Wednesday, February 16, 2011

WeedMaps Launches Groupon for Pot, Stoners Cheer

WeedMaps daily deals

Not into the daily spa and restaurant deals offered by Groupon, LivingSocial, and their ilk? WeedMaps, a massive clearinghouse for medical marijuana information, is now offering daily pot deals in your inbox.

"It's like Groupon, but with a twist," explains WeedMaps founder Justin Hartfield. "We're not accepting money from end users." Instead, WeedMaps is offering steep marijuana discounts that are redeemable at participating dispensaries. A typical deal: one Oakland, Calif., outfit called Northstone Organics is offering Casey Jones (a so-called premium strain) at just $199 for an ounce. Most other strains at the dispensary cost $250 an ounce.

Dispensaries don't get money in advance from users, but there is still incentive for them to participate. If a dispensary offers, say, 50% off a certain product, WeedMaps will shave that amount of money off the price of deploying a Daily Deal. In most regions, WeedMaps charges $995 per month to list a coupon. A 50% off deal would give the dispensary a Daily Deal price of $497.50 for the month.

So far, dispensaries in every region covered by WeedMaps--that would be California, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Washington, and Colorado, in case you were hankering for discount bud--have signed up to participate in Daily Deals. The feature only launched this week, but already Hartfield plans to make things even easier for printerless stoners (or those who spaced on their ink refill): Instead of bringing in a coupon, they will be able to instead utter a secret code word provided to them along with the daily deal. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Follow Fast Company on Twitter. Ariel Schwartz can be reached by email.

Posted via email from The Franchise Way

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