Not all mall locations are created equally. Management knows this and prices and incentives are applied accordingly. At my local mall, there is a retail wing that gets very little foot traffic. Several restaurants have already opened and failed in this wing.
Now, there is a new contender for the space, The Meatball Kitchen.
To incentivize the opening, for a limited time, The Meatball Kitchen has been given several tables in high traffic areas of the mall to use for promotion. The Meatball Kitchen has done a nice job of decorating these table with plastic food [?].
However, there is one glaring omission from the display tables – there are NO COUPONS!
There are NO coupons that say …
“Come on down [find us] and “Try a FREE plate of meat balls!”
Of course, The Meatball Kitchen says on their signage that their meatballs are off-the-charts delicious
BUT how would I know?
Give me a damn coupon! Give me a reason – a really, really good reason to
- Find The Meatball Kitchen
- Try the meatballs
If you don’t want to give me a free plate of meatballs – [which is what you should do] – at least give me a salad or a coke or a garlic bread stick – GIVE ME SOMETHING!
I sought out the remote Meatball Kitchen at lunch time. There are probably 200 seats in the restaurant and 5 – that’s it 5 – were occupied.
I counted a half dozen staff standing around doing nothing …
Could 2-3 members of the staff being sent out to the display table to hand out coupons and give a first hand account of how delicious the meatball are ?
DUH.
Maybe with time, if the meatballs really are truly special, hungry patrons will find the restaurant – maybe.
But, given the fact that The Meatball Kitchen probably spent over a million dollars on improvements and rent guarantees – for this one location – they are off to a really poor start.
LESSON
Give out coupons – lots of coupons – offer a superior product and build the business – get the lines out the door – you want ambassadors and repeat customers – long lines and wait time are the problem you want to have and not an echo in your empty space because you were too cheap or foolish to offer a free sample.
You want to be so busy that the only way that you can cut down the crowds is to keep raising prices.
