My husband and I have gone to many local businesses and have thought of a few suggestions to make the experience much better to bring in more locals.  We have not actually told the business owners our suggestions because we find most people are not receptive to change. 

For example, I have gone into a local business recently for lunch and paid $8 or $9 for a sandwich.  What if you add a salad to this sandwich and charged someone an extra .50 for the salad?  It would bring up the experience and allow your customers to feel like they got a full meal. 

I figure this may be a great forum to discuss these ideas and if a local business wants to see how they can improve, they can look here.  Or, this could be a complete flop.  :-)

I know it’s difficult to change your concept of what you business should be about. But it’s always a good idea to be receptive to suggestions as well.  I often have difficulty responding to suggestions as gracefully as I should.

But I think you raise an important point.  Businesses that cater to locals and those that cater to tourists have small but significant differences.  Of course it’s traditional for local hangouts in tourist destinations to become tourist favorites. But locals seldom adopt restaurants that are aimed at tourists. But most local eateries are designed to appeal to day-trippers, so they’re still moderately attractive to locals. One late exception was the Chart House, which was not only stuck in the 70s, but really designed strictly for tourists.

What about businesses considering a coupon type program for use by local residents to provide some price relief?

I completely agree with you. It frustrates me so much, I often shop or eat over the hill or in Pacifica to save some money.  For example, I use to eat at Gin Wan.  I don’t anymore because a) Their lunch specials are only during the weekdays (and if a holiday falls on a Monday forget it) b) their prices are just too high.  I would much rather travel over to Pacifica, save $8-20 and feel good about my purchase.  The food is fantastic and I am happy.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a nice place, but I am not going to pay $30 for lunch every weekend (no matter how much money I have in the bank!). 

I haven’t heard of any businesses doing that recently (and you would have thought they would have done that during the Devil’s Slide closure - it is a perfect time to capture the local market).  I know Princeton Seafood did that 10 - 20 years ago.  They had cards for locals to save 10% off every meal.

Another way for businesses to do better overall might be to partner with one another - co promoting their businesses.  This could be through display of discounts in complementary shops (gift store has discount cards for a restaurant; restaurant displays some items from the gift shop).  There are lots of easy ways for people to integrate marketing and save money on promotion while increasing traffic. At the bottom of this is the need to bring in enough revenue to cover costs plus make a reasonable profit.

I believe awhile back there was a card program where locals could present the card and get a flat discount off the purchase price.  Would that be interesting to anyone?  As someone who runs a non-profit, another twist would be instead of a 10% discount, 10% of your purchase price would go to a benefit a local non-profit.  Much like the e-script program.  Let’s start the conversation here, and if there is interest, I’d be happy to host a round-table discussion group to see what we could come up with.  Perhaps the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Merchants would participate as well.  Barry I do as much shopping on the coast as possible and this program could help generate additional awareness as well as give a much needed boost to business.

Several years ago,  The Chamber of Commerce gave out Shop on the Coast cards which gave discounts at most stores on the Coast to card holders.

Charise will probably remember the details.  I thought it was a good program.  It was part of Shop On The Coast campaign.

Steven Hyman

Cheri -

I would love to see a 10% off program for locals, but I am not a business owner.  Is there a poll system on the coastsider where you can gauge interest level from a) consumers and b) business owners? 

If I owned a business, i would be all over this.  Think about companies like Bed, Bath and Beyond.  They have higher prices (think: tourists) but every week or so will send you (those within x miles of a store) 20% off coupons (think: locals).  They will take the coupons even if they expire and will take multiple coupons at a time.  They have my business!  Why?  The prices aren’t too high and I feel like I am getting a deal.  Keep in mind, if their prices were any higher, I would never shop there.  They just know my price elasticity and desire for a deal.  :-) 

I also have a fundraising idea that might also help this coupon idea (less involved that an eScript implementation - I think it would be hard for a store to manage what money goes where).  If you are intersted, shoot me an email.  I don’t want to share on a public forum as my idea is not fully baked. 

If you need anything from me, let me know.  I would be happy to help if I can.

I’m always up for extra brainpower!!  You can write me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we can talk more offline.  I’ll talk to Barry about a merchant survey and will drop Charise a line at the COC too.  As we’re right on top of the holiday gifting season, it certainly seems like a good time to trial both a local discount and a local giving program.