Groupon and Foursquare Join Forces
“Excuse me waiter, there is a Groupon in my FourSquare.”
Will it be too geeky to use that, at a restaurant? Will it matter if it help me get a $50 meal for $25? Foursqaure and Groupon have announced a partnership. Which sounds pretty cool as it allows you to immediately redeem the Groupon, without having to wait for 99 others “to buy” as well. What hasn’t been said is if this fact will impact the QUALITY of the Groupon. Something I’ll be holding out for.
I’ve been a big Gowalla user, but it’s been flaking out lately, so I may make the move to FourSquare as my primary hey-I’m-over-here-eating-this app.
Netflix Kills the Value for Customers
Are we the only Netflix subscribers seeing this?
I called Netflix a few weeks ago and apparently, since February, they have been restricting the number of simultaneous streams allowed per account. That wasn’t the case in December when we were still paying $8.99. So we learned to live with paying more (they did already increase the price, of our plan, to $9.99 this year) for less service. But then yesterday’s announcement came and now this is how we see Netflix:
This is what scares me: I am 100% confident they are fully aware of this, but either
- don’t see the need in helping current customers along Netflix’s growth or
- they do care, but the movie folks have Netflix over a barrel and Netflix is looking for a path to survival (i.e. Sony has already pulled all of its movies once)
Either way, more rate increases and cutting of services are bound to happen.
Our house is a cable-free one. We only get our news and entertainment over the internet, so streaming services are very important to us. So now we’re looking at using Hulu Plus (hoping RedBox can make something happen). Maybe we’ll look at iTunes or Amazon OnDemand.
I mean, why wouldn’t you bail on an entertainment expense that increases 77.75% in 8 months, while decreasing the services? Especially one that’s going to be having ongoing contract issues with all of the movie folks.
Perhaps I’d feel differently if I still saw Netflix as struggling against the industry and helping shake it up, as they once pitched themselves. But now they’re acting just like any other big spoke in the entertainment industry. And maybe they have to. Maybe they don’t. It’s a shame, either way.
(h/t s.enriquez for RedBox tip)
Mr. P’s has a livingsocial coupon today!
Just an FYI – It’s only for today, but if you buy-in for $12 (which over 650+ have), you’ll get $24 to spend on food and drink! Needless to say – we’re in.
Happy Monday!
Shopping Local
I’ve been reading Carrie Rollwagen’s Shop Small blog for a while. I am by no means a militant localvoare type guy, but I do believe that there are benefits to buying from locally-owned businesses. I’ve always wondered about where Rollwagen falls… is she a militant type? a buy-local snob?
Well, The Magic City Post has posted a quick video interview with Rollwagen and it answered all of these questions and more. She’s entered into the “life experiment” with a very honest and even approach. She seems to be giving both national chains and local shops the same fair consideration as she goes through 2011. She makes create points about Starbucks being able to offer insurance for a 20-hours-a-week employee. That’s a serious point that needs to be addressed, by all businesses.
But, as I have found too, there are many pluses to shopping locally.
So check out the video and think about thinking about shopping local. Maybe next time you are in need of something you can find a place closer to home.