So at work today we rolled out the prize centrepiece of our new promotion: free syrup and extra shot Monday. Anyone who ordered their coffee with syrup or an extra shot of espresso got it free. It's like that every Monday until the end of next month (I think?) We've got signs up everywhere, there's internal emails flying about predicting a huge upsurge of business and crap from our district manager wanting precise numbers on how it was going. I dunno why she wanted that. She has no way of affecting the customer reaction to the promotion because NO ONE FUCKING CARED. Thassright, no one gave half a toss. Every fucking customer that came in I'm all 'oh and today we've got free blah blah blah' and they would just stop for a few seconds while they absorbed and discarded the information and ordered what they always have.

The problem has its roots in the 'do you want fries with that' attitude of fast food joints. Customers are so used to hearing shit like that they are completely uninfluenced by it. Sure when people started doing it, it showed success, but the idea is saturated now. We're supposed to 'suggest' a food item and a customiser to every single drink we sell and the only people who go for it are hicks just in from Bumfuck, Western Victoria. So when they hear us offer free shit they automatically think 'oh these fuckers are just trying to sell me something I don't want' and say no. Which is fair enough. When people try that crap on me at McDonalds or whatever I usually shout 'JUST GIVE ME WHAT I FUCKING ASKED FOR' and start throwing straws at them.