Search Smart Spending:

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

Back to Smart Spending Digg this | Email this | Link to this
Comments

 

Republicans didn't make people buy houses they couldn't afford. They didn't run your credit cards up either. No one made you buy a car that was greater than your means. No one makes you not save and spend money on lots of junk! The American people did all that themselves. They dug their own pit and fell into it and now want to place the blame. Oh, and we expect Lord obama to fix it all for us. A lot of people need to get a reality check on whose fault all this is.

M. Reynolds (Posted 02.24.09 2:41 PM ) Report Abuse

So I guess the ignorant economic fools are on here. The President has less to do with the economic policy. That belongs to Congress. The economy was fine until the Dems took over both houses. Bush couldn't have done anything from 2006-2008 with the Dems having control of both houses. And notice, it was then that the economy fell.

This bill is already being denounced by many economists including ones that went to Harvard with our dear leader. The fact that most Americans don't even think this will help them personally is a testament to this bill. So I suppose it WILL help the big business anyway, the same things you libs all are against anyway.

And for the record, without Wal-Mart, our commercial industry would have had a far bigger loss. Cut the crap. Read a book on economics will you?

Schumpeter (Posted 02.24.09 2:49 PM ) Report Abuse

I'm going to lunch now.

s (Posted 02.24.09 2:51 PM ) Report Abuse

I like  tacos at Jack in The Box,...but I had Taco Bell last night.

Texas Grandma (Posted 02.24.09 2:57 PM ) Report Abuse

the mess we are in is the fault of the congress. with them it is spend spendspend. we are taking care of too many illegals instead of our own including the eldery!

pat (Posted 02.24.09 3:12 PM ) Report Abuse

I thought this was about free food.

Tim (Posted 02.24.09 3:14 PM ) Report Abuse

IHOP and Jack in the box are NOT what I would consider in the upper echelon of fine dining establishments, so, unless you're three steps from starvation, I wouldn't se foor in there....

Last time I ate in a jack in the box (30 years ago) I got food poisining, and proudly, I have not set foot in one since then............

HUMPY DUMPY (Posted 02.24.09 3:17 PM ) Report Abuse

Freebies don't happen often in any business.  So how on earth is this greed?

You want to talk stimulus, please tell me how on earth 4 different dog parks, one with a heating cabin are going to help the economy?

Please tell me how a convention center hotel at taxpayer expense is going to help the economy other that to help a hotelier to line his pockets FREE OF CHARGE!

Please tell me how converting 60 police cars to electric at a price tag of $6 million dollars is helping the economy?

What tax breaks the feds are giving the states are taking from your other pocket in higher state taxes!   Look at california, our auto license fees will now double.  Sales tax went up a penny, income tax went up!

So the feds giveth, and the states taketh!  What good did this do ?  Who did it really help?

I think a lot of people need to pull their collective heads out of the vodka bottle and wake up!

They got the gold mine, we got the shaft!

Jim Davis (Posted 02.24.09 3:32 PM ) Report Abuse

I am not a Republican and definately not a Dumb-ocrat. I am a conservative who is sick and tired of too many wishy washy, panty waste Liberals in both parties. This country got where it is on the back of American heroes. Hard workers looking for a better tommorow. Either for fighting freedom or by risking all they have to start a business to better themselves (and oh yeah) and create jobs to better others. Neither of these groups get the support they truly deserve. Either our soldiers are constantly called evil baby killers or torture mongers of somesort and our business men/women are called greedy capitalist swine in the media and the lemmings out there just echo these sentiments, because they either can not think for themselves or to much of an idiot to do any research for themselves and REALLY learn. So cut our soldiers a break and get out of their way and shut up. And give our businesses a break to create jobs.

Yes, stupidity caused alot of this downturn. Yes in government and in the private sector. No one party is blameless, so you little one minded wonders out there need to realize that. We need the morals and idiology this country once had to get back to our greatness not more welfare and political correctness.

 One last note. Get over it, get a job and move on.

Kevin Mc. (Posted 02.24.09 3:36 PM ) Report Abuse

If what they are doin is trying to increase business by getting people in it didn't work for me at Friday's. I went with some friends to eat and we had coupons. There were four of us and even though the coupon said one per party all the manager would have had to do was let us all sit at the same table. As it was, we had to seperate, they had to bus 2 tables and it just served to piss me off and I won't be going back. So the coupon worked against them in this instance.

Shannon (Posted 02.24.09 3:40 PM ) Report Abuse

First < 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 > Last

Send a Comment

Comments must be directly related to the blog entry. Comments with offensive language will be deleted. Your e-mail address won't be displayed.

(please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):