Cash-strapped restaurants launch ‘pay now, eat later’ discount scheme

To pay staff wages, restaurateurs invite support from patrons through discount scheme, but diners aren’t too excited. With no relief in sight, cashstrapped restaurants are hoping to raise some money as well as retain loyal diners through a new discount deal. Customers pay Rs 250 now and the remaining Rs 500 is to be paid only when they dine at the restaurant, within six months of the purchase date, “with limitless purchases, no minimum expenditure amount, blackout dates or redemption conditions,” according to the NRAI’s press release. NRAI president, Anurag Katriar, who helms deGustibus Hospitality, told Mirror that as the government has offered no “relief package” to the industry so far, restaurateurs have no choice but to reach out to their patrons. Meaning, if it’s a voucher for Tote on the Turf (Katriar’s Mahalaxmi property), it can’t be used at Indigo Deli outlets, though that’s also his brand. Restaurateur Gauri Devidayal, who serves on the managing committee of the NRAI, added that the purpose of this dinein discount programme is also to bring diners back to restaurants once the lockdown is lifted. A regular diner at Lower Parel restaurants until two months ago, Saraswati K, a home-based fashion designer said she wouldn’t spend on this now. Sharing that she’s worried about how the lockdown will impact her family’s income, the mother of two said that she expects to pull the purse strings tighter in the coming months. Unlike this programme or EazyDiner’s 25 per cent off, pay now-eat later vouchers which have also found thousands of takers, the NRAI’s RFR programme also only calls for 25 per cent of the virtual cash value upfront, “limiting the risk for customers who may be concerned about the future of restaurants,” said Katriar. “And, the RFR vouchers cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount schemes,” said Devidayal, a partner in Food Matters India, whose properties include The Table Farm in Alibag and the bakery, Mag St Bread Co. “It would defeat the purpose of this programme.”