Thinking aloud, what would you think of a “community donation” menu item?
The gist is - say you’re a pizza company and create an edible mistake - offer the customer to make a community donation. You add $5 to their order (cost of ingredients) and a paper slip to their order and heck, toss in one slice of the mistake pizza. The slip has a dual purpose - one half is a donation receipt, the other is a ‘collect 5 for a free pizza’ coupon. The rest of the pizza then is free to distribute (to employees, guests, passersby’s on the street - or on a particularly error prone day a local shelter)
The shop management gets costs reimbursed. The employee is out only the time for the second pizza (which they had to do anyway) and the customer gets warm fuzzies and a tax write off for doing the right thing. As a bonus, the free pizza and charity are both great optics.
If the customer declines, the option reverts to the employee (they get the tax receipt, house keeps the coupon), and only if both decline may the pizza be trashed (I mean, management may still opt to ‘donate’ but give it to only non-employees (still great optics), but even if it gets trashed, it now looks like the customer that’s the jerk, not the shop.)
And there’s little chance of abuse, I think. If the customer and employee conspire, the employee is effectively just adding to their own workload, the customer spends $25 in donations for a free $14 pizza, and management laughs its way to the bank bragging about how charitable their employees are.
No, if the shop makes a mistake, they fix it as normal. I’m discussing what to do with the pizza that isn’t fit to the customer’s order.
It could look like this:
“Hey, you gave me black olives! I clearly ordered green olives, like I always do!!”
looks at order: "b. olives"😤🙄
“Oh! I’m so sorry, our mistake! We’ll remake it immediately - but it’ll take ~20 minutes to bake. While we prepare that, can I interest you in our community donation special?”
“What’s that?” 😡
"For $5, we’ll donate the black olive pizza to hungry families. For your trouble we’ll give you an extra two punches on your “buy 6, get the 7th free” as our way of saying thank you. Also, you’ll get a receipt for your taxes! Plus - I know it’s not what you ordered, but I can get you a slice of that first pizza while you wait.
*customer does math: 2 punches of 6 = ⅓ off, free pizza is normally $18 that’s a $6 value.
“Soo… you’re saying I pay $5 now, for ⅓ of a pizza later? And a free slice of pizza? (I can just pick off the olives)”
“Yes, and a receipt for your taxes!”
“Sure!”
Customer: Sucker! $5 for a slice of pizza and $6 off a future pizza? How do they stay in business?
Manager: Sucker! $5 covers the material cost of the food, I’m paying the employee the same amount for their shift either way, and that tax coupon means I can convert waste food into an $18 tax write off
Employee: Sucker! the food bank and I have an arrangement where I can take a pie home for my family. I just got free dinner
Food bank: free pizza! Give away one pie to the nice employee’s family, and split the rest among the hungry and volunteers.
Thinking aloud, what would you think of a “community donation” menu item?
The gist is - say you’re a pizza company and create an edible mistake - offer the customer to make a community donation. You add $5 to their order (cost of ingredients) and a paper slip to their order and heck, toss in one slice of the mistake pizza. The slip has a dual purpose - one half is a donation receipt, the other is a ‘collect 5 for a free pizza’ coupon. The rest of the pizza then is free to distribute (to employees, guests, passersby’s on the street - or on a particularly error prone day a local shelter)
The shop management gets costs reimbursed. The employee is out only the time for the second pizza (which they had to do anyway) and the customer gets warm fuzzies and a tax write off for doing the right thing. As a bonus, the free pizza and charity are both great optics.
If the customer declines, the option reverts to the employee (they get the tax receipt, house keeps the coupon), and only if both decline may the pizza be trashed (I mean, management may still opt to ‘donate’ but give it to only non-employees (still great optics), but even if it gets trashed, it now looks like the customer that’s the jerk, not the shop.)
And there’s little chance of abuse, I think. If the customer and employee conspire, the employee is effectively just adding to their own workload, the customer spends $25 in donations for a free $14 pizza, and management laughs its way to the bank bragging about how charitable their employees are.
So the shop makes the mistake, and the customer now has to pay $5 when returning to get the right order, otherwisethey are the jerk?
No, if the shop makes a mistake, they fix it as normal. I’m discussing what to do with the pizza that isn’t fit to the customer’s order.
It could look like this:
“Hey, you gave me black olives! I clearly ordered green olives, like I always do!!”
looks at order: "b. olives"😤🙄
“Oh! I’m so sorry, our mistake! We’ll remake it immediately - but it’ll take ~20 minutes to bake. While we prepare that, can I interest you in our community donation special?”
“What’s that?” 😡
"For $5, we’ll donate the black olive pizza to hungry families. For your trouble we’ll give you an extra two punches on your “buy 6, get the 7th free” as our way of saying thank you. Also, you’ll get a receipt for your taxes! Plus - I know it’s not what you ordered, but I can get you a slice of that first pizza while you wait.
*customer does math: 2 punches of 6 = ⅓ off, free pizza is normally $18 that’s a $6 value.
“Soo… you’re saying I pay $5 now, for ⅓ of a pizza later? And a free slice of pizza? (I can just pick off the olives)”
“Yes, and a receipt for your taxes!”
“Sure!”
Customer: Sucker! $5 for a slice of pizza and $6 off a future pizza? How do they stay in business?
Manager: Sucker! $5 covers the material cost of the food, I’m paying the employee the same amount for their shift either way, and that tax coupon means I can convert waste food into an $18 tax write off
Employee: Sucker! the food bank and I have an arrangement where I can take a pie home for my family. I just got free dinner
Food bank: free pizza! Give away one pie to the nice employee’s family, and split the rest among the hungry and volunteers.