Try This Trick! Groupon Now!

Over the weekend, I tried Groupon Now! for the first time.  If you aren’t familiar, Groupon Now! basically is a list of real-time deals offered in your neighborhood.  So for example, I opened up the Groupon Now! app on my iPhone, and could see which restaurants near me were offering Groupon deals at that moment. Often, these Groupon Now! deals are available for a limited time – so sometimes during just dinner or for hours a business is typically slow.  If you don’t use your Groupon Now! deal within 24 hours of purchase, Groupon offers refunds. Groupon determines this by if you print the Groupon voucher or view it on your phone.

To best explain my Groupon Now! experience, I’ll tell you about my Saturday night.  My friend Jess and I were craving sushi and torn between Amber and Asian Station. I had seen deals at both of these places before from daily deal sites, so figured it was worth checking Groupon Now! to see if there was a deal going on.  As luck would have it, Groupon Now! offered $20 for $30 to Asian Station through 10:15 pm.  We sat down in the restaurant, and I purchased the Groupon from my phone.  Keep in mind, it helps to have a credit card stored in your Groupon account, or you’ll be filling out your credit card info at the table.  I made my purchase, and when the bill came, I flashed my Groupon Now! voucher on my phone, and I immediately saved $30 off my bill.  I had a $10 credit in my account, so my net savings were $20 – not bad at all.

If you don’t have a smartphone, don’t worry – you can still print out the Groupon Now! vouchers and redeem this way.

All in all, I had a positive first Groupon Now! experience and would definitely use it again. I think the service is great for when you are indecisive about where to go to dinner, or need a haircut but don’t really care who cuts your hair. Even if you aren’t ready to make a purchase, I’d definitely familiarize yourself with participating restaurants in your neighborhood.  At least this way, the next time you visited that restaurant, you’d remember to take a look and see if a Groupon Now! voucher will get you additional savings.  Here’s a full list of all Groupon Now! vouchers available.

Have you used Groupon Now! before? What did you think?