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If you are a local subscriber to multiple daily deal sites, you’ve no doubt received several offers — $5 for $10 or $6 for $12 — for Joe Fassi Sausage & Sandwich Factory.

Every week it seems like another deal from this one-man shop on Sublette Avenue on the Hill pops up in my inbox. This week alone, it had deals running on Groupon and Wedeal. I would venture that this restaurant is, if not the most prolific, then at least one of the most active merchants offering daily deals in the region.

While some businesses may be reluctant or wary of offering these deep discounts, that shop seems to be a true believer.

So I decided to stop in earlier this week and check out the place. It started out as a grocery in 1926 and is now run as a sandwich shop by Tom Coll, the grandson of Joe Fassi.

“I know you hear a lot of bad stories about coupon sites,” he said after fixing a sandwich for a customer. “But it works for me. I have no complaints.”

So just how many deals has he offered?

“Oh my gosh,” he said. “I probably use 14 different sites. You see all those clipboards? That’s how we keep them all straight.”

Coll motioned to a dozen clipboards hanging on the wall behind the cash register. Each one is for a different deal site such as Deal Chicken, Eversave and Urban Dealight. Names of customers who have redeemed the offer are highlighted in a green or yellow marker. A handful of other sites he uses have computerized systems.

So why does he do it?

“We’re just so off the beaten track so we needed to find a way to market our business,” Coll said. “It’s a great way to get your name out there. Someone told me … that you need to brand your name. You do that by being everywhere.”

And this way he doesn’t have to spend much money on marketing, he added.

Since he offered his first deal through Groupon about a year ago, he estimates that he’s sold about 3,000 to 4,000 deals. Most people end up spending more than the coupon value. And about 60 percent of his customers who use the deal come back and pay full price. So overall, sales have increased about 20 percent, he said.

Daily deals may not work for everyone, Coll cautioned no fax pay day loan. You have to do the math to make sure you’re covering your costs. And it may be that it works better for him because he is a small business with fewer overhead costs, he said.

Now that he’s become a deal regular, he fields a lot of calls from other obscure sites around the country wanting to carry an offer for him.

“But you ask them how many emails they have in St. Louis and they’re like a thousand,” Coll said. “That’s not worth the time. But yeah, people come out of the woodwork.”

WE LIKE OUR TACO BELL

Taco Bell’s new “Doritos Locos Taco” — yes, that’s a taco in a shell made of nacho cheese-flavored Doritos chips — has apparently been doing quite well in the St. Louis market.

At least that’s the word from the new owner of about two-thirds of the Taco Bell locations in this area.

Marjorie Perlman, a spokeswoman for Alabama-based Tacala LLC, said the new product’s success is a sign of how well Taco Bell is received in the St. Louis region.

“Folks in St. Louis like to eat out — we like that,” she said. “And it seems like you guys are kind of risk takers when it come to your culinary choices.”

Some critics may take issue with her last point. But I guess she means that St. Louisans don’t just eat burgers — but also are willing to “branch out” to tacos.

Tacala, the largest franchise operator of Taco Bell restaurants in the nation, now owns 61 of the 90 Taco Bell locations in this region, making it the company’s largest market. The company just acquired 34 locations from Yum Brands, which franchises the fast-food chain. And a month ago, it bought Wentzville-based GenXMex Foods’ portfolio of 27 local Taco Bell locations.

“We’re primarily in the Southeast,” Perlman said of Tacala, whose second biggest market is Birmingham, Ala., with 43 stores. “We’ve been wanting to expand for awhile.”

She added that the company plans to invest in the stores it has acquired — remodeling and putting in new equipment where needed.

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Chesterfield-based Aegion Corp. reported fourth-quarter net income of 15.2 million, or 38 cents per share, compared with $17.4 million, or 44 cents a share, in the corresponding period a year ago. Quarterly revenue rose to $256.7 million, compared with $246 million a year earlier.

Since October, Aegion has been the parent company of Insituform Technologies Inc. The company specializes in sewer and drinking water system renovation.

