Wahaca’s Spoon Amnesty
Wahaca is a Mexican restaurant group based in the UK, with 18 branches spread throughout the country. However, how can a restaurant that offers something as common as Mexican-style food stand out from its competitors? Well, Wahaca has overcome this challenge in quite an unusual yet creative way. Only one word is needed: spoons.
Indeed, this Mexican restaurant has gained fame through its colorful cutlery, whose design has won over the hearts of its customers. In fact, most people love them so much they can’t help themselves and take some of the spoons home with them after dining at the restaurant. The movement has grown to quite an extreme degree, with no less than 5,000 spoons going missing every year. How was Wahaca going to solve this problem without damaging its image? On the one hand, they couldn’t simply tell their customers not to steal the spoons; they’d just keep doing it since it only takes a second to stow away such a small object inside a purse or a pocket. On the other hand, if they were to remove this feature from their restaurants, they would lose what made them popular and different in the first place.
That’s when Wahaca came up with an innovative concept: a yearly “spoon amnesty” month. Customers bring back the spoons they’ve stolen, and in exchange, Wahaca rewards them with free tacos. This way, the restaurant group kills two birds with one stone: they get some of their spoons back (about a few hundred every year), and most importantly, they get even more customers, because even though the tacos they hand out for the spoons are free, being in the restaurant will urge people to buy more food and drinks there. Moreover, getting some of the spoons back also means that they don’t need to make as many new ones, which is more sustainable for the environment since it will produce less waste. The drawback is that it might encourage people to steal even more spoons to get free food. In that case, however, the cutlery would find its way back to the restaurant anyway, in addition to all the other spoons that might never have been returned without the promise of free tacos.
The Wahaca Group have proven to be effective and creative problem solvers when it comes to the risks that come with attracting customers and, most importantly, keeping them in sustainable and profitable ways. Using cutlery that is themed after the restaurants’ design is an inventive way to stand out, be memorable, and gain customer loyalty.
