Plastic Clam

Where Everybody Wins!

At Plastic Clam they list gift cards that directly benefit your favorite local businesses and charities. On their site at www.plasticclam.com consumers can browse through special promotions on gift cards to save money and/or donate portions of the purchase to a local charity.

For businesses this is a way to generate business and support local charities. Owners have the option of offering a discount on the purchase of the the card "$50 discount card for $45" and $5 to a charity of your choice!

Creative Marketing: Private Party On The Patio

I wanted to share with you all some things my customers are doing to generate more sales and return guest. I have a customer with a patio area outside normally used for regular seating and special events. They wanted to generate more sales on Thursday Nights. They have a BBQ on the patio and the seating is picnic table style. They are starting with a Mixed grill meal for $ 49 per person.

It Includes:

Appetizer: 4 ea 16-20 white shrimp skewered and BBQ = $ 1.60
Salad: Caeser Salad (chopped romaine, shred parm, croutons, dressing = $ 1.35
Entrée: All you can eat Tri tip, chicken leg qtrs, baby back ribs and fries = $ 6 - $ 12 (1 - 2 lbs of protein and is served by staff and is served about 45 min after cocktails, shrimp and salad served. People that want to pig out and get the best value will have to go back again and again so waste is kept to a minimum.

Total Food Cost: $ 14.95
Food Cost % : 30.5
Profit $ per person: $ 34.05 ( compared to 2 potential table turns with an avg profit per person of $ 8.00)

This event sold out (40 people) in less than a week. They have done this in the past and customers continue to respond even in tighter times.

Total Labor involved: (2) cooks @ $12 an hour x 3 hours = $ 72.00
(1) server for beverage service @ $ 8 an hour x 3 hours = $ 24.00
(1) busser (also helps run beverages) @ $ 8 an hour x 3 hours = $ 24.00

Server will get more than $ 200.00 in tips and will also tip out busser


Total event sales without beverage: 40 x $49 = $ 1,960.00
Total event food cost: 40 x $ 14.95 = $ 598.00
Total event labor: $120.00
Total profit without beverage: $ 1,242.00

Creative Marketing; The Raffle

Recently Keith Rojas, a territory manager from our Denver Division shared this great idea from one of his customers on our Street Talk blog ...

Here is what one of my customers did for a very profitable "giveaway" promotion. I am sure this would work very well right now in Colorado with a snowboard bought in June.
Hope you enjoy the read.

“I ran one of the most successful marketing campaigns to date for my restaurant. Last year, a few weeks after Labor Day, I was at our local Home Depot. While I was supposed to be buying a toilet plunger, I found myself negotiating one incredible deal. I found a bbq, not just any bbq…but a big bad boy… yep, every man’s dream toy…the outdoor kitchen!

It was not only the grill, but side burners, granite counter tops, drawers down the front, area for refrigerator all encased in this beautiful stone layout… this stainless steel wonder had me mesmerized! As I was standing there, the number of people that said, “wow, I wish I had that” sent that idea bulb right above my head. Realizing that they had made room for the newly placed snow blowers, I searched out the Home Depot orange vested manager and began to negotiate.
That’s right, I negotiated. Here it was nearly October and they still had a couple dozen grills…I looked at the original price of $799, marked down to $699….but after some brief negotiations and a good solid handshake, I found myself a proud owner of the MAN GRILL… well, okay, I guess you could say, I met the “grill of my dreams” (sorry, couldn’t help myself). Oh, one thing I forgot to mention…I only paid $389!!

I took this grill back to the restaurant and saved it for the spring. Once spring rolled around, I pulled out the grill and placed it near the front entrance….

HELLO excitement!!! I ran an email special announcing one entry every time you dine with us and then ran double entries on Sunday.

We had over 7,000 entries in a matter of a few weeks, I doubled my dining numbers, I nearly doubled my database and before you knew it, the contest was the talk of the town.

I set up a night in the banquet room to give away the bbq and invited people to ‘come watch the live drawing.’ and they did! No specials! I ended up handing out gift certificates to those who attended… and the excitement churned. My numbers for this promotion were absolutely incredible. That bbq paid for itself 20 times over!”

So, my advice to you is to do what I did…go out and find that season end grill for more than half off and save it for the spring where you too can run the “Grill of My Dreams Dine-In to Win!"

Thanks Keith for that great idea. It’s a perfect example of how new ideas and opportunities can come at any moment - literally from anywhere.