There has been a sudden influx recently, of sites such as mycitydeal, KGB and other one day deal sites, but the big question remains, are they useful and can they last?

The basic idea behind these sites is that people become a member of a site that negotiates ‘deals’ with companies so that if enough members sign up for the deal, they will all get it for much cheaper than they would if they bought the item or deal separately. The deal only goes ahead if the right number of people can be found who want to partake in it. It’s all based on the principal of buying power, and it seems initially like a good thing as everyone who partakes, gets the deal for less money than they would otherwise.

If offers change daily, you know you only need to look once per day to make sure you don’t miss a deal. It can be fun to check what the bargains are that are on offer, and decide if it’s something you want to make use of or not.

The thing is that when these sites arrived on the UK market not so long back, the ‘deals’ were excellent, you could get a meal voucher for two people worth £40 for £10, or a beauty treatment worth £20 for just a fiver. Now however, the deals do seem to be getting a little worse and although there are still savings to be made, they’re much smaller.

Additionally, many of the sites are no longer offering them as ‘one day’ deals, but are just waiting for enough people to sign up to them which changes the structure of these sites rather a lot as the deals just don’t change frequently enough, and they always occur rather than expiring if not enough people want them. Given that each city is only so large, surely there is a glass ceiling on how many of these sites can be supported and how many offers each place can afford to offer.

A follow on problem from this, could be; what about the people who don’t take up these deals? Will they go to that restaurant for a meal and have to pay just a little bit more than they otherwise would for their food because the company has to cover the cost of subsidising all those deals?

I wonder truly, how long lived will these sites be? And should we condemn them or support them?