Steers gets a flame-grilling

Steers had said on Tuesday that it would slash the price of its rib burger from R25.90 to just R10 to boost its already popular "Wacky Wednesday" special.

Describing "Wacky Wednesday" as "one of the best deals we've had in Steers' history", the fast-food franchise promised, in its latest advertisement, that for "round two we're taking things a little closer to the edge. Dangerously close".

As it turned out, never a truer word was spoken in jest. Such was the demand from customers that long queues formed outside Steers outlets from the early morning, snaking around corners in some instances.

Some patrons even covered themselves with blankets to keep out the winter's chill while they waited for their promised meals.

Burgers began flying out of Steers outlets like, well, hot cakes - so much so, that the chain apparently ran out of stock nationwide before midday.

Angry patrons used social media sites Facebook and Twitter to slam the campaign as tasteless - among other things.

The Steers special followed one by seafood chain Ocean Basket, which offered a R9.99 fish and chips deal for its 15th birthday in 2010.

But Ocean Basket had limited its fish and chips deal to one per customer and cleverly kept it to sit-down only.

Wimpy also ran a free breakfast campaign in January, during which customers visiting any of its outlets between 7am and 8am on the 19th could get bacon, two eggs, a slice of tomato, a slice of toast and a portion of chips free. It also allowed only one serving per customer - and also only if they sat down.

Steers yesterday failed to heed those lessons and allowed companies and customers to make bulk orders. As a result, Steers outlets were overrun. Some stores had to close as early as 4pm yesterday, after not only running out of rib burgers, but of their entire stocks.

Judging by the angry responses, Steers' loss was McDonald's gain - and Kauai's and KFC's.

If Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi was in any doubt about how big a task he faces in trying to restrict fatty acids and salt content in food (as he said in February) the queues yesterday would surely have given him sleepless nights.

Steers posted a statement on its Facebook page saying some stores had sold more than 500 burgers before 9am, and it had decided to stop the deal - further upsetting customers.

Their late-morning statement read: "We never intended to mislead anyone - and we have had to face serious lessons this morning!"

Stores began giving customers the option of taking the R19.99 beef rave burger for R10 instead - but it was too late.

Val Bourdos, managing executive at Steers, told The Times a formal notice would be sent to all franchisees to apologise to employees after a "tough day in production and a tough time dealing with upset customers".

She admitted the brand's image had taken a knock in underestimating customer response.

Source: The Times