These fast-food restaurants are always throwing up special offer meals which they label as promotion meals to entice us to patronise their restaurants.
And the promotions have worked because basically the meals which are sold are at hard-to-beat value. But, I gather that another reason for the promotion prices is that the restaurants wish to show their appreciation to us, the customers, for our support over the years.
Big names like McDonald’s, KFC and Burgerking have been taking turns to dish out promotion meals lately. We are used to tearing out coupons from flyers placed in our letterboxes and newspapers. And we have been turning up in droves at these restaurants to place our orders.
Now, I have always been used to coming up to the counters at McDonald’s and exchanging their coupons for discounted-price meals. And McDonald’s have always been glad to have me carry out the exchange, so much so that I never once had to feel I was a cheapskate for stooping at getting such discounted-price meals. That is – until I stepped into the Burgerking branch at the basement of Raffles City.
The moment I handed the discount coupon to the staff at the ordering counter, I noticed his facial expression change. Suddenly, he wasn’t wearing that welcome look in his face. And the change was so drastic, I immediately felt discount coupons weren’t welcome at Burgerking.
But, if that is so, then why bother distributing flyers with such discount coupons. I thought that perhaps, the chap wasn’t in a good mood that day. I waited for him to hand to me the free Coca-Cola collectible plate that went with the meal. You see, the reason I was so keen on the promotion meal was that I could get my hands on that plate – I am a die-hard Coca-cola fan.
But he didn’t make the offer so I had to show him the flyer that I had with me – the one that indicated the offer. I got my free Coca-Cola gift after he referred me to his supervisor.
After that experience, I was keen on proving to myself that that was an isolated experience. A few days later, I visited the Burgerking branch at the basement of Peninsula Plaza. This time, I wasn’t bent on getting the Coca-Cola collectible; I just wanted to prove myself wrong. But it didn’t happen! The counter staff’s face changed colour when I handed over the discount coupon.
Last Saturday, I happened by Marina Square and hopped into the Burgerking branch there. I still had a couple of the coupons left and went to the counter to place my order for a discounted-price meal. I was glad I went there that day, for the staff who attended to me flashed me a smile when I passed the coupon to him. I noted down his name – Hong San.
The poor chap didn’t know why I was grinning at him so I told him that he was the very first person at Burgerking to smile when I produced a discount coupon to buy a meal.
So I was wrong after all. The chaps at Burgerking aren’t really unhappy that I am buying discounted-price meals from them after all. I am not being thought of as a cheapskate – it was only my imagination gone wild!
But the fact remains that the incidents have left an unfavourable impression on me. I keep remembering the entirely different experience at McDonald’s – queueing up at McDonald’s for my Hello Kitty and other collectibles and upon reaching my turn at the counter, seeing the McDonald’s staff so openly glad to let me choose the collectible toy I wanted. That experience at McDonald’s certainly made a world of difference!
Date of article: 25 Mar 2002