Pete's Apizza Uses Groupon's Own Model To Attract Customers

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Was at Pete's Apizza last night and noticed that they are now offering their own in-house Groupon-style coupon deal. $10 buys $20 worth of food. First time I've seen anyone basically steal Groupon's model and offer it in-house. You can buy the coupons throughout August, good for 90 days. Offer was sent out via their e-mail list and up on their Facebook page.

http://petesapizza.c...ail-thanks.html

From their website:

Pete's ADough!

For the month of August, we're offering $20 coupons to email subscribers for $10! Coupons are available at the register at all three locations - just ask your cashier for a Pete's ADough coupon! And we'll tell you a little secret: The coupons have "limit of 3 per person" printed on them, but we aren't actually limiting quantities. Go for it! Use them as gifts, or as incentives in your workplace, or as incentives to yourself to get through the day and head to Pete's afterwards for a treat. The only caveat there is that customers may only use one coupon per person per visit.

There are a couple other minor restrictions. Your coupon is valid starting the day after you purchase it, and it expires 90 days from the date of purchase. It's valid for dine-in and take-out only (not for delivery). Due to Arlington County regulations, the coupons cannot be used in Clarendon for the purchase of wine or beer. And, as usual, the offer is not valid with any other discounts or offers.

[DonRocks]

Was at Pete's Apizza last night and noticed that they are now offering their own in-house Groupon-style coupon deal. $10 buys $20 worth of food. First time I've seen anyone basically steal Groupon's model and offer it in-house. You can buy the coupons throughout August, good for 90 days. Offer was sent out via their e-mail list and up on their Facebook page.

http://petesapizza.c...ail-thanks.html

From their website:

Pete's ADough!

For the month of August, we're offering $20 coupons to email subscribers for $10! Coupons are available at the register at all three locations - just ask your cashier for a Pete's ADough coupon! And we'll tell you a little secret: The coupons have "limit of 3 per person" printed on them, but we aren't actually limiting quantities. Go for it! Use them as gifts, or as incentives in your workplace, or as incentives to yourself to get through the day and head to Pete's afterwards for a treat. The only caveat there is that customers may only use one coupon per person per visit.

There are a couple other minor restrictions. Your coupon is valid starting the day after you purchase it, and it expires 90 days from the date of purchase. It's valid for dine-in and take-out only (not for delivery). Due to Arlington County regulations, the coupons cannot be used in Clarendon for the purchase of wine or beer. And, as usual, the offer is not valid with any other discounts or offers.

Current market cap: $3 billion - (give me credit for calling this one $12 billion ago - it was a no-brainer (although nobody could have predicted this pace of devaluation). The largest IPO at the time since Google? Are you kidding me?!)

[hoosiereph]

Also noticed last night that Pete's has basically stolen the Groupon business model and is now offering their own in-house Groupon-style $10 buys $20 worth of food deal. Deal runs throughout August and good for 90 days.

This seems very smart. They acquired a lot of new customers through a series of offers on the daily deals sites. Now they can try to keep them returning with a similar deal, but without giving up $5 out of every $10 to the Groupon machine.

[deangold]

This seems very smart. They acquired a lot of new customers through a series of offers on the daily deals sites. Now they can try to keep them returning with a similar deal, but without giving up $5 out of every $10 to the Groupon machine.

Its more than $5 of every $10.

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ohhh Don, my thread title was soooo much better

[DonRocks]

ohhh Don, my thread title was soooo much better

Yeah, but since I tweeted it, I was searching for more family-oriented material.

(Pete's ADough is funny, btw.)

This just goes to show that unless you have a patent or copyright, people will steal every idea you develop (not that Groupon exactly "developed" the discount model). Save your farthings, o mighty Eater, for a rainy day cometh.

[darkstar965]

Was at Pete's Apizza last night and noticed that they are now offering their own in-house Groupon-style coupon deal.

Next time say hi. Think I was there right around the time you were and noticed the promo. And, +1. Your title was pretty funny.

This seems very smart. They acquired a lot of new customers through a series of offers on the daily deals sites. Now they can try to keep them returning with a similar deal, but without giving up $5 out of every $10 to the Groupon machine.

Not so sure. On the one hand, yes, true that they avoid the 3rd party gouging...I mean, fee. But, on the other hand, an individual restaurant's ability to promote such a deal is very limited since expensive to reach a large audience through whatever channel (television, popular websites, etc.). My thought after the cashier also promoted it to me was that I'd guess a significant portion of the coupons they sell will erode profits they'd earn anyway from regulars. In other words, customers already there are the bulk of people who'd see and possibly purchase. Most of those are likely to go back anyway because they like what Pete's sells and think it fairly priced already. There's a reason why, pre Groupon, retailers in all categories rarely did half-off deals on their entire mix (everything they sell).

Have always thought that Groupon's main (but insufficient) value for restaurants was an ad/promotional platform rather than a profit impacting discounting mechanism. In other words, any deal through Groupon, LivingSocial and the others does reach a larger, interested audience than any restaurant could do for itself but that doesn't at all mean such awareness translates to new customer growth and bottom line impact. The dark and unseemly reality with discount sites is the unknown percentage (thought by many to be very low) of "new" customers who ever return to pay full price. Groupon's pretty clearly (generally speaking) not a good deal for restaurants. But I'm not sure that restaurants doing half off deals without much limitation are such a great idea either. I think Pete's and the others who have already done this (it's not that new a concept) are partly missing the point of how to build their businesses. Provide a great product, fairly priced with some smart marketing and you'll do well. Don't attract customers because you're cheap. Attract them by being great. Great food. Great but fair value. Big discounting for regular customers just cheapens the value proposition of the restaurant and eats away at margin.