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the nation should take preemptive measures and start

Prime Minister Mario Monti

Consumer prices in the euro zone fell more than previously expected in December, the start of a retreat from a November peak that should give the European Central Bank more room to cut interest rates as the economy heads for recession.

Inflation in the 17 countries sharing the euro was 2.7 percent in December on an annual basis, revised down from an earlier estimate of 2.8 percent for the month, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said.

“The pressure is abating although the risks from energy are still there,” said Fabio Fois, an economist at Barclay’s Capital. “We think the ECB could bring rates as low as 0.5 percent in March,” he said.

The bank made two 25 basis points cuts after Mario Draghi took over as president in November before holding fire this month.

Many economists expect it to take rates below 1 percent for the first time ever in the coming months but comments by Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny published on Tuesday hinted that the bank was in no hurry to move again.

“We are all agreed that now the point is to allow these measures to take full effect. Only then will we take further decisions,” he told the Wall Street Journal’s German website.

“For the ECB ‘We never precommit’ always applies, but there are no plans whatsoever at the moment.”

Reuters’ latest polling of some 66 economists before the ECB met earlier this month suggested the bank will cut interest rates to a new record low of 0.75 percent in February or March no fax payday loans.

Economists had expected euro zone inflation to remain at 2.8 percent in December.

IRAN EFFECT

Stripping out volatile energy prices, the main driver behind a 3 percent peak in the headline number in September, October and November, inflation was 1.9 percent.

Without energy and food, it was 1.6 percent.

That sits better with the ECB’s target of below, but close to 2 percent, which the Frankfurt-based bank judges to be right for price stability and a healthy economy.

The euro zone’s economy, however, is anything but. The bloc’s gross domestic product probably contracted in the fourth quarter of 2011 and is expected to do so again in the first quarter of 2012 - showing it has fallen into a recession.

The weakening economy and rising unemployment across the bloc are cutting demand for goods and with it pressuring retailers to reduce prices. That has offset continuing high prices for crude oil globally due to concerns about a supply disruption in Iran.

Oil futures rose on Monday after Saudi Arabia told its Gulf Arab neighbors not to make up any shortfall caused by an embargo on Iranian crude oil exports.

In the euro zone in December, fuels for transport, heating oil, gas and electricity had the biggest impact on inflation in December. Energy inflation was a massive 9.7 percent in the month, compared to December 2010, Eurostat said.

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Boeing is starting to fly right.

An Indonesian airline’s commitment to buy $21.7 billion worth of new planes is the latest good news for the company after a year when some things could have gone better.

Earlier this week, Emirates Airlines ordered $18 billion worth of 777s. Both deals come shortly after Boeing finally began delivering its two newest planes, the next-generation 787 and the latest version of the iconic 747.

Just a year ago, the outlook was dicier.

The new 787 was already running nearly three years late when an electrical fire on a test plane in November 2010 forced it to suspend flight tests. The revamped 747 was running late, too. And Airbus announced plans to put a new engine on its A320, making the plane more fuel efficient and a more potent competitor to Boeing’s 737.

The Airbus move forced Boeing to switch gears and offer a new-engine version of its 737 rather than build an all-new plane as it had originally expected to do.

Boeing needed some successes, and it found them in Asia and the Middle East, where rising wealth is turning more people into travelers.

Boeing expects demand for 11,450 planes in the Asia-Pacific region over the next 20 years, more than in any other part of the world. That number includes planes made by Boeing and competitors such as Airbus and new entrants into the market. Airbus has already booked 1,268 firm orders for its A320neo, so named for its “new engine option.”

The commitment by Indonesia’s Lion Air announced on Thursday is for 230 Boeing 737s. Lion Air also has options for 150 more planes, valued at $14 billion, bringing the deal’s total potential value to $35 billion.

The order would be Boeing’s largest ever in terms of both volume and dollars.

“This order is a big deal,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Stallard wrote in a research note to clients. The deal “gives a meaningful boost to Boeing’s backlog.”

Most of the planes are the 737 Max, a new version of Boeing’s most popular plane with more fuel-efficient engines. It won’t be delivered to its first customer until 2017. Boeing has said it has about 600 commitments for the 737 Max.

