Sunday, August 2, 2009

We're on a Mission From...Ourselves

Previously, I'd discussed this promotion that a Denny's in Euless, TX was doing. The promotion said that if you came in with your church bulletin, you would get 10% off your meal, and the restaurant would donate the same amount to the church named in the bulletin.

When I told Jenny about this promotion, she was completely behind the idea of taking a bulletin from the North Texas Church of Freethought, and seeing if we could get the discount and the donation. So we decided we would go to the next available monthly service, which was held this morning.

Jenny had never been to one of their services. I'd been once before, and it was all right. I came in expecting not to be offended, but not to be wowed, either. Fortunately, I had a much better time at this one than at the previous one. The theme for this service was "Good and Evil," and one of the musical selections was the theme from Underdog! How cool is that? Definitely beats "The Old Rugged Cross" in my book!

Perhaps next time we'll join them at the usual after-services location for lunch, but today we had a mission to accomplish. I looked at the bulletin, and it had the required information for the promotion, which was the full name of the organization and its mailing address. Off we went!

We walked into the restaurant and didn't see any signs advertising the promotion, so they might be trying to phase it out. We did see a woman sitting at a booth with her hair in curlers, though. That was pretty funny.

When we got to our table, we asked our server about the promotion, and after asking the manager, she told us that the deal was still good. Sure enough, when it came time to pay, they did honor the deal. Although the manager who rang us up did do a bit of a double take when she saw the bulletin, which featured, among other things, the subtitle, "A Rational Approach to Religion," and a large boldfaced headline about how God is not necessary to have morality. So if NTCOF gets a check from Denny's for somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.50, um, you're welcome.

Who wants to bet the promotion ends not too long after the owners realize they're donating to a secular organization?

7 comments:

  1. Hey, thanks for doing that! I was sure hoping someone from the Euless area would put them to the test.

    As treasurer for NTCOF, I will be the one who receives the check in my mailbox. I'll be sure to post here when/if we get it.

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  2. Actually, I think that the promotion was more about attracting the "after church" crowd than anything else.

    I doubt that they would care if they attracted Catholics, Pentecostals or Unitarians. :)

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  3. Sure. What will happen when a Wiccan brings in some literature?

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  4. @blueollie, you're probably right. That was the first time I'd eaten at a Denny's in months, and probably the last time I'll do so for several more months.

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  5. Thanks for doing this! If you hear Denny's starts to do this Texas wide let me know so I can hit the local Denny's. I did hear Chik-Fil-A was doing this and took an Ethical Society of Austin leaflet once to get the discount but haven't ever gone back. TXatheist at md457@hotmail.com

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  6. I need to point out that many of the workers and the manager at the Denny's in Euless are Muslim. That is per Jeff's comments when he wrote the story.

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  7. @Geek Goddess (love that name!), I remember reading that, too--I did read the original story on the JREF site. But they must have all had that particular day off, though, as I didn't see any when I was there, at least not with any identifying features (headscarves, etc.).

    On a more general note, I'd like to reiterate that I'm well aware that it's more likely this is an attempt to get a slice of the post-church lunch business than it is any sort of right-wing conspiracy or whatever. At any rate, I don't think they imagined themselves donating to a freethought church when they created this promotion. ;)

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