I’m not a business type – I’m more concerned with building tools and so on than getting into the weeds with marketing issues – and here is an example of something I’m just missing:

This was today’s LivingSocial.com deal.

Ten bucks for $20 of Whole Foods’ stuff.

They sold a million of these deals. (And there was a viral aspect – get three to buy same, your purchase is free …).

$10 million loss to Whole Foods, and Living Social gets a cut of each coupon (not as draconian as GroupOn, but every penny counts, especially when you’re giving a portion of a million deals!).

To me, Whole Foods is a pretty well-established brand; does it need to spend $10m+ on this kind of promotion?

That’s where the lack of MBA in me gets lost…