Harris Teeter’s $5 Meal Fiasco: A Half-Assed Attempt to Break Fast Food’s Back
The suit-and-tie stooges at Harris Teeter, the grocery chain with 260 locations, decided to throw a weak punch at the fast-food mafia by introducing a $5 meal. A limp-wristed jab at the ever-rising prices of burgers and fries.
You see, these kinds of discounts aren’t new. They’re like a stripper’s rehearsed routine-predictable and only thrilling for a minute. Sure, Harris Teeter got their fifteen minutes of fame. Journalists slobbered all over their notepads, churning out headlines about this so-called “discount offer.” But here's the kicker—they’re gonna choke when it comes to turning this flash-in-the-pan hype into long-term sales.
Why?
Because this $5 meal deal is a joke. Like a sick joke, it’s there now, then it's gone. Blink, and you miss it.
This isn’t for the people, it’s for the press release.
Because it's only available on weekdays and at a handful of stores. Not every day, not everywhere. They dabbled.
Like someone dipping their toes into a cold pool, too scared to jump in. And these meals? They change every day and come in limited quantities for some mystery period. It’s like they’re playing hard to get with their own customers.
They could have made it a goddamn festival—a $5 meal bonanza. An entire month of it. Hundreds of options. Every day. Every single location. No bullshit restrictions.
They could’ve blasted out a message like, “Screw inflation, screw eating out and getting robbed, let’s make it a month of fun—with food and wine—for as little as $5.”
Now, can you see how much more powerful that would be? That’s the kind of promotion that drives traffic, sales, and builds brand value. Because it solves a real problem: the high cost of eating out.
That’s what good promotions should do. They should offer something new, something tantalizing, for a limited time. And they should go all in, balls to the wall.
Promotions should be a rescue rope, not a dangling carrot.
Source: Restaurant Dive
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