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Old 12-28-2017, 09:58 PM   #61
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Originally Posted by RobbieB View Post
Senior discounts play no part in my eating, lodging or transportation plans.


Normally I am the same. The exception being the T-Mobile 55 years or older geezer plan
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Old 12-29-2017, 02:00 AM   #62
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You get the senior discount because you're probably "living on a fixed income", unlike all those working joes who can simply go tell the boss "I want to go out to dinner more often, so you'll need to increase my paycheck."
Ultimately this is what gets me.

I’ve seen all those graphs that show the folks in their 50s and 60s are much wealthier as a group than the rest of the population. It’s not spread evenly of course and there are plenty of poor seniors. But the discount versus other age groups always bugged me a bit.
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Old 12-29-2017, 02:58 AM   #63
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Yep, just a harmless, funny sign....

How about this one? "No kids eat free discount-so don't ask! We have been taxed to death already, supporting your life choices (having kids). The free ride is over!"

"Ha, ha, just a joke" would not cut it. The outrage would be twittered to death, and the restaurant would most likely be boycotted due to "child hating", and for good reason.

Taking a cheap shot at any group is wrong.

Personally, I see senior discounts as a marketing idea. Fill the restaurant up a couple of hours earlier in the day. Or, bring in the shoppers on a slow business day for a discount. No different than "happy hour" or "midnight madness" sales or off season rental rates. Or free meals on your birthday.
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Old 12-29-2017, 03:27 AM   #64
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Originally Posted by brucethebroker View Post
Yep, just a harmless, funny sign....

How about this one? "No kids eat free discount-so don't ask! We have been taxed to death already, supporting your life choices (having kids). The free ride is over!"

"Ha, ha, just a joke" would not cut it. The outrage would be twittered to death, and the restaurant would most likely be boycotted due to "child hating", and for good reason.

Taking a cheap shot at any group is wrong.

Personally, I see senior discounts as a marketing idea. Fill the restaurant up a couple of hours earlier in the day. Or, bring in the shoppers on a slow business day for a discount. No different than "happy hour" or "midnight madness" sales or off season rental rates. Or free meals on your birthday.
+1 You nailed it.
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Old 12-29-2017, 03:33 AM   #65
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Nope. It's a World vs Mdlerth thing. Just as I approach being old enough to score the senior discount, they yank it away. Our national pastime isn't baseball, it's goalpost-moving.

My whole life I've watched as no end of privileges and special considerations got ladled out to everybody except me. I've learned to expect it. Today they pull senior discounts; in a few more years they'll partition medicare. When I'm ready to engage SS they'll means test it out of my reach.

But I'm not one to complain... sigh.
Seems I’m in that line too.
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Old 12-29-2017, 04:58 AM   #66
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Originally Posted by brucethebroker View Post
Personally, I see senior discounts as a marketing idea. Fill the restaurant up a couple of hours earlier in the day. Or, bring in the shoppers on a slow business day for a discount. No different than "happy hour" or "midnight madness" sales or off season rental rates. Or free meals on your birthday.
Yep, that's the idea.

For healthy choices, it is maybe a bit different, more of an incentive. Like my city's discount for pool access. But as FUEGO and I found, it doesn't work very well. I think if they gave away free access to the pool, it wouldn't help much. And that's a problem because seniors need to get off their butts and move.

Finally, next year when I retire, I am going to use the "living on a fixed income" line sometime when the time is right. As a joke, you know.
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Old 12-29-2017, 01:21 PM   #67
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Older people never retaliate. I mean, what are we gonna do...run the car up on the sidewalk, mutilate a bunch of people, and claim "Oh, I thought I was hitting the brake but I guess it was the gas pedal..."
Quote:
Originally Posted by brucethebroker View Post
Yep, just a harmless, funny sign....

How about this one? "No kids eat free discount-so don't ask! We have been taxed to death already, supporting your life choices (having kids). The free ride is over!"

"Ha, ha, just a joke" would not cut it. The outrage would be twittered to death, and the restaurant would most likely be boycotted due to "child hating", and for good reason.

Taking a cheap shot at any group is wrong.
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Old 12-29-2017, 02:24 PM   #68
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Originally Posted by Gumby View Post
You get the senior discount because you're probably "living on a fixed income", unlike all those working joes who can simply go tell the boss "I want to go out to dinner more often, so you'll need to increase my paycheck."
Also, senior discounts for food is usually for less food in a restaurant. I appreciate not having such HUGE portions and am happy to pay less too.
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Old 12-29-2017, 07:29 PM   #69
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If you are running a restaurant with a nominal senior discount, and it is not helping your bottom line, something else is to blame--check the gravy.
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Old 12-30-2017, 10:22 PM   #70
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Originally Posted by JoeWras View Post
For healthy choices, it is maybe a bit different, more of an incentive. Like my city's discount for pool access. But as FUEGO and I found, it doesn't work very well. I think if they gave away free access to the pool, it wouldn't help much. And that's a problem because seniors need to get off their butts and move.
As long as the water is warm (it's usually 83F when I ask ) and it's below freezing outside, I'll keep paying full adult price for my admission. Only 23 more years till I can save a buck per visit!
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Old 12-30-2017, 11:07 PM   #71
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Very little kids fly for free.
Young kids get into movies for free.
Students get student discounts.
Military personnel get discounts (which they totally deserve; god bless them)

I just saw a sign today announcing that students get 5% off everything every day between Sept. 1 and May 30 at a particular vendor in this college town. I don't begrudge them that perk. God knows I used to be a poor student.

