April 17, 2020
On March 20th, we launched our #StockTheFridge promotion as a response to the fallout from Covid-19. With grocery stores running low on basic necessities but filling up with people, we knew we needed to provide an affordable, safe alternative to getting some meal-time staples. We began selling our meats and cheeses for $5 a pound*, our Goodcents To Go meals for $5 each and our signature soft loaves of bread for $0.75 each.
This was not a profit-driving endeavor for us, in fact it was quite the opposite. We recognized a threat both to our guests in their ability to maintain food security as well as our franchisees in their ability to maintain business security as our lobbies began to close. The goal of this promotion was to provide some necessary products to our guests at a price that was fair to them and that could create enough cash flow to pay the bills and our valued employees working on the front line.
On April 5th, the Goodcents Foundation announced the #PayItForward program. This program gives guests the ability to purchase extra pounds of meat and cheese at checkout to then be delivered to local charities. We have partnered with 13 nonprofits in our varying trade areas, listed below, to assure local donations stay local. “We have received an overwhelmingly positive response, but one response we had not accounted for was the desire of our guests to purchase some of these goods for a neighbor in need. We were surprised but proud, and we felt the need to facilitate this goodwill to the best of our abilities.” said Stacy Glazer, Executive Director of the Goodcents Foundation.
This pandemic was not something any restaurateur was prepared for. Closing lobbies, procedural alterations, fluctuating availability of products, many new challenges reared their heads. But, we knew, no matter the challenge, if our local businesses supported our guests in an honest and affordable way, we would come out on the other side of this stronger. And thus far we have. We have experienced comp system sales that outperform the industry average by 2-3X. We even have restaurants posting positive comp sales! We are inexplicably grateful for our hardworking Goodcents crews knocking it out of the park by continuing to uphold our cleanliness and freshness standards and for our loyal Goodcents guests and their response, and we feel proud of what we have been able to accomplish thus far. We can’t wait to see what we can continue to do together in the future.
Our Partners:
City Union Mission
Operation Food Search
Tabitha Health
Salvation Army of Springfield
Let’s Help, Inc.
Open Door Mission
Kansas Food Bank
Open Door Service Center. INC
The Banquet
Marceline Coordinated Welfare Council
Flint Hills Breadbasket
Abundant Harvest Food Kitchen
Bixby Community Outreach Center
*Currently excludes Roast Beef