A few of your favorite restaurants are looking for ways to boost revenues and they have come up with the Lifetime Meal Pass, a one-time purchase that allows the purchaser to eat at any of their locations, as much as they want, for the rest of their life (conditions apply, see below).
Oddly enough, each restaurant comes from one of the following categories:
Fast food (McD’s, Chipotle, Wendy’s)
Dine-in (Chili’s, Egg & I, Longhorn’s)
Fine Dining (Morton’s, Commander’s Palace, local restaurant)
Specialty (Vegan, Pizza, Ethnic)
Of course, there are some terms and conditions to go along with the Passes:
Not transferable. Even if you die the day after you pay for it, c’est la vie.
You are limited to 1 meal per traditional meal period (breakfast, lunch, dinner) that the restaurant is open.
If restaurant is a chain, pass is effective at all restaurants of that chain across the world.
Would you buy a lifetime food pass? Who would you buy one from, and how much would you pay for it?
This would be like a time share, but for eateries. I don’t buy time shares, it locks you in with little flexibility, and I would not do this either for the same reasons. Your life can always change, and so can your patterns.
I choose Amato’s. They are a chain of sandwich shops/delis across Maine. I work As a field tech in Maine, this would mean free lunch everyday. They have good sandwiches and coffee. Even calzones if I have some extra time.
Pass. Most of our favorite restaurants are non-chain and decidedly temporary. What happens if I shell out tens of thousands of dollars for a meal pass to CUT and Wolfgang Puck kicks off tomorrow and the restaurants close?
If priced right, I would do it, but it would have to be a restaurant that offers breakfast, and there aren’t many breakfast places that do a good lunch or dinner. Almost make me want to select the one and only Waffle House. And if I become so destitute that my only asset is my Food Pass, then Waffle House is the best restaurant for such a situation, right? I’d fit right in.
…actually this is sad but at one time before the 2 for 5.99 deal at dominos was sort of a managers vip special
I found out about it because we ordered from there so much that the owner of our dominos delivered a vip card to us in person it also had certain free sides on it
when we called for delivery they were always impressed we had one as each store only had like 4 or 5 to give out and that’s all they got when they were out that’s was it…
Now the deal went national and the free sides were changed so we don’t use it anymore tho
I’d pay $4800 to my local cafeteria. That would pay for 400 twelve dollar meals.
We eat there at least once and sometimes twice a week. lets estimate 70 meals a year.
I wouldn’t pay anymore for a lifetime pass. It would take almost 6 years to make it worthwhile.
There was that Taqueria that said that they would give a free burrito a day to anyone who got a tattoo of their logo. Well, lots of people decided to do that, and they had to end the promotion because they were losing so much money on free burritos.
I’d be seriously concerned about the restaurant taking my money then going bankrupt. It’s really going to depend on the cost of such an offer. If I think the restaurant is stable and one is local to me I’d consider it.
I’d love to do it for a high end restaurant like Morton’s or something but having to drive 40 minutes into a city with $40 parking isn’t going to make getting my value very easy.
I buy $500 a year in gift certificates for Texas Road House each year during Christmas season. This year my $500 investment net’d $750 in certificates which I just finished up.(but that does include other peoples food) I might be willing to pay 7 or 8k for a lifetime pass. If I could be guaranteed they wouldn’t fold I’d pay more.
I wouldn’t consider fast food as that would encourage me to eat it.
Between the restaurant folding or I moving, I suspect the restaurant would make out like a bandit on such things.
And:
Tastes change. After certain ages, some places will lose appeal
Restaurants change menus. A pizza (age thing?) could go “Real Italian”.
What if the place changes hands? I’m sure they wouldn’t like a card being handed down over generations - is it going to apply to “Heirs, Successors, Assigns”?
What if it sells a bunch of “$500 for LIFE!” to college-aged people. Then changes its name?
I suspect no such offer will be made unless there is a limit to number of passes sold, amount of time the offer is valid, or the content of the meal?
Suppose you love the breakfast at the diner - and ol’ Sue has been running the place for years, and has a kid ready to continue the business. The kid decides to do lunch and dinner instead of breakfast and lunch.
They sure as hell aren’t going to upgrade the menu until those “damned cards Mom sold to the kids” expire or otherwise vanish.
Assuming no shenanigans on the part of the business and a guarantee that they’d stay in business as they are now, I’d only do it for a chain, as who knows where I’m going to live and work? That said, I would probably pay £10,000 for the guarantee for the rest of my life of up to 3 meals a day of my choice at any reasonably numerous pub chain.
We visit a local sushi place at least twice every month and always order the sushi boat for two. It’s a BYOB place so we always bring a bottle of wine. We often check-in on Facebook and have brought them business via word of mouth.
When they raised the price on the boat they told us they would continue giving us the old price, which was cool.
Buying a lifetime pass sounds nice and convenient, but knowing me I’d end up leaving way more in tips. Thanks, but I’ll pass.
What constitutes as a meal? Does it include a drink? What about alcohol? Multiple Alcohols?
If a place serves breakfast all day, can I walk in at 9AM and stay til 9PM but ONLY eat breakfast food? Constituting one giant-ass multi-course breakfast meal?
From Category 1, I’d probably choose McDonald’s. They aren’t my favorite or anything, but they’re going to give me the most value since I can find them anywhere (even in other countries) and they do a reliable breakfast on top of the lunch/dinner options. I’d be willing to spend about $250.
I’m not sure I eat often enough at Category 2 places to make it all that worthwhile, but there are a couple of small chains in my area I’ve taken a liking to. So it would either be Hard Times Cafe or Mission BBQ. Not that they’d sell it to me for this price, but I’d be willing to spend between $500 - $750.
From Category 3, I’d likely choose Fogo de Chao. It’s very convenient to me, which again means I’d get a lot of value out of the purchase even though there are steakhouses I’d prefer over it. For this, I’d spend about $2,000—wouldn’t take long to get my money’s worth out of that one.
For Category 4, I haven’t found a restaurant out here yet that fits for me. If I were still back in LA, I’d choose a Mexican establishment we used to frequent called Salsa & Beer. Even though their food is large and very inexpensive (typically $8 entrees), I’d still pay $1,000 for the lifetime privilege. We were there almost every weekend.
If I knew I was planning to live in one geographical area for a decade or so, I’d consider it, for a chain restaurant of good quality. I wouldn’t pay to eat at the same restaurant for three meals a day, but I would definitely pay for lunch 5 x week, say. I hate making lunch and I tend to eat the same things for lunch every day given the chance (salad, optional soup, baguette).
I’d pay $1000-$2000 for something like that (let’s say for a five year commitment). Not sure if that’s in the spirit of the question…
