Hollister and Groupon

[Xhollister 0]

Hollister now sucks, they have ripped off several friends I have sent out to do tandems, hundreds spent on video that were never sent, thousand of feet of altitude never reached. (A friend showed me a video that had less than 15 seconds of complete freefall, he paid $200.00 to go to 15k)

All this since they started Groupon

Look at all the complaints on their FB and Yelp


http://www.facebook.com/SkydiveHollister


http://www.yelp.com/biz/skydive-hollister-hollister

[Andrewwhyte 1]

We did a Groupon offering last year. It was good for us TMs (more volume) but not so much for the DZ. On the plus side it did bring in new demographics (particularly young South Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants) but had a very low video uptake and lower than normal retention rate. More problematic was the calls all this year asking when we were going to do the next one; we had become our own main competitor. We will not be doing it again.

[normiss 800]

I saw a story of a cupcake business that was almost put out of business thanks to 102,000 cupcakes sold on a groupon deal.
I'd shit if 102,000 tandems showed up on a weekend.




Groupon is NOT good for our business side of this sport.

[catfishhunter 2]

It is not good for any buisness

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

[DougH 270]

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It is not good for any buisness

I wish DZ's would cut it out. We are cutting each other off at the knees. It doesn't do the industry any good.

It is skyride all over again, with DZ's in a similar area fucking each other in a race to then get fucked.

Good job guys, bravo! Way to give groupon a huge cut of business that would have mostly gone to you in the first place. Way to push the market price down, and way to fuck your fellow DZ's.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[CSpenceFLY 1]

I have come to the conclusion that there are alot of DZOs/DZMs that are dumb fucks.

[jacketsdb23 49]

There has been a mass Exodus of instructors and fun jumpers from Hollister to Byron. Reports of instructors not getting paid, switch to handi-cam, and overall poor operations.

Seems that things are not going well over there right now.

Losers make excuses, Winners make it happen
God is Good
Beer is Great
Swoopers are crazy.

[davelepka 4]

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It is not good for any buisness

That's not true. Groupon is good for local service-type business that are seeking return clientele. Restaurants, dry cleaners, dog groomers, etc, can benefit from getting customers to 'try' their service. If you find a place that has great food at a fair price, you'll go back without a Groupon, and just pay the fair price in the future.

Of course, a DZ is not one of those places. 99% of DZ customers are never to be seen again, and no amount of selling, or USPA hyping, or anything is going to make them come back. Most people nut-up once and make a jump, and then go back to living a more pedestrian life.

The only way a DZ benefits from a Groupon deal is if they severly limit the number of deals sold, and then limit the number of deals serviced on the weekend. If you can hold it back to 10 on Sat and 10 on Sun, and book the rest during the week when you're slow, a DZO who is breaking even on the deal will bring in work for his TIs, packers, and pilots during the week, and maybe use up enough fuel to get a couple cents off per gallon on the next truckload. Keeping in mind that breaking even means covering the slots, if the DZO is making a plane payment, then there's some dollars to put toward that as well.

That said, I don't think any DZOs are using it that way, and I think that after doign 100's of tandems with no money left in the DZOs pocket, they'll get the message.

[catfishhunter 2]

And you would be wrong. Selling at a loss is a loss. You cannot make it up with volume. Your only regurgitating groupings rhetoric not reality. What really happens is a company loses a ton of money expecting what you just said but in reality the groupon shopper is neither loyal nor a full price payer. They will not go back but instead look for the next poor sap willing to go broke making someone else rich. The groupon bubble is ready to burst as the well of suckers is literally dying off. Do not buy any groupon if you see something your interested pay full price and just maybe they will still be here when you want to go back

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

[popsjumper 2]

Looking at it from a customer's POV, Groupon is a great deal.
Who gives a damn about what happens to the business? I'm getting what I want at a cheap price.

Yeah, I might like the place and come back later but not if there's another deal at another place.

Groupons/coupons....same thing. Foolish not to use either one.

Funny, and true, story:

My dad, at one time, had 20-smething bottles of ketchup in the cupboards. Why? Because he had rounded up coupons and used them on "double coupon days" where he got the ketchup free AND got money back.

Ketchup $1.25
Coupon $1.00 off

Free ketchup +$0.75

Stores finally got wise to that and now won't give the money like that.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[Nutz 0]

My Grandmother would wait for sales on toilet paper. She had a closet full when she died.

"Don't! Get! Eliminated!"

[tkhayes 348]

people who get fucked by groupon get what they deserve - both the business and the clients.

The business sells its products for half off and then wonders why they lose money when groupon makes bank.

