The Urge to Surge: What Surge Pricing Could Mean For Your Restaurant

In the “ good old days,” we tried to drive additional sales outside of our peak core dining periods with promotions. This includes staples like Happy Hour or Early Bird Specials. In many cases, these promotions helped to bring additional revenue to static periods of the day, but the methods were primitive and fixed. In the age of technology and digital marketing, there has to be a more efficient and responsive electronic solution that is not only effective, but is measurable.

In the age of “disruptive technology” we have seen many of the old standard practices completely upended and transformed into new ways of doing business. The list is long and includes the business models of Uber, Amazon, phone-based payment platforms, restaurant reservation platforms and small business “fintech” lenders. It seems endless.

I am not a frequent Uber rider, but during rainy days in New York City I learned about their practice of surge pricing. It was a bit of a shock to see that you would…