Call me a redneck but I've never made an appointment to get a haircut in my life, and "rafting trips or overnight stays" are a pretty selective subset in my opinion.
Speaking from personal experience, the GP is correct. At my local climbing gym, the groupon special just brings in 30 extra new faces to the already crowded gym during peak hours. The slow times are just as slow as always.
They are now under-staffed during the peak hours (which get busier every time they offer a special) which means that the general state of the gym declines and the new customers just accept it because hey, they got a deal right?
It's a race to the bottom and I can see customers turning to businesses that focus on offering a great experience every day. Those businesses don't use groupon.
