Having dealt with the local advertising model myself (restaurant virtual tours) I can testify how god damn hard it is to get money out of small business owners so the success of Groupon is a surprise to me.

From a consumer perspective I unsubscribed a few months ago as I really didnt want to hear about a Botox or Massage deal each and every morning. It was good for xmas presents I will admit but in my local area the variety of the offers was somewhat limited (and Its by no means a small town), I shouldnt imagine I will check the site until around mid December again.