Specials that give away margin

What it is

For each time-of-day special (early bird, happy hour): sales in its hours on days it runs, against the same hours on days it does not, and what it gives away.

Why it is money. A special pays when the extra sales it brings earn more than it gives. If the same people come at the same time either way, it is a discount on sales you already had.

How Budtello works it out

• Its hours from your discount catalog (early bird 07-09)
• Days with it against days without it at the same store
• Extra sales in its hours, weighed at the store's margin, against what the special gave
• Compared only with 5 or more days without it; when those days all come before it began, the gap also holds the season

Fewer than five days without the special is too few to say what its hours look like without it.

What high looks like

$110 more a day, at a 60% margin, is $66 - less than the $95 it gives. It costs about $29 a day: $870 a month. A store with no days without it is not compared.

Every name and figure here is invented.

What to do

• Try a week without it, or with a smaller discount, and ask again
• Move it to the hours that are actually quiet
• Keep it if it is there for loyalty - and know what it costs

Ask your AI Does the early bird at Hollin Cross pay for itself?