate your patience and apologize that it doesn’t work at this time.”

In a conversation with class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable, Yonke explained that he was quite taken aback by the response because he believed that there was a legal contract in place guaranteeing him a featured deal for Entrees to Go.

Yonke also shared that at one point Groupon pressured him to “sweeten the deal,” which he agreed to do, but only if Groupon agreed to take the same dollar amount — i.e. not the same percentage of sales — as agreed to in the initial deal. Groupon, however, wanted the same percentage, and that was just something “I couldn’t afford to do … I was already losing money on the other deal,” he said.

Earlier today, Yonke was again contacted by Groupon, but this time offering him a personalized deal, and not a featured deal. Personalized deals are only sent out to select, more targeted, audiences in the Groupon subscriber base, but Yonke was only interested in the featured deal, which would have gone out to all of Phoenix.

For Yonke, this Groupon deal represented the entirety of his marketing strategy, and it was the only way in which he was planning to attract new business at the Entrees to Go store he owns with his wife Dorothy.

Yonke believes he was overlooked because of the small stature of his business. He points to the fact that the featured deal running in Phoenix today is for Coldwater Creek, a national retailer with a much more prominent brand name. He says, “I get it … they can do a featured deal for the Gap and make $11 million in one day.”

The jilted small business owner reached out to Mashable to share his experience primarily because his marketing plans for bringing in end-of-year business have been stymied. He’s currently offering the deal through the FAQ portion of his own website, but admittedly does not have reach to a large audience.

Given Groupon’s immense growth this year, it follows that the startup will have disgruntled customers from time to time — and we’ve seen this before. While Mashable has confirmed the legitimacy of the e-mail communications between Yonke and Groupon, we caution the reader to remember that this is just one small business owner’s story.

Still, we felt this story to be of particular interest because it suggests that Groupon is shifting the focus of the featured deals away from the small business owners they once catered to. The smaller businesses, instead, seem to be destined for relegation to its personalized deals product or the do-it-yourself Groupon Stores.

Prior to publishing, Mashable reached out to Groupon for comment, and we’re told the company is now looking into the matter. We’ll update this post when there’s an official statement from the company.

For more Social Media coverage:

    class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


eric seiger

eric seiger

FREE e-Lottery Business- Make Money the Smart way by lotterysolution


eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


eric seiger


Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.



There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.



The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.



The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That's partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It's essentially free money to America's Big Money economy.



Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They're merging and acquiring other companies.



And they're going abroad in search of customers.



Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They're selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America's biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.



So don't worry about America's Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.



The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.



But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.



Last Friday's jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That's better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.



Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of the labor force -- including everyone too discouraged to look for a job -- we're down about 22 million.



Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.



One out of eight breadwinners is still out of work. Most families in the Average Worker economy rely on two breadwinners. So if one out of eight isn't working, chances are high that family incomes are down compared to what they were three years ago.



And that means the bills aren't getting paid.



According to a recent Washington Post poll, more than half of all Americans -- 53 percent -- are worried about making their mortgage payments. This is many more than were worried two years ago, when the Great Recession hit bottom. Then, 37 percent expressed worry.



Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.



Most people in the Average Worker economy own few shares of stock, if any. Their equity is in their homes. But with all the delinquencies and distressed sales, the housing market has a glut of homes for sale. As a result, home prices are still dropping. So the net worth of most Americans is still dropping.



And even though interest rates are falling, most people in the Average Worker economy can't refinance their homes. They can't get home equity loans. Banks don't want to lend to the Average Worker economy because people in it are considered bad credit risks. They still owe lots of money, their family incomes are down, and their net worth has fallen.



And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.



Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.



Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.



But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.



Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.










Group buying site Groupon is growing so fast that its “deals of the day” are attracting the attention of big brand names like the Gap. One small business owner believes this growth is making Groupon “greedy,” so much so that it chose not to honor a signed contract because the agreed upon margins were too small. This is his story.

In January, small business owner Gregroy Yonke used Groupon to run a Featured Deal that gave buyers half off his Phoenix, Arizona Entrees to Go guided cooking sessions. Yonke couldn’t have been more pleased with the results — Groupon delivered new customers who became repeat customers, he says.

After taking the summer to explore working with a bevy of new Groupon clones, Yonke got a call from Groupon indicating that the company was interested in having him run another featured deal. And so, Yonke put off his other marketing plans for another go-around with Groupon, because in his mind, “Groupon is bigger than all the others combined.”

