At my local IHOP today (love those harvest grain pancakes), I noticed this on the notice board:
“On Wednesdays and Fridays, bring in your church bulletin and get a 20% discount on your entire meal”
Huh? Really? Is that legal? Ethical?
What do you think about this practice? What, if anything, would you have done? Do you see this kind of thing where you live? I live in Middle TN, which is pretty much the buckle of the Bible belt.
I can’t think of any reason why it would be illegal. IHOP isn’t a government agency.
Ethical? If you don’t attend a church which hands out bulletins, you might feel excluded from a discount. If you find it to be unethical, then vote with your wallet. (Personally, I don’t find it to be unethical, but, even if I did, it’d be pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.)
I don’t see such things around here, but then, I’m no where near the Bible Belt.
If you have a problem with it, mug a church-goer and use their bulletin. Better yet, find a local mosque and use their bulletin.
Sure it’s legal and ethical. I’m not sure why the OP thinks otherwise. That IHOP obviously thinks it’ll make money on it, so from the standpoint of keeping its employees on the payroll, it’s even laudable.
There’s an IHOP near me that’s also near a church. I’d probably go into the church, grab a bulletin, and walk over to IHOP. How ethical is that?
Why on earth would it be illegal?
How is it any different from restaurants giving say, military discounts, or for student discounts?
The Penguins have an event called “Student Rush”, for an example.
The IHOP as well as several of the other businesses in the area that have breakfast do a lot of after church business. Typically you put little ads in the church bulletins to try and get some of that business. The IHOP found a way around that. Instead of paying someone $1000 a month to run an ad/coupon, they just told people to bring the bulletin in and get 20% off. They saved themselves $1000 a month and it’s the same effect as running a coupon. In fact, they might even do a little better. Since it’s not a real coupon, people probably feel like they’re ‘winning’ by doing it. Kind of like when you see something that says “Tell them ‘tom sent you’ and get $5.00 off your order”
There’s no reason why it’s not legal, it’s just as ethical as running a coupon, and I’d say it makes good business sense.
These sites seem to think that it is illegal discrimination:
kenobi 65, some of us not only don’t attend churches that hand out flyers, we don’t attend church at all. Unless you count the church of sleeping late. And they sure as hell don’t print flyers.
According to this site, the reason it is illegal is that religion is a protected class under the civil rights act, whereas being a student or police officer or whatever is not. Huh, interesting. I have learned something tonight.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/44026840/Church-Bulletin-Discount-Illegally-Discriminates
You don’t have to worship anywhere or believe in any god to get a discount. You have to be a person that possesses a church bulletin with the day’s date stamped on it.
Easier than getting a student discount on software or the AARP price for a hotel room.
Meh, I don’t buy it. Everyone is allowed to go to church, the bulletins are free. I assure you, that you can walk into a church, take a bulletin and walk back out without anyone so much as batting an eye. ISTM the whole case hinges upon it being illegal for a person to take a bulletin from a church that they don’t belong to. In fact, if a someone one a case like that, it seems like that would set some other precedents as well. Our store runs coupons on bar placemats, that would be illegal because it discriminates against alcoholics, minors and people on probation that can’t be in bars. Some people run ads in magazines or newspapers, that discriminates against people who don’t receive those publications, some people run ads on the internet, yet not everyone has access to the internet.
What about things that are only for sale in churches. Should church bake sales be illegal on the same grounds that those to websites are citing?
Frankly, I think of Denny’s or Freddy’s or whatever restaurants they were going after felt like ignoring it, nothing would become of it. If the person wanted to take it to court, I’m don’t see why the restaurant wouldn’t win the suit. I’m sure the only reason they dropped it was because they didn’t want the publicity over it.
As I said above, it is a discount based on religion. All of the examples you cite, Joey P, are not protected classes, as far as I know, not being a lawyer.
Walking in and getting a flyer sort of misses the point, IMHO. It clearly is a discount based on religion, not possessing a flyer.
No, I guarantee you that if you - you, a non-believer - came in with a church bulletin they would give you 20% off. You really, honestly do not need to have a religion to get the discount.
Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby close on Sundays because of religion. They are denying you service on Sundays based on religion. Should they be sued?
Here’s the actual sign. It doesn’t say “Christians get 10% off” It says “Bring it a church bulletin, get 10% off” Any other way you look at it would be misreading it.
Here’s the one from Denny’s. Again, nothing about having to be of a certain denomination, it only says that to receive the discount you have to be in possession of a church bulletin. Now, I will give you that with a sign like this one, it does go an extra step in saying that they’ll donate 10% of what you spend to your local church. I assume that means (based on the rest of the sign) they’ll donate it to the church named in the bulletin. But, if I, an athiest, ran in to a church, grabbed a bulletin, used it to get a discount, I honestly wouldn’t care if they donated the money to a church. If I did care, I wouldn’t use the coupon or I wouldn’t spend my money there. But they’re not discriminating, you don’t have to be of faith to get the discount, you only have to have a bulletin and as someone who attended church and catholic school in his youth, I can tell you, no one’s going to care if you run in on Sunday morning, grab a bulletin and run back out…they’re free for everyone.
Discrimination based on anything involves treating some people differently than others. Closing on Sunday treats everyone the same, so that doesn’t really apply. Now if they only let in folks with church flyers, I might have a problem. 
So you have a problem then with student discounts? :dubious:
Students are not a federally protected class for discrimination, either.
(Alcoholics may be, if alcoholism is considered a disability. I’m not sure what the courts have decided on that one.)
Once again, student status is not a protected class. If you don’t want to clink on the linky, here is the text of the pertinent section of the civil rights act.
TITLE II–INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN PLACES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION
SEC. 201. (a) All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.
Student status, being a coupon holder or newspaper subscriber, etc, are not race, color, religion, or national origin.
So you don’t believe that having a church bulletin is the same as being a coupon holder?
It’s the same as being a coupon holder if the coupons were only distributed to, say, Korean Community Centers. Or maybe only the men’s locker room at the gym. Could I, as a white chick, go inside and ask for one? Sure, I guess. But they don’t have to give me one, I might piss a bunch of people off, inconvenience them, etc. They would’ve made it significantly harder for me to get one than for a Korean person or man to get one, based on my race or gender. That’s illegal discrimination based on a protected class. In reality, they’ve made it significantly harder for me to get the discount than a person who goes to a church. That’s also illegal.
No, I don’t.
And what WhyNot said.
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