angelican16

IS IT a good deal or a misleading gimmick?

Some customers who went to get the former ended up thinking it was more of the latter.

The deal in question is a cafe's two-day 50 cent promotion.

The Cafe Lobby at the Toa Payoh interchange is advertising that customers can buy noodles or nasi lemak, and get a free cup of coffee - all for just 50 cents. The offer ends today.

What the posters fail to mention, however, is that the 50 cents is for rice or noodles only, and for the deal to be valid, one needs to order additional ingredients.

They can cost anything from 20 cents for vegetables to $1.60 for a chicken wing.

And this had some customers complaining.

Madam Jenny Chee, who is in her 40s, thought the offer was a good deal until she found out about this requirement.

'I didn't buy anything in the end,' she said.

'They are not being fair in their advertisement because the sale will definitely exceed 50 cents.'

Housewife Madam Doris Lim, 60, also felt the posters were 'misleading' as the exact conditions of the offer were not clearly stated.

But not all were upset.

Retiree Madam Chan Jan Peng, 61, felt the meal was 'worth it' despite it costing more than the advertised offer.

'The food tastes good. Considering that the prices of many things are rising nowadays, this is value for money,' she said.

Madam Chan also feels the advertising tactic is understandable.

'Getting more people to try their food at a lower price is a good business tactic to get new customers,' she said.

'We can't fault them because the purpose of advertisements is to draw customers.

'They need to do business too.'

The two-month-old cafe had offered the same promotion once before, said Mr Jason Lim, 42, its managing director.

He said the low price was meant to attract more customers.

A supplier to the cafe, who wanted to be known only as Mr Goh, also said the cafe was 'willing to make a bit of a loss to attract more customers'.

Mr Lim said the deal was to 'let our customers enjoy our coffee and taste more of our food'.

He stood by the requirement that customers had to order other ingredients before they were entitled to the promotion package.

'Otherwise, people will take advantage of the deal,' he said.

Asked if it was misleading not to mention this in the advertising, he said: 'We didn't think that information was essential. The staff could always tell the customers.'

It seems like the promotional gimmick has paid off.

Mr Lim said The Cafe Lobby had attracted the number of customers that it had targeted, though he wouldn't reveal how many.

TotalNV

advertising gimmick.... i have to agree that the ad is too misleading... how to eat nasi lemak with just the nasi? siao right? the idea is just to draw the crowd to their place at the cost of customers' perception and the cafe's reputation. i'm sure a lot of the 'kiasu' community will brand the cafe as 'Cheaters'.

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Casper26

Why didn't they question if its too good to be true thing first? ZzZ

Huaikong

i bought it on sat.quite cheap oredi so i dun complain.the coffee is thick n nice oso.not like 'longkang' water.....

free_gul88

where got so cheap food?It must be low quanity or tasteless

winni12

in this world where got such good thing???

gumok

Such advertising gimmicks are all over the place...
It's a tough fight for survival out there so they have to come up with some gimmicks to atract customers...

platform

but it is cheap liao ma

shypineapple

money isnt the issue,its the principle of it.

My mind fails to understand
What my heart tells me to do
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xRebornZ

50 cent sia.. can spam sia..

sarcastic

where got so good die?
u shd already prepare urself as this will be too gd to be true in such inflation situation.

好梦幻.....

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webhoster

It is there to purposely mislead you but after all the total cost is still cheap.

yunise

i see tat cafe everyday.. din know tat it taste good.. o.o

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yukio

oh well if it really taste good then still ok.. but 1.60 for a chicken wing... the chicken must be living in air-con room when its alive..

leishen

yea ~ the chickent is expensive ~ but i tink if the price is still okay ~ things should be understandable ba ~ although its true that the advertisment is kinda misleding .. maybi i would oso complain ~ but i guess i would still buy it if im hungry and stuck thr lolx =x

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