Butler University students are receiving half-price meals, free pizzas, free tanning and more from a Twitter account run by a senior accounting student.
@BrippCoupons currently has 1,394 followers from Butler. The account originally became popular through the creator’s friends in Greek houses and quickly spread throughout the campus, he said.
The creator asked to remain anonymous because he didn’t want people asking him for personal favors.
“About a dozen of my friends use it regularly,” said Dan Zinn, a fifth-year pharmacy student. “I just joined Twitter, and it was one of the first couple accounts I followed.”
Zinn received a free pizza from Greek’s Pizza as part of a promotion. He also used the buy-one-get-one Subway foot-long sandwich deal and the 50 percent off Yats deal, where there was a line going out of the store for the entire day, Zinn said.
Zinn said he prefers @BrippCoupons to Grupon and Living Social because it’s more local and easier to find different options the area has to offer.
The Shah brothers, as the founders of Broad Ripple Coupons asked to be called, run a similar page at Ball State and are negotiating with businesses near Indiana University.
“I’m going to try to focus on other schools because Butler’s not cutting the cheese,” a brother said.
At Ball State, students pay $5 for a card to have access to the special promotions that the Shah brothers negotiate with businesses. At Butler, the student population didn’t seem large enough.
Proportionally, Butler has been the Shah brothers’ most successful business. The small size, however is inhibiting the account from being as successful as the one at Ball State.
Broad Ripple businesses pay him to advertise special promotions to his followers.
“Staff members hate me and my brother because they get slammed that day with a ton of people,” he said.
The Shah brothers started the business as a texting database at their high school, but it eventually died off. Their business at Butler originally started out with a group email until Twitter became popular.
Negotiations can be challenging and time consuming. Many businesses say no, and others take two to three months to close the deal.
The brothers just finished a negotiation with Hotbox Pizza. On Nov. 2, followers can get free breadsticks from 2 to 5 p.m. On Nov. 14, followers can get a large, one-topping pizza for $8.
