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Generous restaurants offer guests chance to take
a break, enjoy a little hospitality in difficult times
EDITORIAL
EDITOR: ELLEN KOTEFF
EXECU TIVE EDI TOR: Robin Lee Allen
MANAGING EDITOR/CONFERENCES &
SPECIAL PROJECTS: Alan J. Liddle
AR T DIRECTOR: Joe Anderson
MANAGING EDITOR/DESK OPERATIONS: Christi Ravneberg
DEPUTY MANAGING EDI TOR: Paul Frumkin
EXECU TIVE FOOD EDI TOR: Pamela Parseghian
ON-SI TE EDI TOR: Elissa Elan
HUMAN RESOURCES EDI TOR: Dina Berta
FINANCIAL EDITOR: Sarah E. Lockyer
FOOD EDITOR: Bret Thorn
SENIOR DESK EDI TOR: Mark Brandau
DESK EDI TORS: Elizabeth Licata, Michael Dempsey
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: John Barone, Stephen Beaumont, Gary
Bensky, Richard Berman, Amy Garber, Mary Ewing-Mulligan,
Florence Fabricant, Foster Frable, Fern Glazer, Malcolm
Knapp, Louise Kramer, Nancy Kruse, Ed McCarthy, Caroline
Perkins, Julie Ritzer Ross, James Scarpa, Jim Sullivan
We may not officially be
in “Brother, can you
spare a dime?” territory, but I
don’t know too many people
who can’t use a bit of compassion right now.
Between the daily barrage of dismal economic
news and the realities confronting most people in their
personal lives, there seems to
be a dearth of bright spots.
Millions of working
adults have been affected by
layoffs, whether they were
the ones let go or the employees who remain, and too
many people have watched
their savings evaporate or
lost their homes. Our prevailing mood is
borderline dire, and perhaps that’s where
restaurateurs can come to the rescue.
Certainly, much of the restaurant industry is reeling from its own problems, such as
slumping guest counts and dismal sales,
which is why the time couldn’t be better to
make a lasting impact on business by emotionally connecting with your customers.
The way I see it, making that emotional connection at a time when many
people are feeling lost and isolated is more
than good business, it’s good for our collective soul. It’s reaching out and saying,
“Your employer may have seen you as a
line item, but I see you as someone who
needs a reason to smile.”
That’s exactly what Mike Jacobs did.
Jacobs, a Beef ‘O’ Brady’s franchisee in
Sunrise, Fla., began offering free meals to
anyone who came in with a letter of termination, as well as 15 percent off the orders of those accompanying them.
The “Pink Slip Paybacks” promotion
runs through March 15, but already it has
Robin Lee
Allen
EXECUTIVE
EDITOR
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created positive energy in the
restaurant, Jacobs said.
“People are blown away by a
really small thing on our part,”
he said. “It’s touched more people than a traditional paid advertisement.”
Thurman Love, owner of the
Water Street Oyster Bar in San
Antonio, has found the same
thing. Last September, as federal lawmakers first began considering their hefty bailouts for
big businesses, Love decided to
offer “In-House Bailouts.” Each
lunch and dinner shift, Love and
his managers choose one table to
receive a free meal, excluding alcoholic beverages and tips.
The results have been measurable,
Love said, with 20 percent of
patrons saying they had
come in because they heard
about the promotion.
“We’re trying to capitalize
on the fact that a lot of people
are feeling down, and this
cheers them up, and they tell
their friends,” Love said.
Other restaurateurs also
are offering bailouts, while
still others are offering free
drinks or meals to those
folks who proffer their foreclosure notices.
It’s a way to share the suffering, to take
the edge off for a moment.
And no doubt the profusion of value
menus and freebies being showered on
consumers in this downturn is also appreciated.
Just about daily another chain unveils
a new value menu. Sonic, KFC, Dairy
Queen and Starbucks are just a few of the
quick-service players to start lobbing balls
in a game that used to belong almost exclusively to McDonald’s and Burger King.
Casual-dining chains and fine-dining
operators have joined in, too. Recently, Hooters began offering each Wednesday a $5.99
boneless-wing platter, and upscale eateries
nationwide are introducing as fixtures the
sort of low prix-fixe menus they once offered
only as Restaurant Week specials.
The freebies also are piling up. Customers in recent months have been able to
find free coffee, free smoothies, free
chicken snacks and, most recently, free
breakfasts at Denny’s. And operators have
benefited.
More than 2 million people clamored
for a free Grand Slam Feb. 3, according to
Spartanburg, S.C.-based Denny’s Corp.
Many of those folks waited in lines for
nearly an hour for a free hearty meal, including two eggs, two pancakes, two sausage links and
two pieces of bacon.
It’s been awhile since
America was in real need of
enlightened hospitality,
which boils down to making
each guest feel as if you’re
on their side. And what better time to extend the helping hand of hospitality than
when so many of our fellow
citizens are down and hun-
gry for more than just a good meal?
As one customer said while waiting in
line at a Denny’s in New Jersey, “
Everybody’s unemployed, so everybody’s here.”
It’s a good bet that those unemployed
diners who were lifted up by the Denny’s
promotion won’t soon forget. You want to
talk about a grand slam? That one was
right out of the park. ■
What better time
to extend the
helping hand of
hospitality than
when so many
people are down?
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LEBHAR-FRIEDMAN INC.
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Reader: Courting ‘coupon
nomads’ can hurt revenue
Editor, NRN:
While catching up on a few back issues
of NRN, I had a chance to read your editorial, “All-you-can-eat promotions offer opportunities for operators to excite guests
and drive traffic,” Dec. 1, page 23. I can appreciate the impact [promotions] can have
on short-term sales, as they can certainly
drive traffic to your establishment. However, over the course of my 20 years of involvement with a number of restaurants,
I’ve seen another side of the issue.
LETTERS
As the president of a marketing and
management consulting firm, I’ve had a
chance to see a segment of the dining
public that is driven by these types of promotions, and which bounces from establishment to establishment. Their loyalty
is to the deal they can get and not to the
establishment that provides it. I refer to
them as part of the band of traveling
coupon and discount nomads, who are
subsidized by the customers who come
for the experience and willingly pay full
price to enjoy it. One restaurant I worked
with went from averaging $25,000 a week
to about $7,000 a week two years later. In
helping the owner identify the problems
they faced, I saw 13 different “giveaways”
in place, and when I asked him why so
many, he told me he needed to do it to
bring people in. He was blinded to the reality of what it was doing to him.
I understand the promotional value of
incentives, but I like rewarding current
customers with discounts and comps,
rather than fishing in an unknown pool.
It not only rewards their patronage, but it
also reinforces the decision they’ve made
to do business with you.
— Paul Talbot
president
Talbot Corporate Services, Inc.
Charlotte, N.C.
FOUNDER (1900-1981): Arnold D. Friedman
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