No, their profit does not increase by $22.00, as their expenses-food, preparation, and service-remain the same. The expenses are probably higher, due to the increased promotional costs.
OOTH, if some vet shows up for the free steak dinner bringing their non-veteran spouse & 3 non-veteran kids, the restaurant will probably make more in profit off the total check than they gave up in forgone recovery of the actual cost of the vet’s meal.
As always with any promotion, the business directly loses money on the promo and hopes to make it up in future sales or ancillary sales. e.g. “Come for the free appetizer; stay for the full price meal” is usually a net money maker.
The local theater chain started showing all of the harry Potter movies – two a week – and I didn’t find out about it until Tuesday. They’re only $5 and ordinarily, they being so long, we’d see one a day but yesterday was the last day for the first two so we made it a double header (6-1/2 hours at the theater).
When we bought the show’s first tickets the seller asked if either of us were veterans. Being one, my ticket was free. When we bought the second pair, nothing was said. I didn’t push it and bought both. There might have been a one movie a day policy anyway.
This seems like a good place to mention something I just learned an hour ago. It has nothing to do with Veterans Day, but is about Veterans.
Honorably separated veterans who did not retire from the service are (since 2017) eligible to use the online features of the BX/PX system. Like most separatees I thought all my bennies ended the moment I walked off active duty. That was true back then but is not today.
If you’re a non-retired vet follow this link for more details. Took me just a few clicks to become a member despite the fact my date of separation was 30+ years ago. Computers have long memories.
It remains to be seen if AAFES offers anything that Target, Wal*Mart, or Amazon can’t do cheaper / better. But it was kind of fun poking around at all that stuff and vicariously re-entering the stolid earnestly middle-class SES and value system of the services.
There is a thread on this from a few years back. It was a pretty fun conversation, and it was proven to me that the PX does actually offer some better deals on certain things than Wal-Mart, Target, or even Amazon. I would never have realized that myself. If I recall, our pricing conversation actually caused the Amazon crawler-bot to lower their price automatically.
I had two co-workers who had veteran’s status (which was a factor in promotions). One had it from serving in Vietnam. One had it from being a National Guard who was activated during the 1970 postal strike. The former was a little resentful of the latter.
Found it.
Someone from the Exchange actually registered to join the thread. I forget about that part.
Thank you!
A local place offered a free appetizer when you downloaded their app. I took advantage of the offer, as did many of my friends.
One friend discovered that by deleting the app, then re-downloading it, he would get another free appetizer offer. He (a real cheapskate) did this a couple of times a week for awhile, but he stopped when he realized he was spending more on food. The restaurant never complained.
Sounds like the “No True Veteran” fallacy to me. 
Certainly a common and understandable, if not exactly beneficial, feature of human nature.
There is a mid-market steak & ribs joint near us. It’s a one-off that’s been here since the early 1970s and is sorta famous for being famous from a bygone era in a region where turnover and growth obliterates history very quickly. Folks like it for that. The portions are large, the food prep is a little basic = quaint, but the base clientele is in their 70s so it’s a good fit.
Anyhow, lots of restaurants have a birthday promo that gives you some spiff if you come in on their birthday. Maybe it’s dessert, maybe it’s an appetizer, maybe $10 off your check.
These guy’s promo is even better: a free entrée any day during your birth month. Any entrée, and as many days in the month as you want. You want 30 big steak dinners? Come on down every day! 30 prime ribs? Bring your friends! Try one of each entrée every day until you’ve had them all two or three times? Sure!
All completely free of course.
I keep threatening to abuse them hard around one of my birthdays, but sorta like Super Size Me, I’m more afraid of the downside than I am eager for the free food, good though it is.
And for damn sure if I did do all 30 days, they’d be laughing all the way to the bank. Between feeding the wife and buying drinks each time, by month end my credit card would be groaning under the weight of all that “free” food. So would my gut.
Yes, that’s (D_Anconia’s post) is correct. Businesses claim income and write off expenses. A steak sold for $22 costs the restaurant about $7.00*. In general, that means they claim $22, write off $7.00 and pay taxes (as far as this sale is concerned) on $15.00.
If they give the $22.00 steak away for free, they write off the $7.00. So, yes, they do get a tax break, but it’s the same tax break they’d get if they bought the steak and threw it in the garbage (and keep in mind, they write off everything else that gets thrown out too).
Like you (D_Anconia) said, there’s other expenses associated with the promotion, but that’s a different aspect. Also, those costs would be written off as well.
*Yes, that really is the case. Whatever you paid for a meal at a restaurant, the food typically costs them about 30% of that price. Granted, they have a ton of overhead, but that’s still a good rule of thumb.
There’s an all-you-can-eat buffet called Golden Corral that’s all over the Southeast (I don’t know about other regions). They offer free meals to all Active Duty service members and veterans on Veterans Day. The line to get in on Veterans Day is usually around the block. They are making money off of the family members the vets bring with them, and of course the publicity is great, so I’m not sure it ultimately costs them anything, but the meals themselves are a loss.
Compare that to a place like Applebee’s, which only offers a free entree from a limited menu. As I mentioned upthread, I’m not knocking the freebie, but if I get an drink and a dessert, even my meal probably isn’t actually costing them much. If I have even a single friend or family member with me paying full price, they’re probably actually making money even counting my free entree.
From casual observation, and this is entirely anecdotal, Golden Corral seems to disproportionately attract older couples (presumably a retired vet and their spouse - which effectively makes it a “2-for-1 all you can eat buffet” deal), while Applebee’s seems to disproportionately attract families (which makes it effectively a “buy 5 or 6 meals and appetizers and drinks and desserts and get one entree free” deal). And since Veterans Day will fall on a weekday 5 of 7 times, which are typically slower days for a restaurant, and the free meal drives a lot of traffic, I’m betting the Applebee’s freebie is actually a profit center for them.
When people thank me for my service I say, “Save it for the people who were getting shot at – I was in the technical part of the Navy.”
Yeah. My oldest brother was a veteran. He worked in IT, stationed in Hawaii for his entire duty. The worst injury he ever risked was getting sunburned when he spent too long at the beach.
I spent my time in the Navy back in the early eighties at Navel Base Point Loma, San Diego on the DTV Elk River IX 501. It was the MK 1 MOD O Deep Diving System (Heliox) diving platform and school for US NAVY SEALS.
I was a Fireman (E-3) Hull Maintenance Tech. and after being invited out to dinner and even a weekend in the desert to play with any and all weapons (I had to pay for Ammo) cause some of the guys noticed I was a loner, I was singled out and fucked with cause the crew thought all SEALS where fucking pricks, assholes etc. Ain’t jealousy a motherfucker?
So yeah, I was VERY fortunate to spend time with real men who took time to take me in for a couple of years.
Fuck Veteran’s day freebies.