HendersonvilleRestaurant.com Blog

A local steakhouse sells cards for $60 that gets you 24 meals for the price of 12. They also have an early bird special. Some fast food places give out coupons. Have you thought about doing any of this?

Restaurant Response:

Each of our restaurants have several items on the menu which represent “Good Buys” if you mean reduced pricing. They are not always called “Specials” because that word means different things to different people. (I think my wife is Special) Also, we try to run in-house “Features”/”Specials” on a regular basis. However……..

I’ve been at this since 1975 and have learned some valuable lessons along the way. Here’s some thoughts I’ll share with you:

1-Restaurants come & go. Here’s the typical scenario: Open with good business. Business soon drops. To regain business, run give-aways. Advertise heavily. Business still drops. Close.
2-As the above is taking place, business at existing restaurants drops, so many of them turn to #2 above, run give-aways. Later some of them close also. Meanwhile, a new kid on the block pops up.
3-Restaurants selling food cheaply cannot survive for long for many reasons, one of which includes the inability to also hire people cheap (and if you could?).…but many struggling owners think, “well, I’ll grow the business with these coupons, two-for-ones, early birds, etc, then I’ll raise prices”. That plan doesn’t work because you attract people looking for bargains. They leave immediately when you increase prices to where they need to be-not a lot of loyalty with many of these folks.
4-Often the “Specials” are a GIMMICK to attract those extremely price conscious. What’s really happening is the restaurant reduces quality, portion size, raises the price, then lowers it to a “Special” price, etc. TWO- FOR-ONES are a favorite GIMMICK.(If it’s worth 1/2 of your selling price, why not cut your prices by 50%?) Here’s the TFO plan: a-Set prices of individual entrees very high. b-Purchase really cheap products c-Require tips based on the full amount before the deduction. d-Only allow the TFO on the over priced entries, not beverages, apps and desserts. e-Only allow $60 card holders the “deal”. If some unsuspecting DUMMY walks in without that $60 card ($5 per visit you must pay up front) then you’ve hit a home run because he’ll pay through the nose. When it’s all said and done, you’ve “SAVED” a few dollars at most to “ENJOY” a second rate experience. If the GOAL IS TO SAVE $1-3, why not order a good piece of chicken somewhere else instead of poor quality beef?
A guy offers to paint your house for 1/2 of the estimate of a good painter..Let Him???
5-I went into a local restaurant a while back and the server said the 10-oz Ribeye was on “Special”. How can they do that, I wondered? When the steak was served, it was obvious. The piece of beef was a cheap grade, they left a lot of fat and grizzle on it that should have been trimmed and they charged about $3 extra for a salad that most restaurants include with steak entrees.

We try not to play games. While others increase prices on certain special days, like Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve we don’t. We try to build long term relationships with customers who expect certain things from us, one of which is HONESTY and fair play. It seems to work!