Food wars escalate as restaurants up the ante
Posted
Feb 23 2009, 02:48 PM
by
Joan Melcher
Rating:
We’ve been covering the food wars of fast-food chains, restaurants and coffee shops -- free deals and bargains galore designed to hold on to that elusive market share.
And they just keep coming. This Tuesday (Feb. 24) you can get both breakfast and lunch for free if you have the time and inclination to track the deals.
IHOP’s Fat Tuesday promotion of a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes is becoming an annual event -- but there is a string attached. They suggest you make a contribution to the Children’s Miracle Network.
They’ll be flipping out the ‘cakes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and hope to raise $1 million this year for a network of 170 hospitals. The IHOP site explains that the hospitals in the network treat 17 million children annually and money raised is used for new equipment, patient services, research programs and health education.
There are no strings at your local Jack in the Box -- just two free tacos this Tuesday with a coupon.
Last week we reported on TGI Friday’s entrée deal -- buy-one-get-one-free -- until the end of the month. Ruby Tuesday has upped the ante -- the same deal until March 24. But these coupons are rather hard to come by. Erin at Coupon Cravings saw one in a local paper and, although the Web is abuzz with the “idea” of a Ruby Tuesday coupon, all trails lead to the corporation’s So Connected site, which would suggest the best way to get a coupon is to join Ruby Tuesday’s online community.
If there’s a Houlihan’s nearby, you’ll want to check out their enticements. Perspective diners should note that the deals are good only after 4 p.m. Monday through Friday until this Friday (Feb. 27). Still, they’ve taken the most creative approach we’ve seen yet. When the Dow Jones industrial average is up, there are free Italian donuts for sit-down diners. When it’s down, diners can scoop up a voucher for a free appetizer on their next visit. And all patrons can enter a sweepstakes for a $5,000 U.S. savings bond.
Now that’s getting in the spirit: Free money.
Related reading:
The battle for breakfast
Sign of the times: Restaurants going bankrupt
Desperate restaurants try new tricks
