Big Bargains from Collective Buying
Until recently, saving money through collective buying power meant sharing the cost of 371 rolls of toilet paper your friend was kind enough to schlep from Costco. Or putting on your Birkenstocks and trekking to the local Co-Op where unshaven men (and women) talk revolution while you’re trying to find radicchio.
Thanks to the power of social media, collective buying has become better, and easier.
A handful of very popular sites, and some smaller followers, offer daily deals for local products at a significant savings with few or no fine print restrictions. Groupon is the most well-known of these. The real key words are local and significant savings. This is not another way to save 15% at Olive Garden. These are high quality, local establishments.
Recently, we saw the following deals:
- $20 worth of baked goods for $10 from The Little Pie Company ( I bought that)
- 2 jars of homemade candy from Papabubble for $14.50 (usually $30)
- 55% Off Massage at Lia Schorr Spa
HOW IT WORKS. Typically, you sign up to get “daily deal” emails sent to your inbox. Click to sign up for the deal. Once a minimum threshold of people has signed up for the deal, (usually around 25—200) the deal becomes active and you can purchase it. In my case, the deal is almost always already active by the time I open my email and buy it (at 8:30 am weekedays). You buy it with your credit card and then print the coupon.
HINTS.
- Check any relevant details BEFORE you purchase the deal. Make sure the expiration date of the deal works for you, or any other terms and conditions.
- These deals do run out. In the case of popular ones, usually by noon or early afternoon.
- Look at the box to see when the deal runs out and be sure to buy it before then, they are serious about deadlines.
Here is a list of KidCity’s Top Local Buying Sites. Note you can always get to these by going to the links at the side of our site under Deals.
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