One Ottawa butcher shop has stopped honouring online coupons because they don't have the cash to supply thousands of customers with discount meat.
A sign on the door of Aubrey's Meats in the Byward Market said about coupons from sites like Groupon and Dealfind won't be honoured until May so the store can get back to "quality and service."
Around 10,000 coupons had been sold.
John Thurston said he bought $200 worth of meats for $89 but now can't use all of it.
"They stated there were blackout periods when you couldn't use it around the holidays," he said. "I understood that, but to say a whole four month period when you can't use the card, that's not what I thought I was getting when I bought the card."
Aubrey's former owner passed away in October, with staff saying they‘re currently in between owners.
They said they're temporarily not honouring coupons because they don't have the cash flow to handle hundreds of thousands of dollars of meat at a discount.
"They've lost their owner and I have sympathy for them, but my feeling is they should have planned their fiscal matters a little better," Thurston said.
Other local businesses said they've benefitted from offering the online deals.
"We just kept watching it climbing and climbing and climbing," said Michael Blackie of Le Café, whose Sunday brunch is typically booked solid from their offer. "We ended up selling 2,860 coupons."
For those Aubrey's couponers who don't want to wait until May, Groupon and Dealfind are offering a full refund.
Other customers said they were going to take their business elsewhere.
"The meat is great, it tastes fantastic, but it's obviously disappointing," said Rob Lussier. "I have four kids, so guess we'll just go to Wal-Mart to get some meat."
A similar situation happened in Toronto last year, when a butcher stopped allowing coupons to be redeemed on Saturdays because of the demand.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Claudia Cautillo
