Two Day Magazine

Each morning when I wake up, I'm greeted by my dog Zeus, my husband Jason, and my vibrating iPhone that is full of emails.

And each morning I find three familiar emails mixed in with all of the other mail: daily deal emails.

Groupon, Living Social and Google Offers have sucked me into their delicious world of discounted services, amazing deals and fabulous getaway offers.

$10 for $25 worth of manicure services at the spa down the road?  Sign me up!  

$200 for a three night getaway to a B&B in upstate New York?  Let's go this weekend!

I am absolutely addicted to these things.  What's not to love about discounts at businesses that are in you neighborhood?  Right now, I have a pedicure Groupon, a yoga class Living Social Deal and an online hosiery speciality store (yes, CHEETAH PRINT STOCKINGS!) They are all small, indulgent little treats that I use as pick me ups when I need a little boost.

From what I've read about all of these daily deals, it appears that the premise is simple and fairly altruistic: Give small businesses the opportunity to connect to their local audience by offering discounts through a giant marketing company that blasts people's inboxes with personalized offers.  

Instead of just paying money for an ad campaign to get their name out there, businesses instead offer deals to literally make people walk through their doors and use their services, buy their products, or eat in their dining rooms.

Several small business owners I know have used Groupon and Living Social. While they have told me that they don't make any money on these deals, it does help them pull in new customers.  They see the deal as a way to spend the money they set aside in their budget for advertising in a unique way.  What they don't see it as is a way to make money, at least not initially.  If they get some new, loyal customers who will frequent the small business again after the deal has been used up, that's when the profits begin.

Some people see Groupon, Living Social and Google Offers as predators.  There is new evidence that some small businesses become bankrupted by their daily deal offerings. How? Some businesses are overwhelmed with customers using their deals and then spend no other money at their business.  CBS ran a story pointing out that businesses are not only offering the daily deals to new customers, but also existing customers who can get in on the deal, too, thus driving expected profit margins away down for that business.

The way the internet and our cultural obsession with instant gratification has changed our relationship with everything else we do in our lives, it has also made these online daily deals a real phenomenon and guilty pleasure. When I see an offer for a business that is new to me offering a service, product or dinner special I think I'll like, I take advantage of it!  After all, Groupon saved our butts this Christmas when my sister, my husband and I couldn't think of what to buy my parents.  Along came an offer for a getaway to a B&B in an arsty suburb of Philly that my parents love to visit.  They loved their gift and are chomping at the bit to get away for a long weekend.  

Twisted though my relationship with online daily deals may be, I feel like they can't be all that bad, as long as I keep my wits about me and exercise a bit of something we all struggle with in our culture: self control.

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twoday magazine wants to know: Do you succumb to the daily deals and guilty pleasures Groupon and the like have to offer? Share with us your thoughts on these marketing tools on our Facebook page.