Cut-price onions crash attention-seeking Groupon website

It caused a huge hue and cry across the country and there were dire warnings of fate of governments,at both state and central levels,hanging by a thread. The company itself identified itself unabashedly with the common man,who found the humble onion disappear from his plate,and took a dig at the powers-that-be. Here is what it had to say: “This much-coveted,much-written-about,much-craved-for vegetable is now almost as expensive as caviar,diamonds and Donald Trump’s wig!”

The Rs 9 price tag,as well as the tongue-in-cheek attitude,went down well with the public,creating a stampede-like situation online,causing the Groupon website to crash.

Clearly,the company got more than it bargained for,but it was not complaining,having generated a huge attention-grabbing spectacle and putting itself at the centre of a subject that all of India was talking about.

“We were discussing how expensive vegetables are and then we thought let’s run a deal on onions. We wanted a crazy choice… for fun,” Ankur Warikoo,CEO,Groupon India,said.

This was the first deal involving onions for the online portal,which essentially offers discounts to shoppers on restaurant deals,fashion accessories and movie tickets.

Al Jazeera reported that Groupon,managed to sell 3,000 kilograms in just 44 minutes of frenzied buying and that overall 8,000 kilograms were sold to 17,065 users before stocks ran out – customers were restricted to just one kilogram,which was again harking back to the bygone era of the 1970s and 1980s when rationing was imposed on much of everything that Indians bought,from cereals to vegetables.

The Chicago-based deal-of-the-day website that had entered India by acquiring e-commerce portal SoSasta in January 2011,had planned to sell 21,000 kilograms over seven days across 78 cities in the country.

Clearly,the the onion proved too hot to handle for everyone.