Saga and Zagat

[Pan]

I walked past a Thai restaurant on Lexington Av. just south of 39 St. called Saga tonight. Next to the glass-covered display of their menu on their outside wall was another display entitled "Saga and Zagat" (or vice versa) that said something like this (I may be paraphrasing, because I didn't have a pen with me, but I stand behind the content 100%):

"Do you want $20 off your next meal at Saga? All you have to do is vote for Saga on www.zagat.com. The proof of your vote is a printout [etc.]."

Do any of you know other restaurants that have so publicly bribed customers to vote for them on Zagat.com? Has it worked for them? And would you ever voluntarily go to a restaurant that publicly offered such a bribe? I wouldn't, and I think it's slimy, but it does point out a weakness of survey-driven rating systems.

[Fat Guy]

I don't know enough about this area of the law to say anything definitive, but the conduct as you've described it certainly strikes me as arguably fraudulent. You might want to notify the Zagat organization about it -- I'm sure they have lawyers who attend to this sort of thing. Then again, a few years back when Cosi was displaying inaccurate Zagat information at its World Financial Center store, I notified Zagat and nobody replied or, as far as I know, did anything.

[phaelon56]

"Do you want $20 off your next meal at Saga? All you have to do is vote for Saga on www.zagat.com. The proof of your vote is a printout [etc.]."

And do they still give you the $20 off if you give them a crappy review? Granted, that would imply that returning for another meal was not desirable but still...

[docsconz]

It's an interesting concept - sort of like getting people to register to vote in an election. Presumably the people who would do it are people who like the restaurant anyway, since as Owen said, people who didn't like it would probably not do it to get the discount. On the other hand, those people might do it out of irritation of the brashness of the promotion. I would feel much worse about it if they just gave anyone $20 cash to vote.

[joiei]

Is a meal at Saga worth getting $20 knocked off the bill?

[tommy]

a very decent and now defunct thai restaurant in chinatown NY used to try to get people to vote for them. they had the survery form in an evelope on the tables, and more than once the owner asked me to please send it in, as she knew i liked the restaurant and knew that zagat had been ignoring them, for whatever reason.

they didn't offer a discount, but then again they're not in business any longer.

[Pan]

It's an interesting concept - sort of like getting people to register to vote in an election.

Not really. Those who try to get people to register will never require them to show their voter cards for some kind of payment. That would be illegal throughout the U.S., I believe.

Presumably the people who would do it are people who like the restaurant anyway, since as Owen said, people who didn't like it would probably not do it to get the discount.

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Considering that it's prominently displayed outside the restaurant, they are at least attempting to get new customers with the offer. Whether they have been successful in attracting new customers, I don't know.

[docsconz]

Not really. Those who try to get people to register will never require them to show their voter cards for some kind of payment. That would be illegal throughout the U.S., I believe.

That is why I said "sort of like". Michael, it is obviously not the same thing. My point which was not clear enough was that people who try to get people to register to vote generally have an interest in the votes those new voters will cast, preferably for a desired candidate or outcome. The direct financial reward incentive is the difference. In the poliical vote process it is generally done with an appeal to the voter's self-interest, a much more indirect reward.

Considering that it's prominently displayed outside the restaurant, they are at least attempting to get new customers with the offer. Whether they have been successful in attracting new customers, I don't know.

←

It wouldn't appeal to me. The question is could you vote on the place before actually eating there in order to get the discount in order to try it. I wouldn't be surprised if that has been done. That IMO, is truly fraudulent and the possibility of that happening is enough to make the practice deplorable.

[menton1]

Just another point on the long list of smarminess associated with Zagat... None of the mainstream press seem to care about this-- Zagat is on their side of "The Thin Blue Line". About the only place Zagat gets a negative word is here on Egullet.

Tim & Nina just keep getting their free meals at all their restaurant friends, as they get more and more corpulent...

From "Zagat Rated" , even though they got a miserable rating, to not being listed at all, to not having their survey results audited, to mysteriously eliminating from the book established restaurants, Zagat takes the cake (!) for sliminess and disreputable conduct, and they just keep racking up the sales.

[oakapple]

Just another point on the long list of smarminess associated with Zagat...  None of the mainstream press seem to care about this-- Zagat is on their side of "The Thin Blue Line".  About the only place Zagat gets a negative word is here on Egullet.

Maybe the mainstream press aren't on this issue because it's a non-issue. eGullet has company, however. Many of the Chowhounds say the same thing.

From "Zagat Rated," even though they got a miserable rating, to not being listed at all, to not having their survey results audited, to mysteriously eliminating from the book established restaurants, Zagat takes the cake (!) for sliminess and disreputable conduct, and they just keep racking up the sales.

←

I'd like to know which 'established' restaurants were 'mysteriously' eliminated. Generally when you look up any prominent restaurant in Zagat, it's there. I can't imagine that all of them did so by bribery. If so, you'd expect a lot of ridiculous omissions, as well as neighborhood noodle shops being rated as highly as Gramercy Tavern, and so forth. That just isn't the case. The last Zagat survey had about 1,500 restaurants rated. Even the "corpulent" Tim and Nina couldn't have collected bribes from all of them.

As for Zagat being audited....I'm in favor of that, as long as the Times also allows an independent audit of Frank Bruni. Why should the demand for an audit apply to just one publication? Did anyone ever audit Seymour Britchky?

Edited September 13, 2004 by oakapple (log)

[menton1]

It's interesting-- everytime we do a thread critical of Zagat, we get the incredulous folks who just can't get themselves to believe that Zagat is anything but a Bible...

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