"Google Offers" , what does this mean?

See now that is interesting to me because I have heard mixed reviews about Groupon and sites like it. I have heard it is very good if you are a service company with no fixed costs and Groupon brings you extra business. Ex. A spa that normally gets X for a massage or manicure charges half of X, which is better than getting nothing. But I have heard that places with fixed costs per sale like retail or restaurants are having mixed results. I have read they essentially take a loss on the Groupon deal in the hopes that they gain new, repeat customers. But most of the people buying these Groupon deals are just bargain hunters and they aren't returning to these businesses. I saw a news report where a business owner said the only reason she made money was because only about half of the people who bought the deal actually redeemed the voucher. This is just what I've read and seen.

I was asking about Google Offers because I was wondering about some things that could affect offline marketing like: Will businesses who purchase a Google Offer suddenly get a better ranking meaning, when someone does a local search for X will there be a spot on the first page where they can see which X businesses are offering the Google Offers deals? What I'm really getting at is once Google has a relationship with a local business will they provide some of the services currently offered by offline marketers?