RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Ecommerce deal provider  Groupon is out with a new list of rankings featuring what it calls the cities with the most friendly local businesses. And the Triangle didn’t crack the top 10 list.

Could this mean bad news for the Triangle’s pursuit of ecommerce giant Amazon’s HQ2 project and the 50,000 jobs?

Charleston, SC did make the Groupon cut. The port and vacation resort hub came in at No. 1.

Seattle, Amazon’s home city, came in at No. 2.

Unfortunately for the Triangle two of its rivals for the Amazon project did make the cut:

Philadelphia at No. 5

Denver at No. 9.

While Amazon has made clear its recruiters are interested in mass transit, workforce quality and availability, and other issues who’s to say an ecommerce friendly environment isn’t important, too? After all, Amazon does have a growing hub in the Triangle for home delivery and a variety of deals.

So now comes the Groupon list – good or bad?

“Bah, humbug,” say Amazon HQ2 bid supporters.

“Yes!” say Amazon HQ2 critics.

Groupon, the Chicago-based provider of coupons and discounts, says it reviewed customer satisfaction ratings and sales data in compiling the list.

Here’s the top 10, which met Groupon’s criteria for “highest percentage of merchants that met certain criteria for customer service and deal popularity:”

1. Charleston, S.C.
2. Seattle
3. Phoenix
4. New Orleans
5. Philadelphia
6. Miami
7. Boston
8. Minneapolis/St. Paul
9. Denver
10. Hartford

Amazon HQ2’s finalists as named by the company are the Triangle plus:

Atlanta; Austin; Boston; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery County, Maryland; Nashville; Newark; New York City; Northern Virginia; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Toronto and Washington, D.C.