According to The New York Times, the merchants are disillusioned by the legions of one-time customers who never return, and dozens of the coupon sites have folded.

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We've got more shopping malls than churches, we spend more time staring at Internet coupon sites than reading Shakespeare, we stomp on each other at 5 A.M. on Christmas Eve to snag that discounted laptop at Wal-Mart, a store that now sells buckets of popcorn, suggesting that shopping for Glade plug-in air fresheners is the entertainment equivalent of going to the movies.

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We've got more shopping malls than churches, we spend more time staring at Internet coupon sites than reading Shakespeare, we stomp on each other at 5 A.M. on Christmas Eve to snag that discounted laptop at Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ), a store that now sells buckets of popcorn, suggesting that shopping for Glade plug-in air fresheners is the entertainment equivalent of going to the movies.

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The IPO market has been moribund save for social networking, online coupon and gaming sites offerings that suggest the hottest growth area out there is our collective desire to waste time.

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He expects to see book purchases facilitated by social networking sites and to offer mobile coupon rewards to frequent readers.

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