Daily Special Bux
 

Hey....with restaurants closed for seating and trying to "stay alive" by offering Take-Out and/or Delivery.....why not set up a "Daily Special" website so restaurants could send you a List of their Daily Specials....and you'd post these on the website every morning.

Consumers could also Order On Line.

I did something like this with my "Fax Bux" program back when we relied on Faxes. Restaurants would Fax me their daily specials for the next week.....and I would place them on my "Daily Fax" sheet and fax to 50 local offices....where they'd then be put on their Bulletin Boards.

So....the only problem with this is How to let local consumers be made aware of such a website.

And....this doesn't have to be strictly for restaurants.....ANY biz could put up a "Daily Special".

Anyone have a comment on this?

Don Alm

Re: Daily Special Bux
 

Hi Don,

I believe you probably have the seeds of a great idea here!

If you can get enough "local eyeballs" on your website, it could work...

I'd have to think about it some more...

I kind of wonder if a local Facebook group could work...

(The main advantage of that is that, if it's active, Facebook will promote it for you... But - the problem is it is really owned by Facebook, and they can close the group or "change the rules" at any time...)

After thinking about it a little, I think the best approach could be to develop a local email list. This then becomes similar to your "Fax Bux" idea - but using emails, rather than faxes...

- Dien

In the real world, what is happening?
 

Needs tested. I don't see it working. Here's why:

What is the process? Today, I don't think anyone gives two hoots about a daily special, they want to know who is open and who delivers (or has pick up).

Now what is the process, tell me if people in your areas do things different from this:

People stuck at home. Want food. What do they do?

In my area, MOST would use Google or Bing and type in something like:

Restaurants open near me. OR
Restaurants near me with delivery or pickup.

Some combination of those search terms. The place has to be OPEN, then it has to have either delivery or pickup. With all the delivery apps, almost all of them should offer delivery. However, if the place is a short drive, many will opt to pick it up, just to get out of the house.

I just did this at Google and Bing. MAPS came up.

Now what kind of food do I want? Pizza? Burgers? Meals?

I may feel like pizza, so I check with my local fav, in my zip codes I have about 15 choices. One of our local favorites, Da Vincis, is closed.

Maybe, maybe someone is looking for a daily special on pizza, how can they beat the 5 or 10 dollar deals the big chains are offering?

Look, I don't know. Who pays for the listing at a Facebook site? How do you convince Momma Felice to pay you to get people who want her daily specials.

Maybe I'm missing something but I see a lot of slop, mess and time spent for very little return on investment.

A daily special TODAY, isn't going to make a difference to most restaurants which are still open.
But, I could be wrong.

Gordon
PS Also, from what little anecdotal evidence I can find, a sit down restaurant is lucky to be doing 20% of their daily business with delivery or pick up. Those restaurants which would offer a daily special, are just too expensive, a family with kids at home, not going to order the steak dinner to go, even for a discount.