Just to give another contrarian point of view, it's not just losing the 4 tables worth of free time. There's a strong likelihood that as soon as this thing starts, most of the tables already going will stop to watch. Taking total guesses at how many tables he might have, and the general interest of his regulars, he might lose 12 tables worth of time for 4 hours or more. That might be $500 in time (another guess). You'd have to sell $500 more in drinks and food than you normally would during that time just to break even.
Not saying I agree with him - if the business has been good to him, he should give back by offering something like this. But if business is bad, it's tough to ask a guy to lose even more money. As others have said, there might be creative ways he could recoup some of it by offering specials, etc, but it's not for you to decide how much extra work in marketing this guy should put in.
I'm also not convinced at all that these types of exhibitions do anything to increase business in the coming months or even days. The regulars will be there anyway, and regulars from other rooms just go back to their other rooms.
It's a nice thing to do, and shame on the owner if he's making a nice living and wouldn't give back to his customers by doing this. But if that's not the case, I would've done the same thing (though much more politely than he did!).
- Steve
Not saying I agree with him - if the business has been good to him, he should give back by offering something like this. But if business is bad, it's tough to ask a guy to lose even more money. As others have said, there might be creative ways he could recoup some of it by offering specials, etc, but it's not for you to decide how much extra work in marketing this guy should put in.
I'm also not convinced at all that these types of exhibitions do anything to increase business in the coming months or even days. The regulars will be there anyway, and regulars from other rooms just go back to their other rooms.
It's a nice thing to do, and shame on the owner if he's making a nice living and wouldn't give back to his customers by doing this. But if that's not the case, I would've done the same thing (though much more politely than he did!).
- Steve