A few household name national restaurant chains (Popeyes and Subway) are making headlines news this week, offering customers freebies and limited-time deals on food.
Last week’s stock frenzy regarding AMC Entertainment theater chain and GameStop video game retailer continues to garner attention this week. With a minimum $5 purchase, Popeye’s is giving out free chicken tenders, or how they refer to them, “Tendies”. While “Tendies” to most might seem like a cute way for the company to refer to their delicious chicken snacks, it’s actually a shoutout to Reddit, whose users use “tendies” to refer to gains and profits.
The fried chicken chain notes that this special deal isn’t only for stock traders. However, the promo codes used to get deals on this delicious chicken are affected stock listings.
In a 15-second YouTube promo video, Popeyes hit the nail on the head, noting, “Tendies aren’t for the elite few. They’re for everyone.”
This new Popeyes deal won’t be around for long. Those who want to take advantage of it need to hit the store Monday and Tuesday after ordering through the Popeyes app or website. The promo codes for this spectacular deal include $GME, $BB, $AMC, and $NOK.
Taking a look at the fine print on the deal, consumers must click on the “Tendies” tile on the Popeyes app to activate the offer. They must then enter one of the four promotional codes above.
This Popeyes marketing campaign is simply a way for brands attempting to cash in on a once-in-a-lifetime cultural moment. As a well-coordinated move for the brand, this tiny marketing campaign was able to bring in some pretty major profits, though not the same profits as those who stripped billions of dollars from hedge funds this past week.
Of course, a look at the WallStreetBets subreddit shows that the same investors who coordinated the GameStop stock mania showed excitement towards the Popeyes promotion, posting a thread with the promotion information titled “Popeyes is with us!!!” The thread alone generated more than 150 comments.
In other news, Subway is set up to offer consumers discounts this week, though for a very different reason. Just days after a Subway lawsuit went public, a lawsuit claiming that the sandwich chain’s tuna salad did not contain any real fish whatsoever, the restaurant decided to offer a limited-time discount on its mysterious seafood sandwich.
Subway sent out a mass email with the message, “Our tuna salad is 100% tune mixed with mayo.” The same thing can be found on the Subway website, where the company is now offering a 15% discount on any tuna footlong online or in the app when the promo code ITSREAL is used.
While Subway did not list any end date for its promotion, the company did post a second 15% off discount for any of its footlong sub sandwiches (15OFF), which will be good through February 7.
