Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Try to go out to dinner tonight on Valentine’s Day. Chances are, it’ll be impossible.

But tomorrow night? You’ll have your pick of restaurants, best tables, and attention from the wait staff.

Valentine’s Day is a biggie in the restaurant business, so I figured today was the perfect day to chastise them for overlooking the most basic of all marketing tools. One which is cheap, easy, and leads to almost-instantaneous results.

One which any resale, consignment, and thrift store shopkeeper who’s ever spoken to me for more than 3 minutes realizes the importance and effectiveness of!

It’s so simple. It’s so effective. It’s so IMMEDIATE. So maybe, tomorrow, February 15, when restaurants are crying about how slow business is…well, maybe they’d think about gathering, and using, a mailing list.

Resalers have learned that by sending out e-mails to their clientele, they can effect almost-instant results: shoppers come in, suppliers gather up their gently-used items to recycle, and business booms. And this works even when the recipient wasn’t even THINKING about shopping. But get an email from a shop they love that says Spring is Here or Special shipment of Whatevers Arrived Today or Help! We have too many jeans, take $10 off every pair and boom, those shoppers are there. Even if they really don’t need jeans.

Now think about restaurants. After all, we all do need dinner. I’d love to get an email from Island Time telling me what tonight’s specials are. Or suggesting that I’ve had a hard day at work and I deserve that cunning little shish kebab that’s Manhattan Grill’s signature dish.

Instead, here’s the scenario at my house, come 6:30: Let’s eat out. Okay, where? I dunno. Then we end up at the same 2 or 3 places we always go…forgetting the one time we went to Island Time and had a great time, or the dinner at Manhattan Grill that made me feel like I was at the top of the Empire State Building.

After all, there are a lot of restaurants out there, so there’s a lot of choices for me. I do wish they’d remind me what a nice meal I had there last time. What if I got an email saying Sweet: Sockeye Salmon In Today or Chef’s Special: Elk Piccata or the best subject line I can think of: Free chocolate cake for dessert. I’d be at that restaurant like remoulade on shrimp.

And there is no business in the world better suited to using email reminders than a restaurant. After all, their audience is already comfortably seated, there could be an attractive join-our-mailing-list card and writing implement in front of them, and heck, one glass of wine and I’ll sign up for anything!

And besides, I’m tired of the Brewery, even if they do have the best hamburger in town. It’s just that, without a nudge, I won’t remember the little place with the tapas and flamenco music.