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Let's dish daily deal sites

Tamar Satov learns whether Groupon and other deal sites are really a bargain

Tamar Satov,

Originally published in Today's Parent September 2011

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Illustration Credit: Gemma Correll

It was a perfect day of skiing, with no lineups at the lift. But what made it even better for Gabriel Shaffer, a father of two from Thornhill, Ont., was the $100 he saved on ski passes. It was just one of the deals he’s scored through websites like Groupon, Dealfind, WagJag and TeamBuy, which send daily email offers on everything from food to facials to family activities. You sign up for a voucher; if a specified number of people also sign up, you pay for it up front and redeem it later.

It’s a simple idea, but it has some potential pitfalls. We asked parents who use the sites to share their best tips:

Stick to stuff you’d buy anyway. For Shaffer, this includes ski passes, running gear and restaurant meals. He doesn’t pick up a deal every day. “I get all these emails, and there’s a ton of stuff that doesn’t appeal to me.” His advice: Don’t hesitate to hit Delete.

Make sure it’s really a deal. When Shaffer spied a TeamBuy offer for a $59 March break sports camp, he not only compared it to the retail value of $149, but also to the $125 he was planning to spend on a different camp for his eight-year-old son, Corey. Either way, it was a great deal. So he emailed the offer to friends, including Jason Praw, who decided to send his sons, ages six and nine, to the same camp.

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