Hong Kong · Lunch retail
A Hong Kong lunch offer I’d take seriously: ready at 12:35
By Prof. Alessandro Buffoli, PhD
Before taking HK$10 off the price, work out whether the kitchen can keep a collection promise.
A HK$68 lunch can still be a bad purchase if I spend half my break waiting for it. The menu gives me a price. It rarely gives me enough information to plan the rest of lunch.
For a shop selling to office workers in Hong Kong, I would test a specific offer: order from a short menu and collect between 12:30 and 12:35. Limit the number of orders in that window. Put the collection time beside the price.
The limit is essential. A five-minute window becomes meaningless if the kitchen accepts every order that arrives. Start with the dishes it can prepare reliably, then decide how many orders the team can handle. Marketing has to work within that capacity.
Collection needs its own arrangement too. Someone who has ordered ahead should know where to stand and whether the food is ready. Sending them into the ordering queue to ask defeats much of the point.
The discount has a cost
Consider a hypothetical HK$68 meal with HK$28 in variable cost. Each sale contributes HK$40 towards fixed costs and profit. Take HK$10 off the price and that contribution falls to HK$30.
Forty full-price meals contribute HK$1,600. At the discounted price, the shop needs 54 whole meals to exceed the same amount, assuming the variable cost stays unchanged. That is roughly a third more meals during a service that may already be busy.
I would want to know why customers are leaving before recommending that discount. If the problem is unpredictable waiting, more orders arriving together could make it worse. The kitchen does more work while earning less per meal.
A collection-time trial gives the shop something concrete to measure: orders ready within the promised window, minutes customers actually wait, repeat purchases, and contribution per service. Count missed promises even when the food is only a few minutes late. The customer chose a particular window for a reason.
This offer is aimed at the weekday office lunch. A restaurant selling a long meal with friends needs a different proposition. For the lunch shop, I’d first find out whether customers will pay the normal price for a dependable collection time.
Run the trial at full price. If people return, the shop has evidence that the convenience is worth paying for—and it has kept the HK$10.
Prof. Alessandro Buffoli, PhD
Assistant Professor of Marketing at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.