If those eight customers are one-time only customers, they are only worth, say, $63 ($7/sandwich) to the business. If those eight customers are repeat customers, they are worth at least twice that, but most likely exponentially much more.
If you were buying lunch anyways, would you help a stranger by swiping their frequent customer card?
Another thing to consider is when a chain makes this offer, you can get your eight punches at eight different stores, and redeem the card at a ninth store. In this case, your frequent-diner card has engendered loyalty to the brand, but the corporate overlords certainly have the cost of the free sandwich figured into their margins. So why should the store not honor the offer as long as it’s apparently the stranger’s card?
If it was explicitly against the rules, then no, othewise, maybe.
A lot of these customers who might be redeeming the guy’s card for him might be regular customers doing it at the expense of redeeming their own card, because they’re trying to be benevolent and help a stranger. If the loyalty theory is true, they will be back to the same restaurant anyway because they want to get their own card punched next time. That will result in even more sales for the restaurant.
I myself would probably just buy the guy lunch if I believed him, rather than doing the card thing, but other than that I’m not seeing too much harm in getting his card punched for him.
Likely, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. I don’t see it as scamming the store (I am buying food, after all, so they are accounting for me having my own loyalty card), but I can’t say it wouldn’t make me feel uncomfortable doing it, anyway. I always feel uncomfortable when people ask me for money, and as often as I go into the city, I usually get asked at least a couple times a month for cash from someone.
However, for those who have said it’s scamming the store, I will say this: I do have a loyalty card for some stores. Last weekend, I went out to eat with a friend. The cashier swiped my card for my meal. Then my friend went to pay and he didn’t have a loyalty card. The cashier asked if I wanted him to swipe my card for my friends meal as well. Of course I do! I don’t see any problem with this at all; we’re all paying for our meals, and the store accounts for that, otherwise they wouldn’t have loyalty cards in the first place. Is there really something wrong with doing that? And is what I did really that much of a stretch away from what the guy in this hypothetical would be doing?
The issue for me would be getting put on the spot and asked for something that while not really a big deal, isn’t really something I’m all that comfortable with either.
Let’s modify the premise just a tad. McDonalds had a 2-for-1 special on a sandwich. I bought two, paid for one, and gave the extra one away. Was that wrong? Theoretically, the person I gave it to might have paid for a meal instead. OTOH, once I bought the sandwich, what right does McDonalds have to control the use of it?
I would assume some sort of scam and politely decline.
From some you know?
A guy on the streets walks up and asks me to get something for him? No freaking way. That’s bizarre and screams some type of scam, either on me or on the store. Now if I was on line inside the store and the person waiting behind me who was just about to order asked me, I’d be much more likely.
No, that is not the restaurant’s equation at all.
Some sizable percentage of people – probably most – will not participate in the program at all. Some of those who participate may not get their card stamped every time, maybe because they forgot their card or someone else was buying lunch that day and they didn’t want to look like a cheapskate by trying to get a stamp when someone else was paying. So, the actual number of meals served vs. those given away is much, much greater than 8:1, it is probably more like 25:1, maybe 40:1. Those are numbers I’m pulling out of my hind areas, but you get the picture: the restaurant does not budget 1/8th of each meal to pay for free meals.
Just imagine what would happen if this restaurant decided that every ninth customer in line doesn’t have to pay for his own lunch. Not only would there be fights among customers trying to change their place in line, the business would obviously be losing money.
If there were a number of beggars trying to get other people to use their cards, so that in fact there was an 8:1 ratio of meals given out, then the restaurant would surely be losing money at a much greater rate than the promotion planned. I view this as abusive of the rewards card agreement, and I’m betting that there is probably some restriction on the use of the card in this way.
Aside from all that, if a stranger asked me to use their card when purchasing a meal, I’d probably assume it was a scam and not do it.
Rightness or wrongness of it aside, I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of people who say they’d help out - and even more by the people who say they’d just buy the guy a lunch. Makes me feel like things will never truly get that bad…
The clerk was doing you a favor, which is a different situation than designing a system to take advantage of a flaw in the program. When I worked retail, we would sometimes save coupons to use again for customers. It was wrong on one hand because it was against corporate policy. But our manager felt like the goodwill it generated was worth the slight loss in income. People liked the idea that we cared enough to do personal favors, and so they’d make a point to come back to our store. In the end, that repeat business earned us money.
But stuff like this can be abused. I know an Italian chef who would keep a bottle of Limoncello around because he couldn’t picture having a restaurant without it. Since he didn’t have a liquor license, he could not sell it. So every now and then, he’d pour everyone in the house some limoncello on his own dime. Everyone had fun and everyone benefited, and stuff like this made his restaurant wildly popular.
But some jerk customers would start insisting on their “free” limoncello every time they came to the restaurant. Eventually he had to stop serving limoncello because the costs were starting to outweigh the goodwill it created. It was a shame, because everyone lost.
I do see the logic here, but I’m not sure that it carries over and applies directly to this situation. I’m assuming if the company has a loyalty card, that they’re not (typically) a small business. So, one person taking advantage of this system wouldn’t really have a larger effect on the company. Not to mention, should the company have a problem with what this guy is doing, rather than taking away the loyalty cards, they would just (justifiably) tell the man outside to leave the premises and stop harassing customers.
However, the entire situation would still make me uncomfortable. I can’t say that I think what the guy is doing would be inherently wrong, but I also think it’s unfair to ask and/or guilt people into doing something like that. If I were the business owner or manager and saw someone outside doing this, I would request he leave. I would also probably give him some food.