Not too long ago, value meals at fast-food chains meant an
inexpensive way to eat while saving your money for something else. Thanks to
the recession, however, value meals have become something else: About the only
way you’re going to eat, period, dude. Sandwich
chain Quiznos discovered as much in the course of a recent survey it
commissioned from Opinion Research Corporation, whose recent telephone canvass
of 1,000 adult consumers revealed that as the lunch hour draws nigh, Americans
have been reduced to new lows. Like what? Twenty percent of people surveyed
admitted they’d go on a blind date just for the free eats, and over 50 percent
said they’d show up an in-law’s retirement party just to raid the buffet. Well
over half of Americans now drop less than five bucks a day on lunch. And as
though all of these facts weren’t embarrassing enough, a handful of respondents
confessed to stealing co-workers’ lunches right out of the office fridge. Quiznos’
inventive marketing folks used this dismal data to help launch its new
thee-buck “Toasty Bullet” sub, and that’s pretty creative thinking. At the same
time, do we really need to be
reminded how hard-up we all are? Note to Paragon Sporting Goods: Why not use
the latest home-foreclosure data to help sell tents?
—Posted by Robert Klara
