Not wrong. Even when the gift card and the promo card are both being used by the buyer, you can think of it as a kind of rational (for the bar owner) price discrimination. In other words, the owner is essentially giving a 20 percent discount for people who who care enough about their finances to investigate the economics of the offer and follow through. Most people like that either wouldn’t drink the bar or would drink there only rarely. That may or may not apply to the OP, but it doesn’t need to be true in every case. It only needs to be true in the aggregate to be a rational offer by the owner. Even with the 20% discount the owner is still probably making a marginal profit on each drink, and hopes make up for the smaller margins through increased volume.
That’s the economics. If it really bothers you as an ethical question, you can always ask the owner whether they consider it to be wrong.
Exactly. If one is going to spend money at Kroger anyway, there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the bonus that is offered, whether it’s fuel points or a $25 promo card.
A clothing store chain local to where I grew up sold gift cards at a twenty-percent discount at Christmas. My father bought several hundred dollars worth and then offered to let us get what we wanted over the next year. It’s a way for the retailer to get money up-front and of course some decent percentage of gift cards are never redeemed. Similarly, you can buy gift cards from Costco at a discount from face value (and even then Costco is making a small commission).
Yes it is. If the desired conditions can easily be stated with a simple explicit rule, and the rule doesn’t create any significant unnecessary burden, why leave everyone guessing as to what the unwritten intent might be? With an explicit rule, everyone can get on with making rational decisions according to the specified economic incentives without the moral anguish.
How do you know this, and how does the OP know this? Maybe the bar owner is quite happy to just offer bulk prepaid drinks to anyone at a small discount.
I’d say that the OP did nothing wrong. I’d also dispute this claim. The current Tiffany Haddish Groupon ads say you can save money on the things you do every day. That certainly sounds like they’re telling regular customers to use their coupons.
If the bar owner was selling the gift cards at a loss in order to attract new customers then it would be wrong. But if he’s just selling them at a discount that still makes him a profit then I don’t feel it’s wrong. In such a case, the bar owner is using the gift cards as essentially a loyalty program; people who have gift cards instead of cash are guaranteed customers and that guarantee of future business justifies the discount.
I have to wonder how many people are inclined to choose a $100 card for a bar as a gift. I would only give it to someone who I already knew liked the place. I don’t think anyone who thought it through would expect the cards to be given to potential new customers.
Lots of places run promotions like this. I often take advantage when it’s a place I frequent. I don’t really think they care who gets the gift card and who gets the promo card as long a someone is pre-paying for their product.
Just how expensive is this place? What’s a beer cost you? At my local, that would be almost a 100% tip.
What type of food do they serve & what’s the typical menu price? If you were to give someone a $100 gift card & they used $75 on the first trip, would they go back for a second trip if it’s going to cost them $50 for bar food? If not, the owner has no loss - usage of $75 from $100 gift card & $25 from $25 bonus he’s not loosing anything.
I always thought there was something backwards in rewarding new customers more than your regulars. It costs more to acquire a customer than to keep one, so shouldn’t you reward your regulars more than a potential new one?
I think the most decent thing to do would be to ask the owner, “did you anticipate people buying themselves cards and thereby getting a discount for committing their money early? or is that something that didn’t occur to you?”. If the owner just didn’t think of it, then it would be gracious of you to opt out of taking advantage of the loophole they didn’t spot.
It’s a better world when failing to notice that you’re giving people an opportunity to take advantage of you does not result in damaging yourself.
You are getting a 20% discount on a volume purchase. Maybe not common in bars, but common in other places. And well within the profit margin of the bar owner.
But think of this - a gift card for a bar may be a big profit generator for the bar owner. As others have mentioned, if it goes to a regular patron it is no different from you giving it to yourself. If it goes to someone else, what if they don’t like the bar and prefer where they go already? Some of the card won’t be used, pure profit. And what if they are like me and haven’t spent $100 in a bar in 45 years of legal drinking. (I drink wine at home or in restaurants, rarely.)
In my understanding, much of the profit in the gift card business is unused balances.
You did nothing wrong and are getting slightly rewarded for loyalty.
There is a rebate in my supermarket like this for Visa cards. I’m thinking of using it and using the cards for groceries. Nothing wrong there either.
I’m so honest that I’ve been called a “goody two shoes”, and I see nothing wrong with what you’re doing. One of my guiding rules is “never turn down free money”. If the discount offer is losing money for the business owner, they need to change the offer. Being honest doesn’t require me to try to guess what people are thinking.
It seems unlikely that many people would buy a gift card to a bar for people who don’t already frequent the bar.
If anyone is gaming the system, it’s a business who sells gift cards, counting on some percentage of them not being used.
If you’re enough of a regular that you consider the owner a friend, then they will tell you if they think you’re gaming the system.
I’m a regular at a local pub where I often win a gift certificate in bi-weekly trivia contests. The staff let me know that the management gets a bit snippy if a gift certificate is used the same day it is issued, so we have an understanding that I’ll use it the next time I come in.
If this place doesn’t have the same arrangement, then you can pretty much do what you want.
I bought my nephew a $100 gift card to a local chain of pubs (the one I referred to above). Of course, he is a University student, and they have a branch that is literally in the middle of his campus. So there’s that.