Instead of having customers donate a dollar and giving them a coupon book "worth" $30, why doesn't KFC just donate those $30 themselves (or even half)? ( kbin.earth )

SpaceNoodle , 7 months ago

The actual value of those coupons is far lower to them, since they aren't really losing the proportion of profits - and yes, it drives more business to them.

strawberry OP , 7 months ago

not losing profits? some of those coupons are half off, no way their profit margins are that high. but I'm sure that its outweighed by the extra foot traffic or something

xmunk , 7 months ago

The profit margins are that high - or its for an item that's likely going to encourage sales of a higher margin item.

undefined , 7 months ago

I was going to say this. Get a hold of the profit margins at your local national fast food chain restaurant and tell me again the products aren’t that high. 😂

FuglyDuck , 7 months ago

Basically, their goal is to get you in the store. the coupon usually only covers part of a meal that people typically buy, so you go in and you end up buying significantly more than you would have, covering the "loss".

Futher, they can then declare the loss as a charitable contribution or something.

Also, they get to take credit for that one dollar donation and inflate their corporate "We Don't Look Like Assholes" numbers.

bizarroland , 7 months ago

Yep. They get credit for your donation & they get a tax write-off for the coupons, and they get to sell more stuff so you'll get the "value" out of the coupons. It's a win win win for them and only a win for you if you were going to otherwise buy the exact same things the coupons covered.

FuglyDuck , 7 months ago

Oh yeah. they're totally assholes.

Same goes for those "would you like to round up for <insert relevant children's thing here>" programs. Fucking ghouls.

strawberry OP , 7 months ago

only reason I go for that is if I'm paying cash because I'm willing to pay that little bit extra to not have change in my pocket

damnthefilibuster , 7 months ago

The profit margin on Coca Cola for a store like KFC is basically 100%.

Also, do you use all of the coupons? If you do, you can end up spending 2-3x of the coupon value easily if you are careful not to buy anything else.

strawberry OP , 7 months ago

definetly true. I need to look at the next truck order, I'm curious what they're paying for this stuff. see what sorts of margins they've got.

strawberry OP , 7 months ago

hm actually profits on drinks aren't as good as I was expecting. if I'm seeing correctly, a 5 gallon box of Pepsi syrup costs $105

if I do my math correcy that comes to $3.5/gallon (1 part syrup, 5 parts water)

we sell that (best price) $8.38/gallon and worst price ~$20/gallon

so yeah actually for the medium drinks that's a crazy profit margin of what like 85%? add to that the fact that there's ice, so you're not actually getting the cup full, I wouldn't be surprised with a margin of like 95%

that's why I give those for free half the time lol

can't really find anything else, not sure how to read these charts

damnthefilibuster , 7 months ago

Someone explained a long time ago to me how it’s 95-99% profit due to exactly what numbers you described. It’s pretty messed up…

GorgeousDumpsterFire , 7 months ago

When I used to work fast food, my manager told me that the most expensive component of a soft drink is the ice. Syrup & (filtered) water are pennies, but ice requires electricity to maintain and it's a little more expensive than you'd think.

strawberry OP , 7 months ago

that's funny but I wouldn't be surprised

HK65 , 7 months ago

Their margins are very high on some items compared to the ingredients, their costs are more dominated by other factors like wages and the costs for the location.

strawberry OP , 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago)

duplicate comment