LivingSocial just did a similar $1 sale today in DC to launch their new Instant Deals, which are location based paid coupons. They advertised on the front page

LivingSocial just did a similar $1 sale today in DC to launch their new Instant Deals, which are location based paid coupons. They advertised on the front page of the free commuter newspaper, the radio, even had people walking around Chinatown with distinct orange shirts. Needless to say, their servers were having a rough time keeping up. The main web page served up timeouts every few page requests and the member creation system didn't work for a coworker. However, it seemed like the order processing system seemed pretty snappy, and the iPhone app stayed solid too (I'm referring to the server-side parts of course).