Just how do they do it? That's the question I find myself asking at dinner tonight. Me, my daughter, and her boyfriend are having dinner at PFChang's which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!! It's a favorite of mine. I don't think they even make a dish I do not like. One of the things that stands out in my mind is there OUTSTANDING Customer Service. These fine people at the P. F. Chang's establishment have outdone themselves in the service department...well, in the quality department as well, but right now we are talking service! We ordered our drinks, our appetizers, and our entrees. Then, we're talking away, drinks being served, people stopping and asking...everything ok??? Oh yeah. At least three different people asked us this in a span of about 15 minutes. It was amazing. Then, one waiter drops off our appetizers and also happens to drop off a WHOLE freakin' plate of barbecued ribs!! We didn't order these wonderful ribs, they just happen to descend on our table...."ON the house". WooHa!! OK, so we finish our appetizers of Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Salt & Pepper Calamari, and these fabulous ribs - that woulda knocked your socks off!! Then, they bring our entrees....My All Time Favorite Lemon Scallops, Sweet & Sour Chicken and lo and behold ANOTHER freebie ON the HOUSE ENTREE of Kung Pao Scallops!!! What???? Excuse me??? Did I hear you correctly???
Meish and I are lookin' at each other goin.....uh....are we sitting at the "lucky" table tonight???? This hasn't happened before. Ever. And we go here fairly often. Our Waiter ROCKED!! The Service ROCKED!! The FOOD Rocked! And I must write them a letter. Which I will do as soon as I'm done bloghopping.
Oh wait. I got off track. (I think I must be spending too much time over at A Spot of T....
OK, I'm on a bloghopping SPREE tonight as my husband is out and I am FREE to read as I please for as long as I please. I think it's an obsession. Anyway. I happened on a blog of a mother to six children. It was a very interesting blog...the way it was written. It was entertaining. And I noticed on her blogroll, she had many other mothers of multiple kids. So, off I go to visit the other blogs....one of them being Mommy of Many. She has nine children. NINE children. HOW on earth do these people afford life????? Sitting in that restaurant tonight, I looked around and saw MANY tables of parents with children. Actually tables with four and five kids. Some of them in high chairs. I know how expensive our bill was. How do these people PAY to eat in these establishments with ALL of these kids??? I used to work with a guy who had ten kids. They did not go out to eat. Like EVER. They made the dollar S T R E T C H. Big time. And the other little things I noticed were interesting too....all of the twenty-somethings had Coach, or Gucci, or Versace, or Prada. I was working in a high paying job in my late thirties / early forties before I could afford that stuff. And......how do these kids do it???
I asked my daughter this question. She said, "Ma, alot of those things are fakes". And alot of them their parents' bought for them. Oh. It's the Parents!!! Hell, I can't afford to support ONE child, let alone six, or nine, or TEN???? These kids are all lined up at Starbucks with their parents. It is truly amazing.
I simply do not know how they do it. Do you? And, if you do figure it out...do you think it's a good thing???
14 comments:
I love those lettuce wraps at PF Changs - they are really scrummy. I bet they remembered your family and the fact that you go there often, and decided to show their appreciation. Isn't that nice? I love an establishment that will do that sort of thing.
As to the people with all the kids - I couldn't tell you. Having moved to the land of Microsoft from Texas, it blows me away how much money everyone around me seems to have. You don't see used cars/old cars on the road up here. It just isn't done. I just keep reminding myself, having ridiculous amounts of money doesn't necessarily make them happier than me...
I don't know how they do it. FIve is a WHOLE lot of kids around here. We do take them out to eat occassionally. We won't let them ruin our memory of PF Chang's though. That's our spot.
I know when we take our kids out to eat with their significant others a total of about 8-10 of us, just eating at McDs can cost $50 and to got to the buffet at Golden Corral is easily over $100. Needless to say, we don't do it a lot.
We have 6 kids but two of them are in Missouri now so we don't typically have them all with us all the time. But one moneysaver when they were little was that no one got soda, just that would knock about $20 off the bill.
Here are a few hypotheticals (and my husband is the oldest of six, so this is an EDUCATED guess):
1. They are in debt up to their eyeballs
2. The grandparents let them freeload
3. Two income families
4. They are trust fund babies (and there are way more than you think)
5. Lots of splitting. Get like three BIG meals and let all the kids nibble.
6. They are mega-rich. Hub's aunt & uncle have 7 and he's the CEO of a Fortune 1000 company.
Maybe when they are at home they all eat rice and beans and mince lots.
