Gilt is okay because it’s based on clothing recommendations, and I am always okay with people dressing adventurously and keeping good designers in business. I only have one friend who uses it regularly but he practically lives on the internet. I like to try stuff on myself. I don’t like these sites personally because I don’t like to subscribe to distracting emails. Beyond that, I am not that into “deals.” I am not really much of a consumer. I consume what I like and only because I like it, not because I got it cheap. These other sites, which I have not used, seem very bourgeois in the sense that you have mediocre materialistic aspirations in the attempt to appear successful. I know what I like to do in New York. Though it might be fun to go to a comedy show because its really cheap or whatever with some groupon, I would rather just decide to go to a comedy club on my own terms- which probably won’t happen by the way, because those places are grotesque. I don’t use myopenbar.com or anything like that either, but I would go on tinyvices.com to see about an art opening that might have free drinks (and babes). I would rather not drink than go where the “free drinks” crowd goes. I use tastingtable.com, which posts deals, and eater.com and a few others for restaurant recommendations, but avoid restaurants that give deals to promotional websites anyway. See what I mean? I have special interests. I don’t need recommendations. I am a pro at finding stuff I like, and a lot of the things I like would not end up on these sites as they are not hurting for business.

HOWEVER it is kinda tight that you can all get a group discount on something. There is a sort of consumer strongarm coalition thing in these sites that is cool. I could get into it for that aspect.

I think that these sites only appeal to me if they are specialized. Gilt is just clothes so that works for me. I stumbled upon it when I was online shopping for pants when I lived in San Francisco. Nightlife offers make no sense to someone like me because I don’t go places in less I have some purpose to be there. However, if there was a site that got me deals on artisanal foods I would be stoked to groupon that. I can’t strategize a way to make this speak to people I know unless its a specific focus and should be advertised on specific websites. The people I know are not regular consumers of products or entertainment. They have passions and special interests and a connection to the products they buy… for the most part. I do think that the concept is cool, its just the products that I am not psyched on, or maybe consumer products in general. Maybe I am just a nihilist?