groupon told lasher that nearly 700,000 people saw his offer. which resulted in over 600 groupons sold. >> when it goes on groupon it goes out to millions of people. around the world. i mean i have groupon people have bought groupon in china. >> but what seemed like a lucky windfall to one small business owner can feel like a disruptive tornado to another. >> of course it makes me sad. it basically ruined my business for these people. i paid for people's treatments out of my pocket who will never be my customer. >> according to a study done last year at rice university jones school of business, 32% of small to medium sized businesses reported they lost money running their groupon promotions. >> so there's 3,085 customers. as a gis to get yourself ready to be able to serve those customers, we had four additional staff members just dealing with the phones and e-mails, and we had four additional nurses to serve basically the clientele. it wasn't enough. >> she says despite her best efforts, the thousands of new customers rapidly overwhelmed her bus

. >> the owner of lashers restaurant was highly skeptical. he didn't see how what amounted to a 75% discount could make him a profit. >> i put the math to it. i could make money and take advantage of the impact they have. >> indeed, the impact can be tremendous. groupon told him nearly 700,000 people saw the offer. >> when it goes on groupon, it goes out to millions of people around the world. i have groupon people that bought them in china. >> what seems like a lucky windfall to one can feel like a destructive tornado to another. >> it makes me sad. i paid for people's treatment who will never be my customer. >> according to a study, 32% of small to medium size businesses lost money running the promotion. >> there's 3,085 customers. you get ready to be able to serve those customers. we had four additional staff members dealing with the phones and e-mails. it wasn't enough. >> she says despite her best efforts, the thousands of new customers rapidly overwhelmed the business and crowded out regular customers. most groupon customers never bough