For example, selling a $5 cinema pass for a specific day, time, and show. So they book the whole screening room, sell exactly as many passes as there are seats, pack the house, and hand you your popcorn on the way in. Similarly with restaurants, where the whole venue could be booked out, and there's only two meals available (kind of like Summerlicious).

You're definitely not getting the regular-experience-but-cheaper doing that, so there's maybe a better chance of converting to try it out after the coupon, but even if you're only ever going to do it on the coupon, you can do it over and over again if it's good for both parties. If Groupon's marketing muscle can pack the house with cheapskates a few Tuesday nights per month, that's probably an all-around win.

If they were just regular coupons, consumers would simply dismiss it with a "meh" and forget about Groupon.

But of course with an eye toward long-term sustainability by making it a good deal for the businesses.

Sales and discounts aren't a good way to increase customer growth unless they're done consistently. There's a reason that I get a free salad when I get a pizza; no one really wants that salad. There's a reason they have $5 beers every Monday at a bar; no one wants to drink on a Monday.

If the business owners/clients are stupid enough to give away the best experiences for cheap, it's their own damn fault for not having any business sense whatsoever.

And yet Groupon is closing down operations in 7 countries and laying off 1000 people.

Groupon's customers are these small businesses, for Groupon to succeed it needs to be in a symbiotic relationship with these businesses. "It's your fault for being an idiot" isn't the correct way for anyone to think about Groupon's relationship with its customers; that sort of thinking will only backfire even harder.

1) I love what they're offering, but I want to do their thing somewhere else, so another business gets the benefit.

2) I don't like what they're offering, oh well, gave it a try

3) I like what they're offering and they're in the right place for me to continue doing business with them

#1 is the hardest for businesses, and I admit to engaging in a fair amount of "Groupon tourism", where I'll go a little out of my way to try something just because I got it for cheap on Groupon.

For #2, sometimes there's a reason why places aren't doing well and turn to Groupon to try to boost sales, sometimes it's just a bad fit for me as a consumer. For example, I just used a Groupon for a local new Mexican place in my area. Turns out the reason their gorgeous restaurant is mostly empty is because the food sucks. There's a Mexican place down the road from them with low budget hand-made booths that's exploding with customers, the difference is that their food is good.

I'd say I probably stick with less than 10% of the new places I find through Groupon. I'd probably be willing to pay more to try new things...but not a whole lot more. As a consumer I have to change my basic behavior patterns and maybe travel out of my way to try something new, I feel like I'm meeting the place halfway. Sometimes I have to travel someplace I've never been before, and after getting there I'll know if it's reasonable to continue coming out there. The horse lesson I took I enjoyed, but it's also an hour of hard driving to get there, while I live right on the edge of plentiful horse country. Now I know I had fun taking a lesson, I might give a go at one of the local places, but I'll probably not return to the place I used the Groupon with.

There's also places, like a zipline center I Grouponed at. It was cool, I'll return. But it's not like it's an every week kind of place. So I think businesses also have to consider their model. I wouldn't have tried it without the Groupon, but it acted more like an advertisement would.

I also went to a high-speed gokart center on a Groupon. Turns out they already have lots of business, but it's all dedicated racers who knew what they were doing. When I went there I had to sit through a half hour of safety training videos, and when I got on the track it was terrifying because everybody else was hardcore and very aggressive. It could have been fun if everybody wasn't taking it so seriously, or they bundled all the Grouponers into a beginner league or something. So I don't think it worked as an expansion of their basic business.

I think business issues with Groupon are more complicated than people give credit for.