Local entrepreneur Andrew Mason thought he had a great thing going with his new website, Groupon (Groupon.ThePoint.com). The site offers daily discounts for Chicago-based restaurants, stores and events. But his project seems to have backfired on him.

“It’s supposed to make me rich, this company, because I run it and stuff, but I think it’s making me broke because I buy all our merchandise,” Mason said.

Since its launch in late 2008, Mason said Groupon has saved Chicagoans more than $200,000. The site promotes the power of group purchasing to save consumers money and to help bring more customers to local businesses.

Every day, Groupon features a new deal. The “deal of the day” could be anything: sports events, dining, concerts or even work from a handyman. The catch, however, is that enough people need to sign up for the “groupon” in order for everyone to get the deal. The amount of people needed for the groupon varies from deal to deal.

Groupon is a “spin-off” of The Point, Mason’s company. Mason called The Point “a platform for organizing collectives of people to do things that one person can’t accomplish alone.” After having utilized his site for fundraising and various forms of collective action, he decided to use The Point to help bring discounts to Chicagoans.

Mason and the Groupon team contact various businesses in Chicago and negotiate with them to make deals. He said his site is only helping people get back to their old ways.

“People like free or cheap stuff,” he said. “In this economy, it allows people to live the ridiculous lifestyles that we’ve gotten used to over the past couple of years at our new income levels.”

Restaurants are probably the most common type of business to be featured on Groupon.

One of the daily deals featured was Lakeview-based T-shirt and knick-knack store Strange Cargo, 3448 N. Clark St. When the store was featured on Feb. 12, Groupon sold 116 vouchers for the store. Each groupon was sold for $8 but valued at $16, giving users a 50 percent discount.

Jay Schwartz, who runs Strange Cargo, was happy to see the traffic his store got from the deal.

“I actually think they have a really good thing going, and I think they could get big pretty quick,” Schwartz said.

Mason said traffic is the biggest reason why businesses give deals to Groupon.

“Businesses are still making money. We just do a trade-off, saying, ‘Hey, if we bring a ton of people to your door, how much of a discount will you give us?'” Mason said. “In exchange for that, they’re getting extraordinary volume.”

Eric Polcyn is the owner of SpaceTime Tanks Floatation Center, 2526 N. Lincoln Ave., a center that gives customers an hour in a sensory deprivation floatation tank. He said he was happy to see his business get the exposure of being featured on Groupon and that they got “a week’s worth of people in a day.”

Groupon has also been helping to bring customers to new restaurants in the city.  To coincide with Mardi Gras, Groupon offered a $5 coupon for a $15 voucher to Yats Cajun Creole Restaurant, 955 W. Randolph St.

“We’ve had a lot of response from people who had never been into my restaurant before, so being a new guy in town and not having a large amount of money as far as advertising goes, I’m happy with it so far,” said Nate Wilkerson, manager of Yats.

Still, Wilkerson’s relationship with Groupon is bittersweet, saying the customer gets a much better deal out of this than he does.

“When you figure it out numbers-wise, I’m giving people the food just below what it costs me to make the food,” Wilkerson said. “It’s a heck of a discount.”

By the end of the month, Mason said Groupon will be expanding its deals and services to Boston.

He has a positive outlook for the future of Groupon and its effect on Chicago businesses and consumers.

“I think businesses see this Groupon effect of getting listed on our website and getting a huge influx of new business,” he said. “It’s a no-brainer for them. It’s a win for them, it’s a win for the consumer and it’s a win for us.”