As you may be aware, there is a new discount country wide that starts today.
BBC GoodFood.
The government announced that on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, you can get a discount when eating out up to £10 a head, as meals where you dine in are reduced in price by 50%. The restaurants can claim this lost money back through the government, meaning these businesses will have no hesitation when signing up.
You can check which local businesses are signed up by going on the government website and typing in your post code. You’ll see the likes of Mcdonalds, Nandos, and Pret on there, which I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear.
But this isn’t the reason for this article. The reason for this article is to inform you of a potential “loophole” that could be used to take your food from inside, to outside.
This Morning, the breakfast TV show on ITV every morning, covered this recently. The general idea is that you can go into a store like KFC or Mcdonalds, and just take the food outside – because who’s going to stop you?
The food is already packaged as if you’re taking it away, and you could easily just ask for a bag at the desk.
They mentioned that this is no way enforceable by police and that there are technically no rules against it!
People have said this is bound to happen, with This Morning’s Alice Beer said today she expects customers to take advantage of “loopholes”.
Speaking from a KFC branch in Swindon, she said: “If you park the car and go inside and say “yes I am going to have my takeaway here” and you sit down and as soon as their backs are turned, hoof it back to your car, they’re not going to come running after you.
“How can they? They can’t manage this, they can’t police this, so of course, there are loopholes which I am sure customers will find.”
As useful this information is, we must remember the real reason for this scheme. Loopholes like this will most definitely benefit the likes of KFC and Mcdonalds, but they aren’t the ones struggling. This scheme was supposed to help local small businesses get back on their feet and get people back inside their restaurants.
So, my advice is to keep the loophole in mind, but there’s only so much KFC and Mcdonalds you can have before you get sick of it. You can have that any time – the branches are all around the country – so go and make the most of the cheap, tasty food at your local restaurants whilst you still can, and support your local small business’.
