# Do Chinese Restaurants Rarely Advertise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 18, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031 "2018-02-18T02:02:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/1 "2018-02-18T02:02:08Z")
I must get ads from every pizza place in town. But although there are a lot of pretty good Chinese restaurants here, very few of them seem to advertise. I can count on one hand the number I’ve seen in my life. Since Chinese are often savvy at business, 1. Is it true (in your opinion) Chinese or ethnic businesses rarely advertise? 2. Why? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/2 "2018-02-18T02:24:15Z")
Every month or so, I’ll come home to find a Chinese restaurant menu stuck in my door. I never see other restaurants advertising this way. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/3 "2018-02-18T02:32:13Z")
In my city I see fewer TV ads for Chinese places, but there are some. But there aren’t nearly as many Chinese as there are pizza places or Mexican places, so I’m not surprised. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/4 "2018-02-18T02:48:50Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Every month or so, I’ll come home to find a Chinese restaurant menu stuck in my door. I never see other restaurants advertising this way. Yeah, I see the printed out flyers every so often. The pizza places and the occasional Mexican cafe does that around here, too. However, the local businesses that advertise most in this manner are the garage door salesmen. Every week and a half to two weeks I could expect to find a garage door flyer stuck to the side of the garage. (And the door is pretty new, so it’s not a matter of me having a shitty garage door.) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/5 "2018-02-18T03:15:06Z")
One reason is that Chinese restaurant chains are comparably rare (relative to the total number of Chinese restaurants) compared with other sorts of chains for reasons that are speculated on in the following website: > **[Why Aren't There More Chinese Restaurant Chains?](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-arent-there-more-chin_b_3188946)** > > With 41,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., why aren't there more national chains dishing out sit-down Chinese food? I also get menus for Chinese restaurants (which are non-chain ones) stuck in my door. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/6 "2018-02-18T03:39:57Z")
One Chinese place around here advertises on TV frequently. I rarely see the others advertise in any form. Many of the non-chain restaurants around here don’t advertise consistently so they are no different from the Chinese places. There are a few places that advertise in print consistently in the local suburban paper. One place after another picks up a local cable advertising contract and their ads will appear for a while then never be seen again. It does not appear that TV ads have an obvious payoff for the restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/7 "2018-02-18T03:53:04Z")
I sometimes see ads with coupons for the local Chinese places in the coupon mailers (ValPak), and ever once in a while, I’ll get a menu stuffed into the front door. But, by and large, most of them don’t do very much advertising, and, as TriPolar notes, that’s not uncommon for local, family-owned restaurants. They likely draw from a very small geographic area, and TV ads are likely way too expensive for them. The Chinese restaurants in my area have been in the same location for decades, probably have a fairly reliable clientele and an unchanging menu. If they’re happy with how busy they are, no real need to do much advertising. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/8 "2018-02-18T13:27:17Z")
I get lots of flyers for Chinese restaurants in my mailbox, probably equal to pizza flyers. I live in a neighbourhood with a large number of Asian (Chinese and Korean) restaurants, though. The Mandarin Chinese buffet chain does quite a bit of radio and TV advertising in the Toronto area. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/9 "2018-02-18T15:20:23Z")
I don’t notice a difference between advertising for Chinese restaurants and advertising for any other locally owned, non-national chain/franchise restaurants - which means mostly flyers left on my doorknob. I see more advertising for Dominos/Pizza Hut than I do for Carlo’s Pizza and I see more advertising for McDonalds/Burger King/Wendy’s/Five Guys than I do for the local diner. I suspect that a large part of the reason I don’t see advertising for chain Chinese restaurants here is because there really aren’t any chain Chinese restaurants here outside of mall food courts (and food court locations generally don’t advertise) - I’d probably have to pass 200 Chinese restaurants to get to the nearest PF Changs. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/10 "2018-02-18T15:22:24Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Every month or so, I’ll come home to find a Chinese restaurant menu stuck in my door. I never see other restaurants advertising this way. With some places in NYC, once they’re in the building they stick menus in _every_ door. Some just throw them all over the place like confetti. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/11 "2018-02-18T15:29:33Z")
I suspect this is because the advertising budget for a local ‘mom & pop’ is not the same as a chain resturant, where the main company also chips in. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-chinese-restaurants-rarely-advertise/809031/12 "2018-02-18T15:32:24Z")
I get lots of flyers for local Chinese and Indian restaurants in the mail and on my porch.