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Comment by patio11 | Hacker News Reader

That's a genius use of that offering. Great instant story.

As for the offering itself (pre-paying a large sum in advance for, essentially, free-food-for-life at a new restaurant): I wonder if that's a sane method for restaurants generally. There are two in Ogaki that I'd happily spend $1k on, but I'd worry that it would change my relationship with the owners. Being a regular at the local diner is great -- the owner comes out to greet you when you come in, you always get exactly what you like exactly the way you like it, and in general they try to make you feel like a king. I'd hate to have date night in 2019 ruined by "Patrick, you're here again? Dude, it's a Saturday night. I could sell that table. #($'#( it. Well, OK, what will it be -- the free #%(#ing burger again?"

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Well a 1000 burgers are 3 years worth of lunch. Also if you are allowed to take a few at a this is great marketing for free - telling all the colleagues - a few burgers are on me in that place. Chances to convert to a regular at least one of them is high.

Probably it is how the awards will be defined. Because kickstarter is not preorder.

Also the Kickstarter community so far has shown to be remarkably supporting. So I doubt that they will abuse the privileges that will be awarded. Also basic rule for the rewards should be that you are overpaying but you like it that way. The 1000 burgers for 1000 GBP is clearly unsustainable. But looking at the KS it seems more like a marketing stunt the high tiers. So it is probably budgeted.

It's quite unlikely that someone who orders a 1000 burgers is actually going to eat them. I can't picture myself eating 1000 of the same kind of burger .. or in the same place..

I guess most people would eat 200 burgers (I'd say at the high end..) which would come out to 5GBP per burger. Not bad for the establishment.. I can't think of any average but even 100 sounds high to me.

Did you see the picture of the burger in the article? All this guy has to do is declare that remaining prepaid burgers are non-transferable upon death, and he'll only ever have to make a few hundred per buyer.

That is a good point to raise :D

I had a micro heart attack just by looking at it.

Actually the burger in the picture is healthier than you'd think. It's very good quality beef. I have a balanced diet and exercise lots. I also subscribe to the 'fat is not the enemy' school of thought. Maybe I'll take some before and after photos to prove it!

The quality of the beef isn't the point. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/too-mu...

There has been much discussion on this piece of research, and issues raised about the reporting of it. I think the response from the NHS was balanced:

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/03March/Pages/high-protein-diet-...

That study is garbage. It doesn't distinguish between processed and unprocessed meat. It is best filed in the circular container on the floor.

I'm coming to London for the first time in a decade this coming week. I'd love to have a burger with the guy who decided to do this.

If you're interested, drop me a note: keith @ op3nvoice.com

I just looked at the burger in question.

Wow!

I'd totally eat 1,000 of those. But I guess I should start caring about things like not having heart attacks, so I don't know.

My heart says "yes" though.

My advice would be to come to England and eat a hamburger here before committing to a thousand of them, regardless of how good they look in the picture.

I sometimes daydream about importing the cheapest, far-end-of-the-freezer-aisle, just-barely-not-animal-feed grade hamburger patties from the US so that I could sell them here as gourmet burgers for premium prices.

The quality of the beef really is that bad here, as is the process that somehow turns it into the rubbery, filler-laden non-edible Superball of Sadness that gets passed off for burgers here.

That, along with Mexican food, is one of the main reasons I travel back to the states so frequently.

Now, if we could only get English bacon shipped over to America, that might be reason enough to move back.

I can't speak for the rest of England, but there are some amazing burgers in London.

A good starting point: http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/restaurants/burgeracs-20-...

100% agree about Mexican food though!

There's great Mexican food available in London too, maybe not quite like SoCal but still good

That scenario is quite funny. Isn't it just a loss-leader model though? You will probably want sides and drinks (drinks have the highest margins).

In this author's case, he will be introducing new customers to the restaurant. In fact a stipulation "exactly two burgers" instead of "at least two burgers" would have been better. Also the opportunity cost of selling a table is fairly low (about 10 GBP if that is the cost of two burgers).

Personally, I have fallen in love with some burgers but after a month or two of obsessing I have to hold back because of satiation.

yes but check it--the other part of the offer is that you must order two at a time. so, assuming you're not going to chow down two burgers on your own, you'll be introducing a new potential customer every time.

With 1k burgers?

You could just order one to eat there and one to go. If you don't eat it later. Well, 998 to go now.

Plus, with this strategy you'll have a heart attack and die within the first year, so the rest of the burgers will go unclaimed.

That's a good point, but in this case, I'm guessing that Tom will be more than happy with me blogging about how good his burgers are a few times a week, and introducing 500 new customers :-)

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