Weinberg freshman Alex Jakubowski got $40 off a meal at Gio, 1631 Chicago Ave.. Weinberg senior Emery Mathieson had organic food delivered to his house at a steep discount, and Weinberg sophomore Jill Shah goes on discounted shopping sprees at Gap, 1706 Sherman Ave., and American Apparel, 950 Church St.. How? Websites like Groupon and LivingSocial offer coupons to restaurants, clothing stores, beauty services and other businesses.

“It has really great deals and lets me know about places that I have not tried before, that I didn’t know existed,” Shah said.

Other sites such as Tippr and Daily Candy offer similar services. Google, whose bid to buy Groupon was rejected in December, is developing a competitor called Google Offers. With all these options, which do NU students prefer?

Groupon

Although no subscription is necessary, users can subscribe to the service and receive one coupon every day for a business in the region in their e-mails. Ten to 15 deals are listed on the website each day. Coupons cost between $5 and $99, and are worth 50 percent to 90 percent off.

Pros:

• Groupon is easy to use and has fun restaurants, Jakubowski said. He said enjoys being able to use the app for his iPhone.
• Groupon customizes the e-mails it sends to its subscribers, so users who live in the suburbs will receive deals that are in or near their suburb.
• Groupon is easy to access. Jakubowski said he downloaded the app for his iPhone, and Emery Mathieson said he reads the blog on his Google Reader.
• Users get $10 off for referring a friend.Groupon has helpful customer service, Mathieson said.

Cons:

• The deals have expiration dates.
• Users can subscribe to receive deals in Chicago, but not Evanston. It is hard to find deals in Evanston, Mathieson said.
• A certain number of people must buy the coupon for the deal to take effect.
• Users who do not have a subscription may miss out on deals if they do not check the website each day, Shah said. Groupon often partners with small businesses and restaurants, but because the service is so widely used, the businesses often cannot handle the sudden increase in customers, Shah said. Often, the quality of businesses and restaurants is better when they do not have a deal on Groupon, she said.

Living Social

Living Social sends one coupon to subscribers’ inboxes each day, but like Groupon, no subscription is necessary. The site offers one coupon per region, including the city of Chicago, the Northwest suburbs and the West suburbs. Deals cost approximately $5 to $99 and are worth 50 percent to 90 percent off.

Pros:

• If a user refers three friends who buy one deal, the user gets that deal for free.
• A map on the website lets users see the exact location of the deal they are about to buy.
• Deals can be sorted by region. In Chicago, these include the city, the Northwest suburbs and the West suburbs.

Cons:

• Groupon pioneered the concept, causing users like Shah to trust it more than Living Social, she said.
• Groupon has better deals at more upscale places, Mathieson said.
• Living Social only has one deal in each region per day, totaling three for the Chicago area.

Daily Candy

Daily Candy is a blog that collects posts from the U.S. and London about food, fashion and other entertainment items. It offers many different types of e-mail updates, one of which is for discount coupons. Approximately five deals are listed per day, and they are worth 25 percent to 50 percent off.

Pros:

• The website offers more than just coupons. It is an easy place to read up on restaurant, fashion and travel blogs while searching for deals.
• Users can search for deals by product, neighborhood or feature.

Cons:

• The service is only available in 12 cities, including Chicago.
• Users must subscribe to receive most deals.

Tippr

Users can sign up to receive e-mail alerts each day, although no subscription is necessary. Tippr offers three coupons in each city each day. A certain number of people must buy the coupon for the deal to become available, but the more people who buy a coupon, the bigger the discount gets. Deals cost about $10 to $60, and are typically worth 50 percent to 90 percent off.

Pros:

• Tippr employees have shopped at each store at which they offer a deal.
• The service offers an iPhone app for shopping on the go.

Cons:

• It is located only in major cities, including Chicago.
• Deals are often for smaller businesses.

[email protected]