If you can get there in time, Happy Hour is a great thing. You get cheaper drinks and grub – and the restaurant gets asses in the seats before their busier dinner hours. Lately however, some restaurants have taken to having an “All Day Happy Hour” – of which, there is no such thing.
Now, I am not at all against Happy Hour or a restaurant choosing to serve up cheap drinks all day if it wants to. But, when it is called “Happy Hour”, we all assume there is some sort of discount. If a bar or restaurant chooses to keep the same prices on drinks all night, then those are just that: their prices. And calling it “Happy Hour” kind of loses the whole point.
Why do #HappyHour when you can do ALL DAY HAPPY HOUR?
Posted by BB's at The River on Monday, June 29, 2015
I do want to stress here, I am not complaining about a restaurant choosing to serve cheaper drinks (and I do not mean to pick solely on the restaurant above, as there are plenty of local joints who do this).
Cheap drinks are, in fact, awesome. But, the issue comes from the same kind of thing that retail stores like Michael’s do. If you have ever been inside a Michael’s (which, is my own version of hell on earth), than you have noticed that literally every single item has a big red tag noting that the item is “on sale”:
The thing is, everything is always “on sale”. If it is never actually sold for the “full price”, can it really be said to be “on sale”?
But, I guess people feel like they are saving money that way and end up buying more – so retailers keep on putting up those dumb “sale signs” even though it is all a lie. Maybe this is what all day “Happy Hours” are meant to do to?
Restaurants don’t need to do this dumb marketing nonsense. If you are serving up cheap drinks all night, then just say that. And if you have a period of time where drinks get even cheaper, than go ahead and call it Happy Hour – since that is what Happy Hour actually is.
Also, maybe start saving a couple of chairs at the bar for the Coachella Valley’s under-60 crowd, who have to work until at least 5 p.m. and usually arrive to Happy Hour only to find it overrun with snowbirds.
