Sales increase almost five times at Saul Good Restaurant & Pub in Lexington, Kentucky, on half-price snow days.
The eatery first introduced these two years ago.
“In the winter, when we get snow, our town shuts down. So we were experiencing half of normal business whenever it would snow. So we decided, let’s make it a party—just like kids do,” says owner and operator Rob Perez.
“We offer half price meals between 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. We have to add three servers, two kitchen people and an extra manager. We used to have a $700 day when it snowed, and now it’s a $3,400 day and we have two restaurants doing it. It’s become the go-to thing for people to do on a snow day.”
When Saul Good Restaurant started running its snow days, it alerted the local media, but since then social media has driven it. Every time the schools close, the restaurant posts on Facebook that it will run a half-priced menu.
The days attract families, business people and neighborhood people, Perez says. There are typically around four snow days a year—though last year there were 11. Unfortunately there have been none this year, but Perez is still hopeful.
Another bonus is the half-priced menu brings new customers to the restaurant. They’re initially attracted by the snow day menu, “but if we’re on our game, we get people back again,” Perez explains.
The profit margin for the snow days isn’t high, but it’s better than the alternative, he says.
“We’re seeing eight to nine times the people we usually see. The thing with a snow day is that everyone is out of their routine. And if we can give them an excuse to come in when they normally wouldn’t, we’re thrilled with it,” Perez says.
On top of that, he has found that the spend per head (prior to the discount) was 20 percent higher than on a typical day. Helping increase the check averages are the fact that sales of the restaurant’s warm, chocolate desserts are “wildly popular” on snow days.
Perez says the important thing was taking control of a bad-weather situation.
“We asked: Are we going to sit there and let the weather dictate our mood or are we going to dictate it?”
By Amanda Baltazar
