MANCHESTER – Online coupon dealer LocoLocal, which once connected consumers with discounts and deals in southern New Hampshire, is shutting down.

“It’s been a great 14 months bringing you new customers and money-saving deals,” LocoLocal CEO David Parker said in a statement issued Aug. 16. “We’ve met many wonderful people, and hopefully helped to stimulate the local southern New Hampshire economy. Unfortunately, sometimes things don’t work out as planned.”

Parker declined to comment directly on the business, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., or the reasons for its closure.

In 2010, LocoLocal started offering consumers purchasable coupons for local retail discounts to be redeemed anywhere from 48 hours to six months after the consumers’ initial purchase, similar to the nationally known coupon dealer Groupon.

“?‘Loco’ means crazy in Spanish, and local means – you know,” the company’s Web site states. “So we offer ‘crazy local deals.’ And we’re ‘crazy about our local deals.’?”

Retailers that offered coupons through LocoLocal set up a deal for “nothing,” according to LocoLocal.com, and as consumers purchased the coupons for a retailer, LocoLocal split the revenues received by the coupons 50-50 with the retailer.

Once the deal was advertised, LocoLocal distributed the retailer’s share of revenues in four equal payments over the 90 days after the deal’s closing, according to the Web site.

Although LocoLocal has stopped operating, merchants who offered coupons through the site will still honor those deals until the coupons expire, according to Parker’s statement, and consumers are urged to print out their online vouchers and redeem them as soon as possible.

“We have decided to close down LocoLocal effective immediately,” Parker said in a statement. “All merchants will be paid all monies owed to them (checks will be generated tomorrow and they will receive them within one week) and all coupons will, by contract and law, remain valid and redeemable.

“All holders of unredeemed LocoLocal Gift Cards will receive credit to their credit cards for the amount of their original purchases.”

Although its service is done, LocoLocal.com is still functional, and displays “past deals” offered by 30 businesses or more in Greater Manchester, ranging from 70 percent off on a custom facial at Merrimack’s Something Fancy salon to a discounted $35 beginner lesson for rock-wall climbing at Vertical Dreams in Manchester.

Tracy DeSchuiteneer, owner of Clipper Carney in Merrimack, said she worked with LocoLocal for about a year, offering deals twice in that period, including a $20 mini-manicure and shellac polish for $10.

“It was very good,” DeSchuiteneer said. “They did a coupon for me twice; it worked out wonderfully. The first 98 that I sold, 95 I sold were not my clients yet.”

Like many coupon deals, DeSchuiteneer said the service brought in a mix of one-time customers and regular clients.

“Some of them came in for the coupon; you get that, too,” DeSchuiteneer said. “I have a couple that have become my clients. We do their hair now and their feet.”

DeSchuiteneer did not know LocoLocal was closing until the Bedford Journal called her asking for her reaction, but she wasn’t worried about finding another coupon dealer for her business, citing the online coupon craze made popular by companies such as Groupon and reality TV shows such as “Extreme Couponing” on TLC.

“I didn’t even know they were (closing),” DeSchuiteneer said. “There will be somebody else.

“I did (LocoLocal coupons) twice. The second time, I felt like people were just looking for the deal. My clients bought it more the second time, but you’re always going to get those crazy coupon cutters.”

LocoLocal’s Parker said people are looking into buying LocoLocal and keeping it going.

“We are open to this idea, so if you, or someone you know, can come up with an acceptable cash offer for the business, let me know,” Parker said, offering hello@locolocal.com as the point of contact.

“It is our hope that all of you, in the past year, have discovered wonderful merchants and customers that you will appreciate doing business with for years to come.”

Maryalice Gill can be reached at 594-6490 or mgill@nashuatelegraph.com.

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