frontpagephoinix | Staff posted Yesterday 08:01 AM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
frontpagephoinix | Staff posted Yesterday 08:01 AM
$100 inKind Restaurant eGift Card (various designs)
$70
$100
30% offAmazon
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I was skeptical with them for awhile but after using it for 3+ years, I'm now a believer that it's somewhat sustainable for them. I get to try new restaurants at a discount and help local businesses survive (or thrive).
That being said, an average independent restaurant, averaged out over time, are looking at margins is 5-9% fully loaded (emphasis on fully loaded). If you're a chain, and can really optimize every step, and consolidate; sure, you can do better.
Obviously, these are absolute trash terms. Everyone's wondering how this works and how its so cheap. This happens by fooling the businesses into absolutely getting decimated holding the bag in "gift card" liabilities. As a matter of fact, they got past my GM by sending an email as a regular customer asking if they could "purchase" some $10,000 in gift cards. InKind's sales pitch then revolved around only looking at COGs and hypotheticals where there was staff standing around not doing work where they could be moving product at any margin above zero. Sure, if the business was a huge 200+ seat establishment and we had a few dozen staff standing around looking for work; maybe. But not a lot of independent businesses operate that inefficiently.
Businesses dip into InKind and leave after a few months because they do an introductory initial run for a few months before they start really getting into big numbers. And usually, if the business realizes what's happening, they stop it there and heal. Any business doing this in actual need of a real loan has already entered a financial death spiral and it will only be a matter of time as this is not sustainable. Every meal through inkind will be either at cost or even a net loss. These InKind customers will not be back to pay full price, and there's no exit strategy for them to eventually do so. Its great for the diners, but terrible for the business to varying degrees. Again, yes, some of the bigger restaurant groups may be able to absorb these costs, but at that point they already have their own problems.
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I was skeptical with them for awhile but after using it for 3+ years, I'm now a believer that it's somewhat sustainable for them. I get to try new restaurants at a discount and help local businesses survive (or thrive).
Inkind seems like a sustainable enough business. Restaurants, though, are often not.
I'm a Yelp user, and I created a Collection in my area that's just restaurants who accept InKind.
I was skeptical with them for awhile but after using it for 3+ years, I'm now a believer that it's somewhat sustainable for them. I get to try new restaurants at a discount and help local businesses survive (or thrive).
This also explains why you can't use InKind cash for tips, or get cash back on it.
For the restaurant, the marginal cost of giving InKind $1.00 worth of food is 25¢.
But the cost of giving InKind $1.00 worth of tips would be $1.00.
Note: this all explains why there are a lot of regional chains on InKind, and why restaurants will disappear from InKind. That's not a failure of their model. It just means we used up all the food credits that the restaurant gave to InKind. They won't show up again unless the restaurant is growing and needs capital.
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InKind also gives a $25 off $50 coupon on signup, and $25 credit for each referral you get to sign up with them, and often gives away credits in other ways, and these credits do stack with the gift cards.
If you're interested in this and there are enough participating restaurants in your area, you may want to get in on this sooner rather than later, because with the way they're promoting this by selling and giving away credits so cheaply and easily, it might devolve into a Moviepass situation, where their business model is not sustainable over time.
In store
https://slickdeals.net/f/19228780
edit: sale ended online, valid in warehouse still
FrontPage with 15TU, Interesting
In store and online
I assume Prime Visa 5% covers giftcards? Would put you at around $66.50 with 5% cashback and don't have to go to Costco in-store (unless you needed to already).
Also, I've noticed some restaurants excluding InKind for lunch menus and specials. I also talked to InKind about this and they said restaurants are allowed to exclude InKind as a payment.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank PercisionDriver
That being said, an average independent restaurant, averaged out over time, are looking at margins is 5-9% fully loaded (emphasis on fully loaded). If you're a chain, and can really optimize every step, and consolidate; sure, you can do better.
Obviously, these are absolute trash terms. Everyone's wondering how this works and how its so cheap. This happens by fooling the businesses into absolutely getting decimated holding the bag in "gift card" liabilities. As a matter of fact, they got past my GM by sending an email as a regular customer asking if they could "purchase" some $10,000 in gift cards. InKind's sales pitch then revolved around only looking at COGs and hypotheticals where there was staff standing around not doing work where they could be moving product at any margin above zero. Sure, if the business was a huge 200+ seat establishment and we had a few dozen staff standing around looking for work; maybe. But not a lot of independent businesses operate that inefficiently.
Businesses dip into InKind and leave after a few months because they do an introductory initial run for a few months before they start really getting into big numbers. And usually, if the business realizes what's happening, they stop it there and heal. Any business doing this in actual need of a real loan has already entered a financial death spiral and it will only be a matter of time as this is not sustainable. Every meal through inkind will be either at cost or even a net loss. These InKind customers will not be back to pay full price, and there's no exit strategy for them to eventually do so. Its great for the diners, but terrible for the business to varying degrees. Again, yes, some of the bigger restaurant groups may be able to absorb these costs, but at that point they already have their own problems.
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