You have me graving for some lemon scallops now - YUM! Sounds like a wonderful place - I love a good restaurant! Hope you have had a good weekend - see you soon. Kellan
I have no idea how they do any of it. Kids are hard enough when there is money in the house - but clipping coupons and cooking three meals a day is hard work. My guess is they were celebrating something - just said heck with it and put the bill on a credit card.
Heyyy you, knock that off!! :o) Not sure how these parents do it but I have definitely noticed an upswing in the number of kids people are having. Although I also notice a lot of couples aren't having any children at all so maybe it all balances out.
First of all, I LOVE PF Chang's too. I haven't been to one in 8 long months - you are SO right.
I often wonder how they do it too. I, admit, I have 4 Coach purses and 1 Coach laptop bag but I bought them while I was working and had a very good job and before children (could afford it).
Either they are knock-offs (which is easy with ebay), their parents are helping to pay for it, they have good jobs OR they have lots of credit card debt. Let's hope it's not the latter.
i think that people rely too much on credit cards and the kindness of their parents. that's how they do it. my hubby and i are so budget conscious, we have a savings account and we have to borrow from it from time to time and pay it back on payday, so we're going a bit over sometimes, but in all reality, we do pretty well. i can't imagine the cost of taking a kid let alone 4 or 5 out to eat! one brother has two kids and i know they play fast and loose with car loans, making interest only payments for a while and then selling before it catches up to them, and use grandparents as permanent babysitters for monthly dinners out, vacations, you name it... the other brother has 5 total (2 marriages) and they take every opportunity known to man to not have their kids with them on 'their weekend off' - yup they dont spend time with different kids on different visiting weekends for one on one time, they send all kids to the other parents so they get 'alone' time together.. dinners out, partying, etc. i can't say either choice is good or whatever.. all i know is what i WONT do when i have kids. i wont dump them off on grandma and grandpa just to go out and eat, if we can't afford a babysitter, too bad. dominos' pizza by candlelight baby. and i agree with AFF 123 and 5 comments.
I am not sure how they are doing it. We don't go out that often, but when we do it isn't cheap. Sometimes we are treated by relatives. We usually go to a middle of the road chain, or pizza place and it is still over $70. Once an agent was taking my husband out and invited the whole family. The kids were 9 and under and were astounded at the prices and it was so cute how they all chose the least expensive things even though they were encouraged to choose anything. They were only going to get water too, which we have had them do many times. When it came to dessert, the kids relaxed and got cheesecake. The bill ended up over $200 (7 years ago) for our family of 6 and the couple.
Well, if you want it from the Horse's mouth.........we are coupon clippers and wear our shoes until it's not feasible to wear them any longer. We meal plan for a two-week period at a time and it's PBnJ in the kiddos' lunches, most days. My husband is a Naval Aviator and makes decent $ and we live in base-housing (which saves $). We drive older cars (at least my poor hubby does. I'm driving a 2005 15-passenger van). We've been fortunate enough to have the kids in private schools for the last 7 years and I shop on the sale racks from Target-Macys. I keep the kids in their uniforms as much as possible. We rely on Divine Providence and know that we won't be left to fall on our faces.
More ideas and daily musings (and weekly Podcast) at MommyofMany.com
Jen
Well, if you want it from the Horse's mouth.........we are coupon clippers and wear our shoes until it's not feasible to wear them any longer. We meal plan for a two-week period at a time and it's PBnJ in the kiddos' lunches, most days. My husband is a Naval Aviator and makes decent $ and we live in base-housing (which saves $). We drive older cars (at least my poor hubby does. I'm driving a 2005 15-passenger van). We've been fortunate enough to have the kids in private schools for the last 7 years and I shop on the sale racks from Target-Macys. I keep the kids in their uniforms as much as possible. We rely on Divine Providence and know that we won't be left to fall on our faces.
More ideas and daily musings (and weekly Podcast) at MommyofMany.com
Jen
Sounds like an awesome restaurant. They must have recognized you from your many visits. We go to one place near our work and pretty soon all the waitresses recognize you and you get great service.
Being in the home school circles, there are many that have LOTS of kids. We have 4 and I make pretty good money, but it isn't easy and in fact it can be less than easy. I don't know how some do it but they do. I guess it is choices that make the difference.
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