But the Lion Air deal is not a certainty. The airline still has to finalize the order, and it’s struggling no teletrek payday advance. The Jakarta Post reported in August that Lion Air was ordered to ground 13 planes so it would have more in reserve because it had too many late flights.

“There’s always a risk that a deal’s going to fall through,” Citi analyst Jason Gursky said. “It’s a brutal industry, and when we go through periods of slower economic growth, there will be failures. It’s Boeing’s job to pick the winners and losers. But I think they’re pretty agnostic right now as to who they sell to.”

Gursky said Boeing went on “order holiday” in 2011 because it didn’t have a product to sell. That has changed now that it decided to put a new engine on the 737. He expects Boeing’s deliveries to increase by 27 percent next year, compared with a 9 percent increase at Airbus.

“That’s why we think this year is going to be the year of Boeing,” he said.

Even before Lion Air announced its plans, Boeing has been ramping up production to try to meet demand for the 737 as well as the 777, a larger plane used mostly on international routes. It already has a backlog of 2,191 737s that have been ordered by airlines around the world but not yet built.

Boeing already completes about one 737 every day in Renton, Wash. It is raising that to 42 per month in 2014. It has not yet said whether the 737 Max will be assembled in Renton or somewhere else, perhaps in South Carolina, where it is opening a second assembly line for its new 787.

Boeing already employs some 80,000 people in Washington state. Gursky, the analyst, has written that the biggest risk to Boeing’s planned rate increases appears to be its ability to hire the thousands of new workers it will need.

Lion Air already has orders for 125 more Boeing 737-900ERs. Its fleet currently stands at 73 planes, according to Airfleets.net. Sixty-five of those are Boeing 737s.

Also Thursday, Boeing said that aircraft leasing company Aviation Capital Group had ordered 20 of its 737-800s and committed to buy 35 of the planned 737 Max.

Shares of Chicago-based Boeing fell 25 cents Thursday to close at $66.09.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that he was finishing his fourth round of chemotherapy in Cuba and expressed optimism that he will not require any further treatment.

Chavez spoke by phone from Havana to hundreds of supporters who gathered at the Riverside Church in New York to pray for his health. Those in the church included Bolivian President Evo Morales and the foreign ministers of Cuba and Argentina.

“Those prayers today have great meaning for me,” Chavez said in the call, which was broadcast on Venezuelan state television. “We’re closing the fourth round of chemotherapy and with the grace of God, this will be sufficient.”

“I’m just about to finish,” Chavez said. “It’s something malignant that’s turning into something benign.”

“I promise you I will live,” he said poor credit personal loans.

He supporters chanted: “Oh, no, Chavez won’t go!”

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba in June to remove a tumor from his pelvic region. Since then, he has undergone three rounds of chemotherapy, and has said this should be the final phase.

Chavez has said previously that tests have shown no signs of a recurrence.

Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua said Wednesday that Chavez’s health was steadily improving.

Chavez “is doing well, better every day,” Jaua said.

(This version CORRECTS that Chavez said he was finishing, instead of finished with, fourtth round of chemotherapy.)

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The Toronto stock market tumbled again Friday, a day after investors punished stocks and sparked the worst one-day decline in two years, with no comfort coming from a stronger-than-expected reading on U.S. employment.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 216.03 points or 1.74 per cent to 12,164.1, led by sliding resource stocks as investors feel slowing economic conditions will heavily impact demand.

Medical device maker Boston Scientific is reporting a nearly 50 percent increase in second-quarter profit and says it will cut up to 1,400 employees to streamline operations.

The company is announcing a restructuring program to eliminate unnecessary administrative positions and automate other production work. The company expects to shed between 1,200 and 1,400 employees by the end of 2013. Boston Scientific expects the cuts to save between $225 and $275 million annually, some of which will be invested in other areas of the company.

For the second quarter, the Natick, Mass., company earned $146 million, or 10 cents per share, up from $98 million, or 6 cents per share, in the prior-year period.

Company sales grew 2 percent to $1.98 billion, which was above Wall Street estimates.

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