Buy Your Friend a Drink
31
July
A few people have mentioned this site to me over the past couple weeks.
What are your opinions of BuyYourFriendaDrink.com? Do you think this is a “cool” idea? Or is this just another useless promotional mechanism?
For starters, there’s only about six Hoboken bars/restaurants currently enrolled in the plan (I’m sure a few more will sign up), but how many people do you think will sign up? Frankly, I would think “buying my friend a drink” would typically involve “hanging out” with them. I mean, what’s next? “Hang out out with your friend” via the web? How about “spend quality time with your significant other” via the web too? Will we ever have to leave the house again? Why must I honestly send them monetary compensation for a drink? And why just at a few select bars? And what kind of “friend” is it when you barely spend time with them? To the point where I can’t even hang out for an hour at a bar? Why be friends with them at all?
As much as this may seem like a “cool” idea, it’s very limited, and forces you to use a particular member of the network. I’d rather my friend send me a towel filled with delicious spicy chicken salad, than forcing me to drink at a bar I may not want to go to. What kind of friend is that? And I saw some quotes from the site, where people bought drinks for friends from out of town.. hmmm.. I guess I won’t be flying to San Fransisco anytime soon, so let me send 10 bucks to my annoying friend to shut him/her up!
Again, it’s an ambitious idea (maybe for insincere business contacts), but how impersonal can you get? I guess I should start the “Virtual Pat on the Back” where some massive steroid-injected goomba will come slap the internal organs out of your esophagus when you do something good (like get a promotion, or bang that hot administrative assistant in your office, etc.).
Opinions?
July 31st 2007 - 11:33:55 |
my friend and i actually had this same idea a year or so ago(not trying at all to steal this guys thunder). we bought the domain name and started selling this service to bars in nyc and hoboken (www.ebeerz.com). I think that this is not as much a reoccuring purchase for friends to buy each other beers over the internet, more so to buy a friend a drink for a special occasion if you are not able to be there physically (whether it be a promotion at work, a birthday,engagement, etc..) The hardest thing we found was creating a system to make these “coupons”,which are reedemable at participating bars, secure enough where they can’t be duplicated and used multiple times. When we created our business plan we had some issues figuring out what we needed to do to make these coupons secure enough (obviously just prinint them out and bringing them into a bar would not work at all)..nevertheless, i think its a great idea and i wish them the best of luck.
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July 31st 2007 - 12:04:12 |
Here’s a riddle:
If you buy a friend a drink and neither your friend nor anyone else is there, does the drink make a sound when you covertly chug it?
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July 31st 2007 - 15:30:20 |
gut reaction (so far) is that i tend to agree with the sentiments of hoboken411… this is lame. this may appear innocuous, but it perpetuates our current materialistic, isolationist society. think of how neurotic people are these days – the sense of self-importance they create – having to be “reachable” 24/7 via cell phones and crackberries. it’s perverse. this plays into why hoboken is an awful place to meet people. everyone is too busy and suspicious. really sad when you think that it could be much much better.
take time out of your “busy” life and hang out with your SO-CALLED friend for godsakes!
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July 31st 2007 - 15:53:56 |
Why not just do what they have at DC’s….a chalk board behind the bar that you can leave a friend a drink….technology is NOT always the answer!!!!!
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August 9th 2007 - 13:39:48 |
Good point MF, I’d like to buy you a drink for that comment. Now if I can just figure out a way to do that without having to actually meet you in person….
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