The two chain restaurants my wife and I like best are Chili’s and Macaroni Grill. All the meals we’ve eaten at both places were bursting with excellent flavors. We’ll go back to both.
But we had an experience at Chili’s recently that marred our fond feelings–this is the place we went back to several times on our honeymoon, for crying out loud!
My brother gave us several $10-dollar gift cards that we could redeem at Chili’s, Macaroni Grill, On the Border, Corner Baker Cafe, Maggiano’s Little Italy or Big Bowl. We used all but one of them immediately, then forgot about the last one until one recent evening. My wife remembered it, and I found it buried in my wallet. There was some fine print on the back indicating that if we didn’t use the card for twelve consecutive months, they’d start knocking two dollars a month off its value. Sure enough, when our waitress checked it, the card wasn’t worth the plastic it was printed on. It didn’t take long for our $10 to vanish, with us unaware.
So, a word of warning. A lot of businesses are making significant profits off their gift cards; that’s why you see them at so many check-out counters. But the businesses aren’t content with that. They get a no-interest loan every time we buy one, until it’s redeemed. They’re not content with that either. They seem to prefer that we’d buy their cards then never ask for anything in return.
So beware Chili’s and the other businesses covered with their gift cards, Macaroni Grill, On the Border, Corner Baker Cafe, Maggiano’s Little Italy and Big Bowl. We’ll add other businesses like these to our list as we hear about them. We’ll start that list with the King’s Soopers grocery chain.