The customer gets shitty service after paying half price for a product and then wonders why it sucked so bad.

I think it is more of a commentary on the public education system in this country.

[popsjumper 2]

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The customer gets shitty service after paying half price for a product and then wonders why it sucked so bad.

This is news to me. Customers get hosed?
Before you flip out, I'm just askin'.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[NWFlyer 2]

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There has been a mass Exodus of instructors and fun jumpers from Hollister to Byron. Reports of instructors not getting paid, switch to handi-cam, and overall poor operations.

Seems that things are not going well over there right now.

What he said. From all the local scuttlebutt, it seems Groupon's the least of their worries down there.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[stayhigh 2]

San Diego was throwing out close to 200 tendumbs a day last year, thanks to groupon.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[normiss 800]

Twice as much work for half the money.
Sweet.

[Remster 30]

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Twice as much work for half the money.
Sweet.

Half the revenue. Maybe more profit than if they did not offer the deal. If your incremental unit cost is low, these types of deal can be good for business. It's very much a case by case tho.

Remster

[GobbleGobble 0]

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San Diego was throwing out close to 200 tendumbs a day last year, thanks to groupon.

Yes but not many actually went without paying in extra for altitude, time of day etc.

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And you would be wrong. Selling at a loss is a loss. You cannot make it up with volume. Your only regurgitating groupings rhetoric not reality. What really happens is a company loses a ton of money expecting what you just said but in reality the groupon shopper is neither loyal nor a full price payer. They will not go back but instead look for the next poor sap willing to go broke making someone else rich. The groupon bubble is ready to burst as the well of suckers is literally dying off. Do not buy any groupon if you see something your interested pay full price and just maybe they will still be here when you want to go back

I highly doubt there is a very high conversion rate for customers that are introduced to a business via Groupon.

[stayhigh 2]

all the ti were loving it tho. I doubt dz made much money.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[skyjumpenfool 2]

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all the ti were loving it tho. I doubt dz made much money.

A good DZO cares about his TI's! Maybe he makes money on the weekend, and his TI's make money during the week.

Here, an upstart DZO used Groupon to introduce his new business to the area. There is a time and place for this advertising gimick. The problem may be wether or not the DZO is smart enough to know when that is?

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

[ShcShc11 0]

I got into skydiving through Groupon.

Guess they made their money back through AFF schooling, beer cases and pizza

[JohnRich 4]

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Here, an upstart DZO used Groupon to introduce his new business to the area. There is a time and place for this advertising gimick. The problem may be wether or not the DZO is smart enough to know when that is?

And if a DZO wants that large infusion of cash all at once to make a down payment on an Otter, or to buy 10 new student rigs, that's his decision to make, based upon his own circumstances, and who are we to criticize him for how he chooses to run his own business?

[Andrewwhyte 1]

We made our decision based on an underutilized aircraft. We were in our first year with an otter. Minimums are one thing, full aircraft are another. The incremental cost of an Otter passenger once the mins are met is very low. Similarly incremental costs on the tandem gear is low in Canada where our short intense season leads to relatively low annual numbers on the gear (you need a lot of gear to use on July/August weekends, the rest of the time you have more than you need). Unfortunately most of the coupon holders waited until the next year. The Otter crash in Georgia deprived us of our plane so we ended up doing most of them in a regime where we were a little short of airpower. That is the problem with cutting your margins too tight; the unexpected can, and often does, tip the balance.
I think it is incorrect to put Groupon in the same class as Skyride. Skyride does not provide new business. It attaches itself to those who were already looking for skydiving. Groupon attaches itself to those who are looking for 'deals on all kinds of stuff.' As I said above we did tap into a demographic we are not particularly successful at otherwise. As far as the customers not getting a good product, that certainly did not happen at our place. They were given the same priority as any other tandem. Usually I had no idea whether I had a Groupon customer or not.
The reason it did not work out in the end was because the margins were simply too tight. The other pitfall is the reiterative effect as customers who are coming skydiving regardless began looking for the deal. This last reason I believe is why the model will not work in most markets.

[Skydive2 1]

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I have come to the conclusion that there are alot of DZOs/DZMs that are dumb fucks.

After reading many of your posts, I've come to the conclusion that you are PA removed by slotperfect.
But seriously you seem to have all the right answers when it comes to running a DZ, who why aren't you in business full time?

[ShcShc11 0]

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The other pitfall is the reiterative effect as customers who are coming skydiving regardless began looking for the deal.

This is probably the biggest problem with Groupon though. I know a lot of whuffos who are most definitely considering coming skydiving tandems, but are now waiting (and expecting) them to find a deal one day or another.