Although the first one was more like a blizzard, with deep snow and some malls closing, merchants said it had less effect than the second one because it occurred further away from Dec. 25.
The closer the merchant got to her target, the more she raised her offer one euro at a time.
If one of its stores is the closest available merchant deal on the platform, users will see a "Special Nearby" icon in the upper right-hand corner of their screen.
Next check out Amazon, when you do a search on Amazon you'll find that almost every product as a new and a used price... these are other sellers that want to sell theirs or even close out merchants that are selling out discounted stock.
Ahmed Khan, 26, an aldermanic candidate in the 50th Ward who runs the Par-Birdie grocery near Mr. Rana's law office, does not see Mr. Rana as typical of the close-knit merchants in the community, Mr. Khan came from India as a baby and is married to a Pakistani woman.
Goldstar CEO Jim McCarthy says that the key to resisting large sales forces a la Groupon has been to cultivate their existing relationships with venues and shows, rather than focus on closing new merchants who may never use the site again.
In other words, while Google is certainly looking at ways of extending its search results with transactions and getting closer to merchants and their advertising budgets, it would be an awkward time for the company to expand those services to include payment options to merchants in Europe specifically.
"The capital markets are basically closed to the merchant type of business," said Arleen Spangler, a director in the utilities, energy and project finance group at Standard and Poor's.
Steven Gaines, who operates a Web site called ihamptons.com and is the author of a best-selling book about Hamptons status-seeking called "Philistines at the Hedgerow," feels a sense of loss each time a local merchant closes for the last time.
As Setster wrote in its blog post today, daily deal companies are doing an abysmal job of helping merchants close the loop "on the mile of the transaction where [they] have been touching the client".
