DINER OFFERS 1964 PRICES (WHEN PAID IN SILVER COINS)

Late’s diner on S. Ninth Street is giving people a reason to break open their piggy banks and empty out their pockets for loose change.

Late’s Burgers — known for their deep-fried cheese curds and burgers — is offering customers 1964 pricing if they come in and pay with coins minted before 1965.

Why?

Restaurant owner Karl Birkenstock said the answer to that is simple. The idea originally crossed Birkenstock’s mind because of the increased conversation about how goods have become more expensive.

“I decided to illustrate that by taking all of our prices and applying what the cost of it would be if you were paying in the currency of the ‘olden days,’ being 1964 or before, with silver coins,” Birkenstock said.

What started out as an idea to show people that the price of food is rising with inflation like other goods, like gas, ended up being a good marketing strategy that’s gotten national attention, he said.

“It has worked as a marketing tool,” he said. “We’ve received national attention ... we’ve received other news photos. So it’s been effective like that and I didn’t expect that as being one of the benefits.”

When the deal started, people talked about it so much that it drove the point home.

“I really didn’t expect that we were going to have a whole lot of people do it, but now, people are actually using it and I welcome it,” Birkenstock said.

When Birkenstock converted a menu to show 1964 pricing, there were some pretty radical changes. For instance, hamburgers were 12 cents and 100 pieces of chicken could be bought for $4.55.

“I think that went a long way to demonstrate to customers that it isn’t our prices, but it is actually the currency has depreciated.”

To read the complete article, see: Late's diner offers 1964 prices to customers paying with silver coins (www.htrnews.com/article/20130814/MAN0101/308150187/Late-s-diner-offers-1964-prices-customers-paying-silver-coins)

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