Last Blog-iPads at T.J. Maxx

Since Friday of this week is officially the start of the Christmas shopping season, I found the article, $399 IPads At T.J. Maxx: Black Friday Alert , very fitting. 

This article is about the rumor that iPads will be available at T.J. Maxx for $399 on Black Friday.  I found it interesting that the iPad is the fastest selling electronic device EVER! So I wonder, how is it possible for T.J. Maxx to do this? It seems that Apple would have control over how much their products are sold at each retailer.  Also, if the demand for iPads is so high, how did the product get to T.J. Maxx in the first place?

The article does say that Apple usually offers 25 to 30 percent off of Macs and iPods during the Christmas season, inferring that you may be able to get a better deal at the Apple store.

Groupon!

I just recently found out about Groupon and after reading the article, Groupon at $3 Billion Soars like Silicon Valley, From Chicago, I thought, "where have I been?" This business that will generate $500 million  in sales this year distributes daily deals to 29 countries around the world and the business is growing dramatically.  The article says that since May of this year the number of markets Groupon serves has doubled to over 300.  In fact, Groupon has just recently become available to the Baton Rouge community.

For those of you who are like me and don't know much about Groupon, it's a business that offers steep discounts to members on products and services ranging from cupcakes to yoga classes, to dinner cruises, dental exams and the opera!  There are other sites that are similar to Groupon, such as Bargain Bee and Living Social, but as the article says, Groupon differentiates itself by not only offering a deal, but by offering a deal from the best merchants that are the most relevant. It seems that Groupon's competitive advantage is that they offer more deals and tailor or customize the deals more effectively to their audience than their rival sites.

Facebook Offers Local Deals for Mobile Users

I found the article, Facebook Offers Local Deals for Mobile Users, on the New York Times website and it's about how Facebook has recently introduced a new feature that allows retailers to offer coupons and special deals through a mobile application through the Places icon, Facebook's location feature.  I think this new coupon/special deals feature is a great marketing idea, especially for smaller, local businesses that may not be large enough to benefit from having a website.
Although I do think that its a great idea for businesses, the only thing I wonder about is how many people really use the Places feature on Facebook that lets users "check in" at different locations. I know that I do not use the Places feature and not many of my friends use it either.  Maybe since Facebook will start to offer coupons and special deals to users through the Places feature, people would be more inclined to use it and therefore the new local businesses will benefit from the new coupon/ special deals feature.