Last January, Pizza Patr�n, a southwest pizza restaurant chain with 59 stores started taking Mexican Pesos as payment for Pizzas as well as USD. Needless to say, there was a big hue and cry over this with all sorts of letters and death threats being sent in to the company headquarters.
Turns out it was a very savvy business move -- Reuters has the story:
Pizza for pesos marks decline of dollarAfter all, that is what doing business in America is all about. Take a risk, see if you can fill a niche and then make money. As we are only a few miles from the Canadian border and about fifteen miles from a major border crossing, we get a lot of Canadian tourists. A few months ago, our store started accepting Canadian money at par (equal value) as the USD and the $CDN was so close in value. Business has shot up in terms of Canadian dollar intake. People are happy, they are buying more stuff... Because the Canadian dollar is trading at about 0.8 USD, this costs us a hundred bucks or so each week but the increase in business is worth every penny.
When Pizza Patr�n announced plans to accept Mexican pesos in its 59 Southwestern stores, the Dallas-based fast food chain was besieged by anti-illegal immigrant hate mail and even death threats.
But rather than fear for its life, the company used the Mexican currency to make a killing.
"From the new business perspective, it has been phenomenally successful," said Andrew Gamm, director of brand development for Pizza Patr�n.
Once it started selling pizza for pesos in January, the company's same-store-sales rose by almost a third from the previous year. Pizza Patr�n has now opened six new stores, with plans for 15 more throughout Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, California and Florida by the end of the year, and 40 more in 2008.
