SAM Magazine-East Burke, Vt., Dec. 3, 2010-In the first of what could be a wave of online deals this season, Burke Mountain sold 600 day tickets on Tuesday, Nov. 30, through discount coupon e-tailer Groupon as the "daily deal" in the Boston area.

The Burke offer was a $26 discount off the full day ticket of $66, or $24 discount off the half-day rate of $52. With Groupon taking its 20 percent cut, the full day ticket yield for Burke was about $32-just under 50 percent of the full price.

In Groupon fashion, the "tipping point" for activating the deal was 100 tickets. The area was hoping to sell 300, so the promotion beat the area's goal. A spokeswoman described it as "an enormous success" and said the area plans to offer more Groupon deals in the future.

Just two years old, Groupon and its one-day supersales have been a sensational success. Whether the company is worth the $6 billion that Google is said to have offered to purchase the company, Groupon has clearly won a loyal following-one that includes a good number of snowsliders. And this sort of success has inspired a rash of local imitators through newspapers and other outlets. The limited-time e-mail supersale looks like a trend with legs.

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