(多伦多21日加新社电)大量购物获折扣优惠，民众乐此不疲。消费者现借助互联网，串联其他消费者大量购物，从电影戏票以至餐馆礼券和纤体套票，齐做精明消费者。
27岁爱蒙顿男子凯什沃尼(Fiyaz Keshwani)总是不满，要全价买戏票。因此当他发现，付出一点辛劳就能以几乎半价买到电影票时，他觉得这是不错的交易。
他透过互联网组织数十名电影迷，直接从Cineplex Odeon公司以批发价，购买了1,500张电影票。
类似Costco及Sam’s Club等公司，一直以批发销售换取低价而闻名。现在，消费者开始借助互联网，组织大量购物，以获取好价格。
凯什沃尼至今已组织8次不同的“团购”活动，他说：“我刚开始时，电影票团购的最低数量只是300张…此后就愈升愈高。”
他承认，组织这么多人团购，然后向所有买家寄出戏票，“的确耗费精力”，但对买到大折扣的电影票，仍然值得。他还收到一些感激买家的捐款，其中1人在购买300张票后，寄给他80元以表谢意。
最近几个月，互联网上已出现一些网站，担当组织团购的角色，通常提供约50%的折扣，只要同意参与者达到一定数量。
这些网站包括Groupon、StealTheDeal、TeamBuy、TeamSave、WagJag及Webpiggy，最常见的交易包括餐馆礼券和纤体套票。多数网站服务多伦多，但StealTheDeal及 WagJag也为卡加利、爱蒙顿、哈利法克斯、满地可、渥太华、温尼辟以及温哥华提供部分服务。
半价的汉堡或理发服务已令消费者乐此不疲，但一些网民也提出更高要求，希望团购5位数的大额商品。
多伦多的西莫斯(Fernando Simoes)组织几人团购2010年款本田Acura MDX汽车，尽管交易最终失败。他本来希望组织6、7人，以高于成本价约500元的价格成交。
Consumers finding bulk deals online
Slew of websites have sprouted up in recent months to take the work out of organizing a group buy
Michael Oliveira Toronto— The Canadian Press
Last updated on Wednesday, Apr. 21, 2010 03:04PM EDT
Fiyaz Keshwani has always been one to barter and is never happy paying full price when shopping. So when he found out he could get movie tickets at almost half off by jumping through a few hoops, he figured it’d be worth a little hassle for a great deal.
The 27-year-old from Edmonton turned to the Internet, collected money from dozens of fellow movie fans online and arranged to buy 1,500 tickets directly through Cineplex Odeon at wholesale prices.
Companies like Costco and Sam’s Club have long been known for leveraging the power of bulk buying to get lower prices. Now, consumers are turning to the Internet to find better deals by buying in big numbers.
“It stems from movies being expensive and prices have been going up quite a bit over the years,” Keshwani said in explaining why he’s organized eight separate movie ticket bulk purchases so far, which are often called “group buys.”
“When I first started, the minimum requirement for tickets was only 300 and so that was in my opinion a very achievable goal, especially when I was taking out 20 to 50 myself. And then it wasn’t that hard to get rid of the rest of them. And it just expanded from there.”
Keshwani admits organizing the mass purchase and mailing out all the tickets to buyers is “quite a bit of manual work” but he said it’s worth it for the deeply discounted movies. He also receives donations from appreciative buyers who sometimes send him a few extra dollars for his efforts. One grateful buyer even sent him $80 after buying 300 tickets.
A slew of websites have sprouted up in recent months to take the work out of organizing a group buy and typically offer deals of around 50 per cent off purchases — provided that a specified number of users agree to buy.
Restaurant gift certificates and spa packages are among the most common offers at sites like Groupon, StealTheDeal, TeamBuy, TeamSave, WagJag and Webpiggy.
Most sites focus on Toronto, although StealTheDeal and WagJag offer some deals for Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver users.
Getting a half-priced gourmet burger or haircut is an appealing proposition, but web users are also upping the ante by rallying together in a bid to get discounts on five-figure purchases.
Fernando Simoes of Toronto got a few people involved in a group buy for a new 2010 Honda Acura MDX, although the deal eventually fell apart.
Simoes was hoping a dealer would consider selling the car for about $500 over cost if he could organize six or seven buyers to get in on the deal.
Problem was, the interested buyers he found online lived in different cities and getting them all to agree on the right timing proved too difficult.
But Simoes said it wasn’t a total waste of time and dealing with the other potential buyers helped him figure out the best possible deal he could get.
“I was able to exchange ideas on what the best prices were that they were getting versus what I was getting and that gave me a bit of a benchmark on how well I thought I could do personally,” said Simoes, adding that he ended up paying about $1,250 over the dealer’s cost, which he was happy with.
Things went a lot more smoothly for Toronto-based Mike Weatherup, who organized a group buy of 15 high-end TVs and ended up getting a deal of almost 30 per cent off.
He originally thought the $6,000 TV — which he called “the Ferrari of displays” — was out of his budget. But he was inspired to bargain with a few local shops after reading about other successful group buys online.
“You’ve got to do it with the smaller shops, you’d probably never get anything like that from Future Shop or Best Buy,” he said.
“The dealer was happy to get new clients and they were able to sell other products as well.”
While it was a bit stressful waiting for others to commit, Weatherup said it wasn’t too much of a hassle since each buyer was allowed to pay separately and on their own schedule.
Simoes said group buys are a no brainer — if you can get them to work.
“There’s a lot of merit behind a group buy,” he said.
“If you can get six or seven guys buying tires and you can save $150 or $200, why not get a much better deal?”
