Guess how much a parking space at the Jack in the Box restaurant across the street from Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas will cost you on Super Bowl® Sunday?
Here’s a hint – the amount could also buy you 248 Jumbo Jack hamburgers, 496 tacos, 4960 oz. of your choice of soda, AND about 8680 French fries.
Give up? Your grand total comes out to $990.
On the surface, this limited-time offer is the law of supply and demand in action. To leverage your prime piece of real estate during the biggest event on the American sports calendar? Even a sarcastic fast-food mascot with a big white head made out of plastic can figure that out! But delve into the Jack in the Box background and the plot thickens like one of their signature ice cream shakes.
As it turns out, parking spaces hardly play a part in the Jack in the Box story. In fact, parking spaces almost go against their mission. Under its Corporate Profile, Jack in the Box boasts that “as the first major hamburger chain to develop and expand the concept of drive-thru dining, Jack in the Box has always emphasized on-the-go convenience, with approximately 85 percent of the half-billion guests served annually buying food at the drive-thru or for take-out.”
Now this $990 parking fee on Super Bowl Sunday was most likely not an idea devised on a level as deep as their fryers but Jack in the Box is in effect offering up a deal that is completely congruent with their story. At this Dallas location on the day of the Super Bowl, Jack in the Box's pride of production performance - the drive-thru dining and on-the-go convenience - will be as important to its business as it is on any given Sunday. Jack might even enjoy the chance to test its bragging over to-go bagging in ensuring appeasing appetites will not be affected by accruing off asphalt.
So yes, the moral of this blog might be a little more twisted than an order of seasoned curly fries but it’s important to remember that rare opportunities to make unexpected revenue will arise from time to time throughout the life of our businesses. If we can take advantage of them in a manner that maintains our mission and does not inconvenience our clientele, we have nothing to lose. Unless, of course your team gets slaughtered right before your eyes in Cowboys Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday - then a $990 additional parking fee is going to hurt more than a hit by [choose - POLAMALU OR MATTHEWS - depending on your pigskin loyalties…].
Kristen Zatina is a writing specialist at entreQuest who scours worldwide business news for corporate inspiration.
