THERE IS SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH.

Yesterday on my way to the gym that offered me a free membership for the unemployed, clutching the gossip magazine I’d bought with the $3.29 balance I’d discovered after checking all the gift cards around my apartment, I decided to see if there is a such a thing as a truly free lunch.  I’d read the posting about the Snapple promotion on the 405 Club website, and am frugal enough now that I’m not daunted by getting lunch at 10:30am if the price is right.

The advertisement described a free slice and Snapple for the first 500 customers beginning at 10:30am at Spinelli’s on West 33rd, and I arrived only a few minutes after the kickoff.  There were about five people in front of me. I was quickly ushered in, handed a free white tee-shirt (available in large or x-large) and a coupon for lunch.  I was given a choice of two types of pizza and several different flavors of Snapple, and everyone was receiving two slices rather than one. This is an added benefit for most men and hearty eating gals like me. There were several reps from the beverage company around and a number of photographers which created a festive atmosphere.  When I asked I was told that even on this rainy day there had been a bit of a line before the promotion began, but most of the traffic appeared to be from people who were listening to the hawking from the front of the restaurant rather than folks who’d heard about it on this site or through the morning’s radio or television coverage. Very few people, it seemed, were making a special trip for a free lunch, and the crowd was an ecletic mix of office workers, students, construction types, and some overwhelmed looking tourists.

I’m probably not alone in noting the proliferation of gourmet pizza restaurants opening these days in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and wondering whether it’s the cheapness factor, or the recessionary need of consumers for carb-filled comfort food that’s driving it.  When was the last time you saw an advertisement for a new steakhouse?  I asked Jason, a Snapple spokesperson at the event, if the pizza promotion was tied to the economy and the growing attractiveness of pizza for the unemployed and cost conscious.  He shrugged off any altruistic intent in offering the free lunch and said it was all about the Snapple.  “It’s a great new product,” he offered.  “We’ve changed the formula, are now using real sugar, and have changed the graphics on the bottle.  We want to get it out to New Yorkers, and are going to be giving out 150,000 bottles of Snapple all over New York.”

By 10:50am when I left the line had picked up, and it looked like there would be slim pickings for those who waited until a normal lunchtime of 12:00pm or later.  It was still too early for me to eat lunch, so I headed up 7th Avenue hoping to work up an appetite through a walk to the gym.  The pizza, when I finally was ready to eat it, was thicker and cheesier than the type I normally choose, but two slices filled me up completely.  I remembered one of my father’s terrible old jokes. “Pizza is like sex.  Even when it’s bad it’s good, and when it’s good it’s terrific.” The total price for the two slices and Snapple would have been $7.25, just above the minimum wage for an hour for New York. Perhaps this was my hour of work for the day, but I’d just been paid in dough?

The Snapple promotion runs throughout the week.  Pizza quality will of course vary from location to location, but I’ve been assured that there’s a comfy free tee-shirt at every venue.
-By Janet Raiffa, Contributing Writer & Recruiting Manager