I have recently joined LivingSocial. It works pretty much the same way as Groupon. I've had a couple of deals from them and I'm pretty pleased so far. There is also a nice twist with LivingSocial: you can tweet your deals, post them to facebook or email them to your friends and if three people (non-members) purchase the deal using your referral - you get it free! Of course, this will only work once, because your friends have to sign up to take advantage of an offer, but still a nice touch, I think.
I've just taken a look, Rachel, and some of the deals are pretty staggering. The problem is, the cities they seem to cover are a bit restricted - it's not UK wide at the moment. I divide my time between Spain and the UK, and when I'm in the UK, I'm based in Devon. The nearest city for deals is Bristol, although I do spend some time with friends and family in the Midlands, so I may be able to snag some discounts in Birmingham when we're over in May.
I have the hardest time with Living Social. I think it tends to work better for people who live in popular areas. I check it often, but there isn't anything around where I live. The focus on the biggest city and that is 2 1/2 hours away from me, and they normally only have 2 or 3 deals available there. I feel like my location keeps me from enjoying some of the great savings that I hear about. I hope that the site grows more and may be able to provide deals around my area.
Fact : You can suggest to a business in your area that they should post a special on livingsocial or groupon becuase its good for business. I've seen a few business here in Miami that have posted on these sites just because their clients have requested it in large numbers. You can attempt this in your area and see if it works. Word of mouth is very important to the business and what business owner doesn't want good word of mouth?
I heard of it before but didn't know how it worked. Honestly, it's not really a great deal (at least for me). None of my friends shop online. For this I'd have to friend a lot of people I didn't know and see if I got lucky. Stores seem to really care about social networks these days. Sweepstakes has a very similar system.
Yes, the deals do tend to centre around the larger conurbations - I guess that's because they have the highest concentration of both businesses and consumers. However, livingsocial (and Groupon for that matter) do have nationwide deals as well as city-specific offers. The nationwide deals tend to be where you order online and then the store/company delivers - you have to pay a deliver charge, naturally, but there are still some bargains to be had.
