Happy Friday: Score Freebies & Deals When New Restaurants & Stores Open
Sent from reader, Jamie:
I’ve read a number of books and I am a member of a number of couponing and frugal living websites and blogs. One suggestion I don’t think I’ve seen before, in any book or website, is to watch out for new stores and restaurants that are opening up. In the last year, I have had two free dinners, free coffee drinks and smoothies for my family, and as my photo above shows, I have a coupon book for a free coffee each week for a year.
It seems that usually a day or two before grand opening, restaurants have a trial run to work out the glitches, and they invite volunteers to come so they can practice. I found out about some of these in our local newspaper, but the best resource is to watch their Facebook page or you could also contact the manager or owner and ask. It’s also great to be one of the first customers in the door on grand opening day, there’s usually something special for you! Hope this helps other people!
HAPPY FRIDAY! 😀
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When GFS opened a new store by me, they had a bunch of free food all week. The last day was a Sampling Event. I thought it would just be small but they actually had this HUGE tent in the parking lot with tables full of food and servers to pass it out. My kids were off school that day so we went and got a free lunch! It was so much fun!
Panera did that a few years back when they opened. It was awesome!
Along the same lines, go to grocery store openings. We had a Smith’s Marketplace open up last month. I went the day it opened and came home with over $15 worth of free groceries and many high value coupons.
This is absolutely correct! There was a Red Mango opening in my neighborhood a few years ago, and my daughter and I got cool red Red Mango tee shirts, free frozen yogurt, and coupons for another free frozen yogurt. Modell’s (a sporting goods store) also opened nearby, and we got $25 gift cards. My daughter also won a contest at a local Cold Stone Creamery for free ice cream for a year (which was 2 coupons/month for free ice cream). I love grand openings!!
Chipotle did this when they opened by us. We found out about it by accident. It was was awesome!
The morning of the grand opening of my Old Chicago Pizza, the first 100 people in line received a free pizza a month- up to $25 each time!
Chick fil a does this too, something like. Free sandwiches for a year for the first 100 customers.
I saw on GMA where people had camped out overnight in freezing weather just for the opening of a new chick fil a to get the free chick fil a for a year…!
It usually gets crazy like Black Friday. I happened to go to the mall when H&M opened. Barely de the line and got a gift bag and gift card but some were there since 6 am. Open was at midday. Kind of crazy.
Sweetaly Gelato in Salt Lake City is having a grand opening on Valentine’s Day and giving away free gelato! 465 east 3300 south (the owner just moved her from Italy and the gelato is amazing!)
I went to a Grand opening for Dollar General. They gave out $10 gift cards(gift bag) to the first 50 people.It was awesome!!!!
Yes is awesome, or watch for flyers at home recently there was a sub place open and received a flyer with any free sub. Also some other store Cal ranch or something like that also send it in the mail free $10.
Noodles and co is awesome for this … You sign up online when a location opens and they have X spots per hour or half our or whatever so it isn’t super overcrowded!
Thank you for mentioning that, Jessie! We’re getting one of those soon 🙂
This past summer a Menchie’s frozen yogurt shop opened within walking distance of our place. For their grand opening they gave out free frozen yogurt everyday, gave away free t-shirts, dodge balls, stuffed animals, had face painting and games. I walked the kids there everyday that week and they had a blast!
I was extremely lucky to have caught La Madeleine’s “sneak peak” invitation & reserved a spot to try bkfst or dinner for free. They did bkfst lunch & early dinner for 3 days b4 the restaurant opened. All i had to do was pick a time & show up. they accepted donations (canned food or cash) for local charity, but other than optional donation, everything was 100% free. I was expecting tables set up with foods & desserts to sample, but BOY was it so much more than that! Basically u could order any meal u want, any pastry or dessert, free soda/juice/even free lattes or whatever u want! Even though it was preselected menus & some things werent on those menus, they would still make whatever u asked for. There was no wait, no line, etc. & best of all – NO BILL! It was so laid back that they didnt even check peoples reservations, so we were free to come back as often as we pleased, up to 3x/day, for those 3 days. I’m sure that would be different if there was a much bigger turnout. THEN on the grand opening day, the 1st 50 customers got free loaves of bread for 1 year (it is a punch card for 52 loaves) & they have AWESOME bread baked fresh daily. Grand opening was on a thurs at 6am & since there wasnt an enormous turnout for the sneak preview thing, i figured my recently unemployed butt should definitely at least try. So glad I did…I showed up around 5:40 & was 35th in line! Whoo hoo…might be broke as a joke but i will have bread for sure! The next houston area la madeleine location cant come soon enough! =)
Someone posted on Facebook that Chik-fil-a is giving 12 oz hot or cold coffee away every day in February.
Oh I left out no purchase necessary.