[joncrocks]

It depends on the business. It's not uncommon for clients to execute against different institutions' systems, and they can/would re-route flow to someone else if you're down.

Think less "buying a car" and more "buying a pint of milk". If you're buying a car and the store is closed, you might come back the next day. If you're buying milk you will just go to the store down the street.

[nijave]

I imagine same with time based or opportunistic businesses. If the shopping channel (assuming it runs around the clock) couldn't process orders, they'd have to decide if they want to forgo selling other products to rerun the missed ones.

For certain types of entertainment like movies or sports, the sale may no longer be relevant.