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Nestled in the Oak Park Arts District, Briejo is one of the village’s rising stars on the restaurant scene. With glowing reviews from restaurant critics both local and regional, its reputation is growing.
But owner Brigette Lytle worried about the restaurant’s image. With all the praise, she got the impression people were only coming to her restaurant on special occasions, and weren’t including it in conversations for a casual night out.
“We have all these great daily specials,” Lytle said. “You can wear your baseball hat. You can come in wearing shorts.”
But she thought her business could use an extra boost of casual traffic. So, she turned to Groupon, a website that offers substantial deals every day.
Originally focused just on downtown Chicago, Groupon has started expanding into the suburbs in recent months in an effort to expand its reach.
Briejo’s Groupon, which appeared on Aug. 2, offered buyers the chance to buy $40 worth of food for just $20. The deal caught on, and 1,022 people bought Briejo’s Groupon that day.
While the 50 percent discount has cut into Briejo’s profits on the meals, it’s been worth it for the increased traffic, Lytle said – and the potential to bring in repeat customers.
“It does make things a little bit tight, but we’re still serving the exact same things at the same price,” she said. “It’s worth it just for the amount of people who come through the door, or other people who saw it and then looked at the website.”
Marion Street Cheese Market owner Eric Larson agreed. His business had a wildly successful deal July 28 – also $20 for $40 of food – that sold 3,752 Groupons. In terms of marketing, it was a success.
“On a normal day, our website gets 300 to 400 hits. The day of the Groupon, we got almost 6,300,” Larsen said.
Financially, he’s not sure how it’ll turn out yet, though. When he was estimating the financial hit he’d take from the Groupon, he estimated he’d sell somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500. Having eclipsed that, the jury’s still out on how it’ll affect his bottom line, particularly after sending some of the revenue back to Groupon.
“It’s still almost too early to tell exactly from a financial standpoint,” Larsen said. “But I can tell you in terms of foot traffic, seeing people in our business, the level of energy in the business, and excitement by our customer base and even in our staff, all of that was very, very positive.”
The Book Table, YoGo Station and Unity Temple have all done Groupons as well, and the company is looking to do more in Oak Park.
“Oak Park will definitely be a big part of our expansion, because there are so many quality local businesses there, there’s a legit downtown area and businesses that aren’t all chains,” Groupon spokeswoman Julie Ann Mossler said. “Oak Park definitely boasts the kinds of businesses that people look to Groupon to introduce them to.”
But while Groupon’s strategy is expansion, some other sites offering daily deals are focusing on just the opposite – including Glee Day, a new site focusing its deals specifically on the Oak Park area.
By honing in on smaller markets, Glee Day owner David Langlands said businesses can benefit from a local, more loyal customer draw, creating repeat customers where Groupon patrons might simply make one trip and be done with it.
“Instead of doing business with the entire region, they’re coming from the neighborhood,” he said. “You get reintroduced to the local people who can come back regularly.”
