Happy hour / specials at Restaurants / Bars / Pubs

adam456 on 19/06/2020 - 12:23

I had an incident last Friday at after work drinks, where I went to the bar and asked the bartender if there was any happy hour drinks, he in a passive aggressive way stated “no we don’t – not with the state the industry is in at the moment”.

I was left to feel like I was trying to rip off the venue from a few dollars. I considered where they were coming from, having lost huge amounts of revenue over the last few months but I would have thought happy hours would again keep people in the venue and spending more money then they otherwise would have.

What are your thoughts? Should we cop the full price of drinks and meals out at restaurants / bars / pubs to help the industry?

Or should we still expect specials to help entice us to visit a venue and give them our cash?

Poll Options

  • 19
    Yes, help the venues by paying full price
  • 27
    No, they should offer discounts
Entertainment

Comments

  • holdenmg on 19/06/2020 - 12:26

    This: https://thehappiesthour.com/

  • nick484 on 19/06/2020 - 12:45
    +4

    Happy hours and specials tend to be used to either entice people to go out when they wouldn't (ie. mid week specials) or to compete against other venues at peak times (after work happy hours). At the moment everyone wants to go out because it is the first opportunity they've had in months, and there isn't an excess of venues/capacity, as not everywhere has opened back up & there are still limits on number of people allowed in each venue

  • SnowDragon on 19/06/2020 - 12:46
    +9

    Bartender sounds like a bit of a grumpy bastard. Could have said something like "Unfortunately we're waiting until things become fully normal again before having any specials".

    I don't think the industry is in a position at the moment to afford having discounts. Not everybody is back to their usual routine of going to a pub with friends. I only went to my first restaurant since February last night and that was a strange experience.

    When places have their usual crowd back, borders unrestricted and business booming, then they can afford to advertise a bit with their happy hours and discounts.

  • ssquid on 19/06/2020 - 13:40
    +4

    Is there a point trying to entice more people in when they're already probably turning people away at the door due to capacity limits?

  • life is suffering on 19/06/2020 - 13:58
    +1

    Well that was rude by the tender. Happy hour is to bring people in. If they are not welcoming then why even bothering going there, also , large pubs and clubs dont have back up cash ? all those profits from items they sold post covid and paying shit salary to staff. Small business we should support for sure.

  • RCMD11 on 19/06/2020 - 14:07
    +2

    I don't usually care for spending extra money to "help the venue" (throughout COVID I was making my own coffees etc), but it's really up to the restaurant/bar if they want to offer specials or not.

  • DashCam AKA Rolts on 19/06/2020 - 14:40

    If you don't like an experience at a venue, you are always free to take your business elsewhere. There's no compulsion to use this place, just as there is no requirement for the venue to offer a 'happy hour's or specials.

  • Hansi on 19/06/2020 - 14:40
    +1

    Bad customer service is one reason why people don't come to venues, a bad price / quality ratio is another.

    Some bars try to compensate one with the other, otherwise they won't be appealing.

    From my understanding hospitality business is still slow, so special offers would go a long way in enticing people to return. I don't believe many people would be happy to pay more than what they expect to "help a business" unless they it benefits them in some way.

  • [Deactivated] on 19/06/2020 - 16:46
    +1

    Go somewhere else to drink, place wasnt that special

  • Stewardo on 19/06/2020 - 17:35

    Bartender probably is just staff, doesn’t understand the economics of a happy hour promotion, just pours the beer for a pay cheque.
    I’d imagine they can only have limited numbers in the venue at the moment so probably no point running promotions to try to fill the place.

  • Meho2026 on 20/06/2020 - 05:49

    I reckon we gotta pay full price to support the industry to keep people in jobs and if we cant afford to, then keep drinking heavily at home.
    Can people who work in bars comment and tell us what you think.
    Theres a few posts now of people shocked they cant get a discounted meal or drink, I dont get it.

  • mapax on 20/06/2020 - 08:04

    Are you sure the guy was being “passive aggressive”? I’m guessing you must have left some stuff out because from your description it just sounds like he made a factual statement that you didn’t like, and certainly not an incident. I wonder if the bartender was asked they would say something like, “had a customer start acting antsy because we don’t have happy hour, do they not realise covid was a thing?”.

    Even if he was being passive aggressive you just do exactly the same thing the next time you order something - “hey bro, how about now? Is it happy hour yet?” and then laugh. A sense of humour goes a long way.

    • adam456 on 20/06/2020 - 11:07

      Cool story, bro. Not what happened though.

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