Sandwich shops & delis
Loyalty program for sandwich shops and delis
Weekday lunch is the most habitual purchase in food. The same people, the same twenty minutes, the same three or four options they rotate between. A loyalty card in a sandwich shop is not trying to create a habit — it is trying to win a slot in one that already exists.
Five days a week, not seven
A lunch card completes fast. That is good for engagement and expensive if the reward is too generous.
Speed is the whole game
A lunchtime queue is unforgiving. One scan while the order is made, not a form at the till.
The August problem
Office trade collapses in holidays. A card tells you who came back in September and who did not.
Pre-order and collection
Regulars who order ahead are your best customers. A card makes ordering direct worth something.
Do the arithmetic on frequency first
A lunch customer might buy four times a week. On a ten-stamp card that is a free lunch every two and a half weeks, which is a discount somewhere near ten percent on your highest-frequency customers — the ones you least need to discount. Sandwich shops that copy the coffee card without redoing the sums are the ones who quietly withdraw it six months later. Either lengthen the card or make the reward something with better margin than a full lunch.
Speed at the counter is not optional
You have a queue of people with twenty-five minutes and no patience. Anything that adds real time to a transaction will be dropped by your own staff within a fortnight, whatever you told them at the briefing. That is why enrolment is a QR code with no app and no account, and why stamping is a single scan. If it takes longer than making the sandwich, it will not happen at noon.
Holidays, and knowing who came back
Office-district trade falls off a cliff in August and at Christmas, and every owner assumes their regulars return. Some do not — they changed jobs, or found somewhere else near the new office. With a customer list you can see exactly who was a fixture in July and absent all September, which is the difference between a seasonal dip and quiet churn you never noticed.
Rewarding the pre-order
The customers who message their order ahead are worth more than walk-ins: they smooth your peak, they are predictable, and they are already committed. A card gives you something to give them for it. It is also the simplest defence against a delivery platform taking that habit off you, because the reward only exists when they come direct.
Common questions
- How many stamps for a lunch card?
- Ten is often too few here because frequency is so high. Twelve or fifteen with a good reward, or ten where the reward is a coffee or a side rather than a whole lunch. Start from what a four-times-a-week customer will cost you.
- Can I stamp per item or per visit?
- Either. Per visit is simpler and more common for lunch. Per item makes sense when someone is buying for the whole office, which is worth rewarding properly.
- Will this slow down my lunch queue?
- A stamp is one scan and one tap, a couple of seconds. Enrolment is a QR code the customer scans themselves while they wait, so nobody is typing anything at the till.
Keep reading
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Put your loyalty card in your customers’ pockets
Publish a branded card in about five minutes. 14-day free trial, cancel any time.