Come back soon for one of our $4.99 sandwich deals.

A national chain recently opened a deli unit in a sleepy little hamlet just outside of Chicago. Being the adventurous culinary types my wife and I ventured out to sample their fare. They had an extensive menu and an interesting cirrus atmosphere. We placed our order at the counter and wow, 2 sandwiches, 2 cups of soup and one drink $24.48.

My immediate thought was, “nice check average, how do you hope to survive.”

The order arrived and the food was good, no complaints however the check seemed high so I reviewed the receipt. The receipt was correct with the tagline “Come back soon for one of our $4.99 sandwich deals” at the bottom. Being the inquisitive type I reviewed the menu for the sandwich deal. No luck everything on the sandwich menu was 5.99 or higher. I thought maybe I was losing it. Maybe there was a sandwich board that I missed during my first pass through.

After completing our lunch we walked around the space taking a more in depth look at the sign boards and the operation in general. Clearly this was a chain with over thirty years of experience and they had already worked out a lot of the kinks. Still no $4.99 sandwich deal so I asked the greeter who was handing out menus where were the $4.99 sandwich deals? He looked at me with quizzical look in his eyes, (this is a side note, the greeter was terrible, the manager should not have had this individual greeting customers as they came in). He told me to go ask the takeout order person at the counter. As I approached the take out order counter which is separated from the regular seating area by a hanging sign board that I noticed the $4.99 sandwich deals on the hanging board visible only to the take out customers. Nice trick I thought.

I have two comments. One, the misdirection with the tagline at the bottom of the receipt was good because I could not believe lunch for two at a deli was $24.48. The misdirection clearly shifted my focus from thinking “this place is pretty pricey given the fare”, to thinking “oh I must have missed something if they have a $4.99 sandwich deal.” I went from being unhappy with them to being unhappy at myself for not noticing the hidden sandwich board. Two, if you’re going to have a $4.99 sandwich deal do not do so in stealth mode because that just leaves a bad taste with your customers.