$69.99 | $100 inKind Restaurant eGift Card at Amazon

ttke

Today 01:42 PM

409 Posts

Joined Feb 2017

ttkeToday 01:42 PM

409 Posts

At what price are restaurants selling credits to InKind?! If this business is sustainable, it means restaurants must have large margins, which contradicts what many owners are claiming

JohnPaul2

Today 01:54 PM

987 Posts

Joined Mar 2013

JohnPaul2Today 01:54 PM

987 Posts

Quote from ttke

:

At what price are restaurants selling credits to InKind?! If this business is sustainable, it means restaurants must have large margins, which contradicts what many owners are claiming

They don't sell credits to inKind - inKind provides these restaurants cash loans with 0% interest. In exchange the restaurants must users to pay for their tabs via inKind which will go towards the loan balance that the restaurant owns. For most restaurants the real benefit here is for large capital expenditures, which the only sensible use is to open more store fronts to help expand their brand. For single restaurants it doesn't really help them besides giving them a boost in marketing and people in the door. In such a tight business like running restaurants, inKind can be a lifeline for restaurants needing to establish themselves.
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).

2

zelara

Today 01:56 PM

15 Posts

Joined Nov 2016

zelaraToday 01:56 PM

15 Posts

Quote from ttke

:

At what price are restaurants selling credits to InKind?! If this business is sustainable, it means restaurants must have large margins, which contradicts what many owners are claiming

Restaurants have generally terrible margins. Restaurants do not "sell" credits to inkind per se-- they take out loans from inkind which are paid back by the consumer when they use inkind to pay. It's a very fine distinction but means that inkind works somewhat in place of traditional financing with worse loan terms for everybody.
Inkind seems like a sustainable enough business. Restaurants, though, are often not.

Berlin

Today 02:21 PM

154 Posts

Joined Jul 2009

BerlinToday 02:21 PM

154 Posts

What's kind of interesting is that Jinya (a chain of ramen restaurants) does except them, but it's not advertised at all in my area. You can pay for you bill with in kind by actually going through the search bar and typing in Jinya. I wonder what other restaurants do this as well...

annual

Pro

Today 02:37 PM

2,119 Posts

Joined Dec 2009

annual

Pro

Today 02:37 PM

2,119 Posts

Quote from Berlin

:

What's kind of interesting is that Jinya (a chain of ramen restaurants) does except them, but it's not advertised at all in my area. You can pay for you bill with in kind by actually going through the search bar and typing in Jinya. I wonder what other restaurants do this as well...

I've noticed certain restaurants will stop appearing on your explore tab but when you click pay at the bottom it will list all of them. I figure it's to get me to 'explore' other options than keep visiting and using my credits at a single restaurant.

1

fis

Pro

Today 03:01 PM

2,902 Posts

Joined Mar 2008

fis

Pro

Today 03:01 PM

2,902 Posts

Quote from annual

:

I've noticed certain restaurants will stop appearing on your explore tab but when you click pay at the bottom it will list all of them. I figure it's to get me to 'explore' other options than keep visiting and using my credits at a single restaurant.

Interesting. Big difference between "Explore" and "Search".

I'm a Yelp user, and I created a Collection in my area that's just restaurants who accept InKind.

fis

Pro

Today 03:14 PM

2,903 Posts

Joined Mar 2008

fis

Pro

Today 03:14 PM

2,903 Posts

Quote from JohnPaul2

:

They don't sell credits to inKind - inKind provides these restaurants cash loans with 0% interest. In exchange the restaurants must users to pay for their tabs via inKind which will go towards the loan balance that the restaurant owns. For most restaurants the real benefit here is for large capital expenditures, which the only sensible use is to open more store fronts to help expand their brand. For single restaurants it doesn't really help them besides giving them a boost in marketing and people in the door. In such a tight business like running restaurants, inKind can be a lifeline for restaurants needing to establish themselves.
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 if it's not obvious, successful restaurants operate with a food cost of around 25%. The biggest costs are actually capital expenditures, interest, and labor. InKind lets the restaurant fund capital expenditures by paying with future food. After all the discounts are given to us, and InKind makes it's profit, the restaurant is still funding its capital investments at a big discount vs traditional bank loans.

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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