Like many of you, going out for dinner or maybe shopping online at a discount, is an enjoyable experience. I subscribe to many of my favorite restaurant web sites and receive discount coupons that I do use. The fact is that more and more of us are subscribing to what are being referred to as ‘deal sites’, providing bargains to consumers and also bringing more customers into business establishments.

An associate professor at Rice University has studied deals of the days and Utpal Dholakia believes that  change is coming.

According to one recent article it states that:

What is going on in the social coupon industry reminds me of the dot-com days: Everybody is jumping on this bandwagon,” he said. “Facebook is getting into this. It’s just insane.

But not everyone is happy with the promotions they receive. Some consumers complain that many of the deals being offered to them are for services that they do not use nor want. Then there are companies such as Groupon that are doing a land slide business and are now valued at some $15 billion in just two years. But there is one problem that Groupon needs to address. The company mainly services large metropolitan areas and not smaller areas like where I reside. Though the major city next to where I live boasts a population of 150,000, Groupon does not offer any discounts for the area.

The offerings I subscribe to are for the major restaurant chains such as Applebees, Ruby Tuesday, Red Lobster, Texas Roadhouse just to name a few. I also subscribe to deals for Big Lots, Ashley Furniture, Best Buy and Amazon as well as others.

Whether you are trying to save on wine purchases, spa treatments, restaurant dinning or electronic purchases, checking out deal sites may be beneficial in saving you a few bucks.

I have also found that by doing a Google can turn up some local deals as well.

So what online deals and steals do you subscribe to? Let us know.

Comments welcome.

Source – siliconvalley.com