Talks progressed and eventually the terms of the new deal were decided. On September 7, Groupon e-mailed Yonke a merchant agreement and asked him to reply to the e-mail with “agree” in the subject line. Yonke did so on September 14, believing this meant there was now a contract in place guaranteeing him another featured deal within four to six weeks time. That time frame had been discussed in the e-mail exchanges, but was not, in fact, included in the agreement.

Then, on October 11, Yonke was notified that his deal had passed through the “vetting” stage, meaning it had been approved for scheduling. Yonke was anxious to view and approve the deal copy, but his Groupon representative wrote to inform him that the deal would be prepared after it had been scheduled.

This is when things started to go awry. On October 19, Yonke e-mailed his rep to once again press to find out the date on which his deal would run. Here’s the response he received, with confidential information redacted:

“After further deliberation, we have decided that we are not going to be moving forward with the rate confirmation for Entrees to Go. After running the numbers, we don’t feel it is the right move for us at this time. I appreciate your interest in running again, and unfortunately, we were not able to make it work on our end for a second feature. I wish you the best moving forward.”

Astonished, Yonke e-mailed back asking, “On what basis are you making this decision?”

Groupon’s response was as follows:

“With the margin in place, we will be at a loss running this feature. It simply is not in the best interest of Groupon to run Entrees to Go at this time. Per the rate confirmation, Section 1.3, ‘Groupon will offer the Vouchers for sale on dates in its discretion.’ We are choosing, with all due respect, not to move forward at this time. I appreciate your patience and apologize that it doesn’t work at this time.”

In a conversation with class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable, Yonke explained that he was quite taken aback by the response because he believed that there was a legal contract in place guaranteeing him a featured deal for Entrees to Go.

Yonke also shared that at one point Groupon pressured him to “sweeten the deal,” which he agreed to do, but only if Groupon agreed to take the same dollar amount — i.e. not the same percentage of sales — as agreed to in the initial deal. Groupon, however, wanted the same percentage, and that was just something “I couldn’t afford to do … I was already losing money on the other deal,” he said.

Earlier today, Yonke was again contacted by Groupon, but this time offering him a personalized deal, and not a featured deal. Personalized deals are only sent out to select, more targeted, audiences in the Groupon subscriber base, but Yonke was only interested in the featured deal, which would have gone out to all of Phoenix.

For Yonke, this Groupon deal represented the entirety of his marketing strategy, and it was the only way in which he was planning to attract new business at the Entrees to Go store he owns with his wife Dorothy.

Yonke believes he was overlooked because of the small stature of his business. He points to the fact that the featured deal running in Phoenix today is for Coldwater Creek, a national retailer with a much more prominent brand name. He says, “I get it … they can do a featured deal for the Gap and make $11 million in one day.”

The jilted small business owner reached out to Mashable to share his experience primarily because his marketing plans for bringing in end-of-year business have been stymied. He’s currently offering the deal through the FAQ portion of his own website, but admittedly does not have reach to a large audience.

Given Groupon’s immense growth this year, it follows that the startup will have disgruntled customers from time to time — and we’ve seen this before. While Mashable has confirmed the legitimacy of the e-mail communications between Yonke and Groupon, we caution the reader to remember that this is just one small business owner’s story.

Still, we felt this story to be of particular interest because it suggests that Groupon is shifting the focus of the featured deals away from the small business owners they once catered to. The smaller businesses, instead, seem to be destined for relegation to its personalized deals product or the do-it-yourself Groupon Stores.

Prior to publishing, Mashable reached out to Groupon for comment, and we’re told the company is now looking into the matter. We’ll update this post when there’s an official statement from the company.

For more Social Media coverage:

    class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

eric seiger

FREE e-Lottery Business- Make Money the Smart way by lotterysolution


eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


eric seiger

FREE e-Lottery Business- Make Money the Smart way by lotterysolution


eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


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eric seiger

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eric seiger
eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.



eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


eric seiger

Icelandic Language Day celebrated today | IceNews - Daily <b>News</b>

The day has been celebrated annually for 15 years and is intended to focus attention on the Icelandic language, its intrinsic beauty, and the threats it faces from outside — especially from American slang. The day is especially aimed at ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: New Business Rules

The rules for business keep changing but a few things stay the same. First impressions matter, technology keeps changing the game and costs keep rising as.

Energy Drinks Linked to Alcohol Problems - Health <b>News</b> - Health.com

College students who consume nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Red Bull at least once a week are more than twice as likely as their peers to show signs of alcohol dependence, according to a new study.


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