What happens when you sell onions online in India

In India, the onion holds special economic significance besides its culinary roles. The onion is a basic necessity for the common man and so the price of onions is sort of economic index. With the Indian economy under trouble recently, the onion index fared badly. The price for a kilo of onions shot up to Rs. 70 per kg and the country has been reeling under its inflationary impact.

That's when the deals site, Groupon, stepped up to sell onions through its Indian website, for a price of Rs.9 per kg. The price was so good that it created buyer frenzy and the site crashed, as per reports in Al Jazeera America.

This is the first instance where onions crashed a global site. The news site reports that Groupon sold 3,000 kilograms in 44 minutes. More than 8,000 kilograms were purchased by 17,065 users (who were restricted to buying 1 kilogram each) before Groupon sold out last week.