I helped launch local Groupon markets. I worked on merchant campaigns and the commercial decisions behind them. That is why I take discounting seriously, and why I would be wary of making it a permanent part of a restaurant's identity.
A promotion can introduce a customer to a good business. Repeated discounting can also teach that customer to wait, compare everything with the cheaper price and start the next search on a deal platform. You may spend years building a restaurant people want, then train them to buy it only on offer.
That is the business-suicide risk I see: gradually weakening the prices, relationships and cash generation the restaurant needs to survive. It is a warning about how operators use these channels, not a prediction that joining one inevitably causes failure. Here are ten ways the damage can happen.
1 The discounted price becomes the price people remember
Your menu may say £30, but repeated offers at £18 give the customer another number to judge you against. Eventually, the question can become why they should pay the extra £12.
This concern has a research basis. Kalwani and Yim's controlled experiment found that both promotion frequency and discount depth affected expected prices. It was not a study of EatClub or First Table, so it cannot tell us the effect on a particular restaurant. It supports asking what price expectations repeated offers are creating. [1]
2 You teach customers to wait
If an offer appears often enough, waiting can become a sensible buying decision. A customer may still want your restaurant, but learn to check the app before committing.
The danger is rewarding delay. You work on your menu, service and reputation, then provide another reason to postpone paying the normal price. I would watch the pattern of visits around promotions and what happens when the deal disappears. A customer who returns only after the next discount has learned something different from the habit I wanted to build.
3 Repeatedly empty offers can make the discount look permanent
An offer does not have to be claimed to send a message. If someone repeatedly checks and sees discounted availability, they may conclude you are usually willing to sell for less. Your intended urgency can disappear.
There is a difference between a clearly bounded campaign and continuously replenished availability. Groupon's current merchant guidance allows expiry dates, redemption limits and voucher caps. First Table and EatClub also offer controls over availability. [2, 3, 4] None is automatically always on. My concern is the pattern the customer sees, regardless of which platform carries it.
4 Full price can start to feel like a penalty
A regular who pays the normal bill may be perfectly happy with the value. Repeatedly seeing what appears to be the same experience sold much cheaper can introduce an uncomfortable comparison.
Clear restrictions can explain the difference: an early sitting, limited dates or a distinct menu. Without a credible reason, some customers may feel they have been paying more simply because they did not search for a code. I would rather have a pricing policy my team can explain confidently than rely on guests never comparing notes.
5 The saving can crowd out the reason to choose you
A restaurant has to give people a reason to cross town, return with friends or celebrate there. It might be a particular dish, the welcome or a genuinely distinctive evening.
If the most visible message is the percentage off, you risk making the discount easier to remember than any of that. This does not make deal-seeking diners bad customers. It means your marketing may be asking them to judge you mainly on price. I would look at what guests actually recommend afterwards: the restaurant itself, or the bargain they found.
6 You can strengthen the platform habit faster than your own
A happy customer can return to the platform and choose another venue. Their satisfaction with your food does not require them to become your regular.
First Table's Frequent Foodies programme rewards activity on its platform. EatClub also operates a loyalty programme. Those are legitimate features, but their existence is not evidence of loyalty to your individual restaurant. [5, 6] I would measure the next visit and booking route. First Table's restaurant marketing opt-in provides one way to develop a direct relationship; operators still have to do the work. [7]
7 Discounted demand can hide a weak full price proposition
A busy offer can reassure an owner that customers love the restaurant. They may love it at the discounted price. That leaves the more difficult question unanswered: is the normal experience worth the normal bill to enough people?
I would investigate why the quiet periods are quiet. Perhaps the hours are wrong, the menu is unclear, booking is awkward or people nearby do not know the restaurant exists. A recurring discount can postpone that investigation. Removing the cause of weak demand may be more valuable than repeatedly paying to compensate for it.
8 Giving away contribution can reduce what you can reinvest
The cost can extend beyond the discounted meal. Money given away on demand you already had is money unavailable for maintenance, training or better ingredients.
Consider a hypothetical service. Ten tables would each contribute £40 at full price: £400 in total. A promotion reduces contribution to £15 per table and attracts ten genuinely additional tables, while the original ten also use it. Twenty tables now contribute £300. That is twice the tables and £100 less towards fixed overheads and profit. These illustrative contributions already deduct discounts, all assumed channel charges, ingredients and additional labour, and exclude VAT. No real platform tariff or restaurant result is implied.
9 More discounted trade can become a cash dependency
Once a substantial share of sales arrives through offers, switching them off can feel frightening. The business needs today's cash even when the price of obtaining it is weakening tomorrow's position.
I would watch how much contribution depends on the channel, rather than simply celebrating its share of bookings. A restaurant can become operationally busier while having less flexibility to improve the offer or absorb a bad month. The warning sign is needing another promotion to make the previous pattern of promotion affordable.
10 Switching off the offer may not reset expectations
Removing a listing does not automatically remove the cheaper price from a customer's memory. Some guests may return at full price; others may wait, reduce their visits or choose another deal.
That is why I would design the exit before the promotion. Give people a clear reason for the special price and a reason to return after it ends. Measure repeat contribution over a realistic return period. If the business case needs customers to pay full price later, that behaviour has to be demonstrated rather than inserted into a spreadsheet as a hopeful assumption.
I would protect the reason people pay full price
I am comfortable with a bounded promotion that has sound economics and a clear purpose. I would be much less comfortable with recurring offers that make discounting the easiest thing to remember about the restaurant.
Before renewing one, ask what it is teaching customers and what happens when it stops. If you cannot fill tables without continually weakening the price, investigate the business underneath the offer.
That is where I would start with your restaurant: the strength of the full-price proposition, your direct customer relationships and the money left after acquiring each visit.
Sources
- Kalwani and Yim 1992. Consumer Price and Promotion Expectations: An Experimental Study. Primary experimental research; not restaurant-platform-specific evidence.
- Groupon UK merchant frequently asked questions. Campaign expiry, redemption limits, monthly caps and pausing while honouring sold vouchers.
- First Table UK restaurant proposition. Restaurant control of offered days and times.
- EatClub UK dine-in partner page. Offer quantities and pause controls.
- First Table Frequent Foodies. Platform activity and status points.
- EatClub UK loyalty programme. Dining Credits and loyalty tiers, including qualifying no-live-offer transactions.
- First Table marketing contact guidance. Access to diners who consent to restaurant marketing.