TV And Radio Stations Sell Restaurant Gift Certificates For 50% Off
If you're in the market for 50% off a restaurant gift certificate, consider checking out your local television or radio station. Yes, really. Many stations receive restaurant gift certificates in exchange for air time. They then turn around and sell the certificates to the public at a steep discount. Yeah, it sounds strange to us too, but here's how it works...
The company that came up with the concept is the Cleveland-based IncentRev, and it’s a coupon broker that facilitates the on-air promotions. Essentially, it works like this: A retailer—say, a new restaurant—“buys” exclusive air time with the station in exchange for 100 gift certificates, which the station then promotes on air for half-price. Viewers can buy the gift certificates on a first-come, first-serve basis by accessing the station’s Web site. All parties involved say it’s a win-win arrangement. Viewers get a bargain. A small retailer essentially receives free advertising. And IncentRev, which does all the paperwork, and the station split the money.
IncentRev doesn't appear to have many partners in major cities, but it's still worth a look. There are two ways to find deals in your area. You can enter the station's call letters directly before IncentRev's url, like so: http://wlox.incentrev.com. Or, follow this link and perform a Google site search by typing in the name of your city.
If you do find a deal in your area, you'll want to closely read the terms and conditions. These are gift certificates, after all.
How to get half-price dining from your local TV station [Wisebread]
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Portland (OR)'s 94.7 FM is doing this, or at least something similar: [www.947.fm] (it will cycle through on the main page's big picture).
kxxr 93.7 does this in minneapolis all the time
in Atlanta, it's actually two free weekly newspapers:
The Sunday Paper's halfoffdepot.com
Creative Loafing's atlanta.creativeloafing.com
in KC 104.3 does it. But I usually just wait for restaurants.com to have an 80% off sale and buy $25 certificates for $3.
@mmcnary: Those are a good deal, but we all know they're not *really* gift certificates and are bogged down with minimum purchase restrictions and the inability to purchase liquor with them, among other things. You wouldn't be caught dead actually giving them as a gift. These don't have such restrictions, you just can't use them for tax and gratuity.
Nothing in Los Angeles.
I love how when I post something that contributes atleast as much as any other poster does and I never see it yet some assclown last week posts "first!" and some shithead approves it to show up. wtf?
@youbastid: The liquor restriction is the choice of the restaurant, and many states do not allow liquor discounting, hence the does not apply to alcoholic beverages. The restaurant chooses the restrictions for restaurant.com (there is no s at the end).
Major radio companies like Clear Channel have been doing this for a long time without a third party to split the revenues.
WISN 1130 in Milwaukee, the morning host (Jay Weber) does a "Dine 4 Less" deal every Friday at 9am, $50 certificates for $25.
Kwod 106.5 in sacramento is doing it. website sells the gift certs.
I used to work for a media company in Boston and we did this. There were some awfully strange things among the offerings including tattoos and Botox treatments (and a sex toy shop). It was never a problem, though, taking someone to lunch as long as you used "trade".
Dayton Ohio does it at TV channel 22 NBC. My wife bought $50 to Hickory River BBQ for $25. It arrived in the mail in the form of 2-$25 gift certificates in less than 1 week. It is so funny, TV 22's website had some lesser known restaurants deals for many days after their specific promo, but HR sold out the same morning. I laughed when my wife set the alarm for 7:00 am and pre-set the computer to TV 22's website the previous night to get online fast. I guess now she will be eating BBQ and I'll be eating crow.
yeah,here in NY we have halfpricehudsonvalley.com
Easy way to check your local media websites for deals: [www.usnpl.com.] Look up newspaper, radio station, and TV station websites organized by state and city.
This seems like it might be illegal. I've looked up the stuff available in MA, and several of the stipulations seem to violate state gift certificate law. (E.g.: gift certificates must legally remain valid for 7 years. One of these offers is only good for 6 months.) Still, 15.00 for 50.00 of wine seems like a real bargain.
Restaurant.com is having a sale - 70% off; however, some of the restaurants in the Chicago area have sold out already (or weren't available to begin with). You can get some really good deals there.
In Detroit, both AM 950 (WWJ) and Channel 7 (WXYZ) do this.
My local station in CT does this: [www.q105.fm]
This week they were selling grocery store gift certificates, which is an even better deal than restaurants.
1120 AM KMOX has been doing this for quite a while. While I've never taken advantage of this, it is an excellent deal.
ah, great tip, i didn't know!
i found [wdcg.raleigh-deals.com]
too bad nothing there is currently of interest to me, but i will keep checking back
There are a bunch of $50 certs. for $25 deals here in Madison, too. Both the TV stations AND radio stations do these deals; they are usually available starting at a certain day like WISN does.
Philadelphia has www.PhillyHalfOff.com - some decent deals. We don't go into the city as much as we used to so they're not as valuable to use.
Several radio stations in San Diego did this and though it was a good deal, there's always fine print.
Usually, the fine print involved needing to order at least $30 worth of food in order to use the gift certificates. Reasonable if you have a dinner buddy though!
@vildechaia: @RonaldNike: Restaurant.com contracts with the restaurant owner to sell a specific number of "certificates" which are actually coupons. If you look at popular restaurants after the first few days of the month they are usually sold out. restaurant.com also has a trick to make it seem like they have more restaurants involved then they actually do, by keeping a restaurant that cancels service on their website, but not selling any certificates, until they try to convince the owner to come back to their service. They call them certificates and not coupons because higher end restaurants think coupon makes them comparable to McDonalds, but the reality is, you bought a coupon is all that has happened.
@thrid001: here in charlotte, [1065.com] has been doing this for a while... (they are a clear channel affiliate)
pay $25, get 2 $25 gift cards to restaurant Foo
always been a bit wary of this, since this is the same radio station that advertises about 3 male enhancement products per commercial break...
@deweydecimated: I heard about one on KUFO (101.1) in Portland as well; I think it's for all of the CBS stations. This one has restaurants as well as other things, all or mostly local businesses. HalfPricePortland
Well... I've been using these for about a year and they're totally legit, free of the Restaurant.com restrictions and totally rock. During the holidays they offer them at 75% off face value. There's a charge of about $3.50 to process your order but for $16.00 I got $50 in certificates (2 x $25) to Rosati's Pizza. You have to use the certs in full each time so I would just order $25.xx in pizza and just pay the taxes out of pocket. In essence I would get $25 worth of food for about $10 my cost.
sorry the other was the company website, this is the website for the promotions they have available.
If you live in the Chicago Suburbs, another resource is called the Radio Shopping Show. This is a show on AM radio out of Elgin (1410 AM, WRMN) and out of Aurora (1280 AM, WBIG). They feature deeply discounted certificates for a variety of services, including restaurants (sit down and fast food), entertainment (museum tickets, theatre tickets, movie tickets, &c), hotel stays, and a wide variety of other services. One caveat - some certificates have restrictions (e.g. some hotel certificates have blackout dates), so it's important to be aware of any restrictions and expiration dates.
This is also apparently available in Las Vegas (1400 AM, KSHP), though I cannot speak to whether they have as wide a variety.
For information, you can go to [www.radioshoppingshow.com.]
Well, there are several results for Austin, but they all sold out last year.