Coupon Deal at Restaurant.com

Photo by Daquella Manera. Used under a Creative Commons license at Flickr.com

Yesterday, my wife and I experienced a great deal on a great meal at Border Cantina in Novi, MI.  That happens to be our favorite places for Fajita’s (hence the photo).  Border Cantina is participating in a program at Restaurants.com.   The offer was for an 80% discount on their normal discounted gift certificate program.  Normally, you pay about $10 for a $25 coupon.  We were able to pay $2 for a coupon worth $25 of food. (You have to order $35 worth – so $12 for $35 of food is still a good deal in my book).

I haven’t figured out their entire business model yet.  Quite honestly, such a good deal makes me think of all the dot-com companies that sprung up, burned out their initial investment capital and went under fast.  They were encouraging you to order some of the higher profit items (appetizers and desserts) that most people don’t usually order.  It was up to the restaurants if they allowed alcoholic beverages to count towards the $35 minimum.  The couple we dined with has been using this site extensively for the last few months.  Based on our experience and that our really good friends, this looks like an excellent way to strech out the entertainment/dining out envelope to me.

I will say this, the advertising trick worked with us.  My wife ended up buying some trial meals at places we have seen but never really tried before.  It will be a new adventure for us.    With prices like this, we’re going to scale back on cash put into the Entertainment/Eating-Out Envelope.

What creative ways have you seen people marketing their services in this new economy of highly fashionable frugality?