Businesses offer discounts for reasons of their bottom line (or to build goodwill with a certain group).

I don't see why I shouldn't take advantage of "senior" discounts when they are offered. It's not like seniors are the only group getting occasional discounts.
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Old 12-31-2017, 07:12 AM   #72
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Just another point... seniors do not seem to want to get out as much, so to get that traffic you offer a senior discount... the young do not seem to mind and the place does get some business...

Also, some place around here limits when you can get it... IOW, not during times the place would be filled with full paying customers...
And that’s really the point of all senior discounts. Wealthy seniors ignore them. The ones that need them don’t. Seniors are more likely to think something is overpriced because they have watched the prices rise for many years, and are more likely to not purchase based on too high a price. How many times have you seen people decide to buy because it’s “discounted”? My mother only purchased discounted, and too many times when she didn’t even really need the purchase in te first place. It is effective. Most businesses would still rather have the discounted sale than no sale at all.

About the only senior discounts we use are the ones that are automatic such as groceries on Tuesday at Krogers. Its encoded on the Kroger card, so the discount is automatically subtracted and DW tends then to shop on Tuesday when the store is more empty which is what Kroger wants as well. And then significant ones, such as Business Class rail in Europe, sometimes 1/2 price, are purchased basically with no proof, just via the automated ticket dispenser, or the occasional movie ticket, also via dispenser.
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Old 12-31-2017, 01:06 PM   #73
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Since it was a buffet restaurant, everybody in the joint was probably over 60.
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Old 01-01-2018, 06:11 AM   #74
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What?!?!?!
You folks don't think an over 62 couple with a 35 foot luxury motor home should not have a life time pass to the National Parks, while some 40-somethings with two kids who are tent camping should be paying $10-$20 to stay in the park? I am shocked! Shocked!

Ummmm.... I'm sure that the over 62 couple with the 35 foot luxury motor home was once a struggling 40 something with 2 kids.

What people forget is that wealthy seniors have money. They spend that money and don't rely on Gov't. Handouts....i.e..Medicaid. I am sure the 35 foot motor home requires a lot of gas, upkeep, tolls , buying food while traveling ,etc.

Why is it that wealthy people are always demonized in society?

Younger people would do well to pick the brains of wealthy seniors to discover perhaps how some day they too could become a wealthy senior.
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Old 01-01-2018, 06:30 AM   #75
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Originally Posted by brucethebroker View Post
Yep, just a harmless, funny sign....

How about this one? "No kids eat free discount-so don't ask! We have been taxed to death already, supporting your life choices (having kids). The free ride is over!"

"Ha, ha, just a joke" would not cut it. The outrage would be twittered to death, and the restaurant would most likely be boycotted due to "child hating", and for good reason.

Taking a cheap shot at any group is wrong.

Personally, I see senior discounts as a marketing idea. Fill the restaurant up a couple of hours earlier in the day. Or, bring in the shoppers on a slow business day for a discount. No different than "happy hour" or "midnight madness" sales or off season rental rates. Or free meals on your birthday.
I completely agree!

The sign is obnoxious. Hopefully it was only a tasteless (or poorly thought out) joke. If the statement on the sign actually conveys the feelings of management, then they wouldn't get my business.

"Respecting your elders" used to be a thing. At least it was when I was young.

If a company chooses not to offer a discount for any group, that's completely fine. No need to be publicly snotty about it.
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Old 01-01-2018, 07:53 AM   #76
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I completely agree!

The sign is obnoxious. Hopefully it was only a tasteless (or poorly thought out) joke. If the statement on the sign actually conveys the feelings of management, then they wouldn't get my business.
Since the sign was lifted off the internet we don’t even know the veracity. Photoshop, whatever, you never know. Could very well be fake news.
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Old 01-01-2018, 08:00 AM   #77
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Originally Posted by Calico View Post
Very little kids fly for free.
Young kids get into movies for free.
Students get student discounts.
Military personnel get discounts (which they totally deserve; god bless them)

I just saw a sign today announcing that students get 5% off everything every day between Sept. 1 and May 30 at a particular vendor in this college town. I don't begrudge them that perk. God knows I used to be a poor student.

Businesses offer discounts for reasons of their bottom line (or to build goodwill with a certain group).

I don't see why I shouldn't take advantage of "senior" discounts when they are offered. It's not like seniors are the only group getting occasional discounts.
There are also the discounts that no one complained about in my younger years, but might be deemed "sexist" and "discriminatory" in this age. For example:
- Women getting free/discounted drinks at Happy Hours.
- Women getting free/discounted admission to parties. As a DJ in college and a for a few years after that, I was guilty of advertising this quite often.
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Old 01-01-2018, 08:19 AM   #78
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Older people never retaliate. I mean, what are we gonna do...run the car up on the sidewalk, mutilate a bunch of people, and claim "Oh, I thought I was hitting the brake but I guess it was the gas pedal..."
That actually happens a lot on Florida . Two years ago a woman did it in a church parking lot and killed several people .
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Old 01-01-2018, 10:06 AM   #79
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I'm on a "fixed income", too. I "fixed" it so it would be more than most others!
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Old 01-01-2018, 10:10 AM   #80
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Since it was a buffet restaurant, everybody in the joint was probably over 60.
Have you looked at the general population in America these days? Obesity runs rampant and the calories come from overeating and it's not limited to seniors.
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