Groupon launches holiday store, Grouponicus

For the first time, the site is offering a music download deal for Rihanna's new LOUD album

By far, the most obnoxious thing about the holidays is having to buy a present for that one person in your life (parent, sibling, or stuck-up friend) who hates every gift she gets (I’m making this person female because the person in my life who does this to me every year is a woman).   You know she’s just going to re-gift whatever you give her, but God forbid you show up to the family Christmas party empty-handed and risk being called stingy—or make the fatal mistake of getting her a gift card and be accused of not putting any thought into the gift (I hate this person!).

This year, Groupon is offering a winter holiday store called Grouponicus, which features unique deals that users can purchase for friends, so you can give the illusion of having an original gift idea while also finding a quick, relatively inexpensive gift.  The site launched Monday at midnight with three deals available for purchase: $35 for $70 worth of holiday merchandise at Tree Classics, $125 for a $209 skydiving jump, or $5 for a $9.99 digital download of Rihanna’s new album, LOUD.  Upcoming deals include $125 for a three-month wine and food club membership, $22 for an assorted 24-cookie gift box from Insomnia Cookies, $50 for $110 worth of services from Salon Rouge, and more.

The site will be offering a new deal every day for the next five weeks, totaling up to 650 deals between now and Christmas, and while most Groupon deals are only available for 24 hours, Grouponicus deals will be available for anywhere between three and five days.  

The deals are primarily activity-based, but the one that’s getting the most buzz is the Rihanna download.  This marks the first time that Groupon has ever offered a music download deal.

“Expanding our Music category further cements Groupon as a true lifestyle brand,” said Sean Smyth, Groupon’s VP of Business Development, in a prepared statement. “Rihanna dominates the charts and she’s the perfect artist to help Groupon launch Grouponicus and aggressively compete in the music marketplace.”

The company went all out on this promotion, creating a pretty elaborate mythology that essentially amalgamates a number of religious holiday traditions around the Grouponicus bird mascot, Groupo, who is described as “the dapper, snake-tailed, Grouponicus holiday mascot that kids love! On each night of Grouponicus, Groupo™ uses his nimble snake-tail to unlock your attic windows so that he may leave neatly stacked Groupons inside the ovens of his true believers. Kids, don’t forget to leave a pile of sand on your doorstep to welcome Groupo™—it’s his favorite snack!”

Image source: Groupon.com