You could get more value out of it by going multiple times per day. Once for lunch, once for dinner. That would give 49 x 2 = 98 meals. Of course, that’s utterly insane and should not be attempted by any mortal.
Believe it or not, I did see one on eBay sell for $280. Most seem to be going for around $200 though, which is only moderately crazy.
At any rate, as a publicity stunt it seems to have been effective.
Good analysis. But by the middle of this period the cost of the food might be $12 list and $5.00 to you, but the value of the food will be negative.
I suspect they won’t enforce it too heavily - maybe once a meal and not pay too much attention to who uses it. The cost of bad publicity would be a lot more than they’d ever lose on cheap pasta.
Excellent point about the bad publicity, particularly given that there are only a thousand of the passes. The passholders could easily form an association and give press conferences! (So maybe those thousand people will be among the few ordering the Endless Pasta Bowl who won’t be ignored by the wait staff after delivery of their first bowl…:p)
Am I the only one tipping in this hypothetical? And what is the regular price one would use if doing a % based tip?
Surely they have a way to tie the card to the buyer? Otherwise what would keep several people from using the same card. I eat, leave, had the card to my roommate…
They have said that it will have a name on it. I assume this means the same name as on the purchaser’s credit card. But this means that anyone who bought one as a gift is out of luck. (Unless the recipient happens to have the same name, I suppose.)
I wonder how much policing there will be. Will they routinely check IDs? Or only check when there’s already suspicion? (“Sir, are you sure your name is Bertha?”)
If I get the opportunity to receive one of these passes, I will hand it off to one of you here. I would gladly pay full price to eat somewhere else.
Meet Alan Martin.
So what you’re saying is he’s going to die soon?
He makes me think of a real life Don Turnbee.
Once upon a time many years ago, I liked Olive Garden. But the last few times we went (and it’s been some years) I thought it was, at best, mediocre. Never had any desire to go back. My spaghetti sauce is much much better, and their lasagne tasted worse than the last frozen lasagne I grabbed for lunch.
So no thanks. I wouldn’t go if it was free.
There’s an article on slate.com about this very thing, from Business Insider. The guy threw in the towel, said the pasta was too salty and giving him canker sores.
That should provide adequate sustenance during the Doctor Who marathon.