June 20 (UPI) — A restaurant in China was forced to shut its doors after an all-you-can-eat promotion backfired and sent the eatery deep into debt.
The owners of the Jiamener hot pot restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, said the deal, which offered all-you-can-eat meals at the eatery for a $19 monthly pass, led to the restaurant’s downfall when customers started sharing their cards with friends and family members.
The promotion caused the restaurant’s number of daily customers to skyrocket to more than 500 day without much profit coming into the business, sending it about $78,000 into debt in less than a month.
Su Jie, co-owner of the eatery, blamed the business’ closing on a lack of business expertise among the owners.
“The uncivilized behavior of the diners was secondary — the main problem was our poor management,” he told the Chengdu Economic Daily.
Su said the owners had expected to lose money from the promotion, but they had been expecting to create a stronger customer base.
“We wanted to accumulate more loyal clients through this strategy,” he said.
