Saturday, December 10, 2011

Swiss Chalet's Festive Special... I do the math

The current logo of Swiss Chalet
Image via Wikipedia
Swiss Chalet's festivized quarter chicken white costs about $4.00 more than the unfestive version -- about $18.00 all-in. It comes with soggy dressing and decent cranberries. I always fill out the receipt survey from the previous visit, so I get a $4.00 chicken soup appetizer at no charge. That knocks $4.00 off. You get six chocolates, worth maybe $4.00. Plus, you get a $5.00 Indigo Kids coupon. I use the coupon to get $6.00 worth of kids' toy cars for $1.00. So... $18.00 minus $13.00 is... $5 bucks.

But, the festivized chicken special also comes with a two-for-one coupon on the inside lid of the candy box -- ostensibly worth another $10 or so, but you have to buy two drinks to get it, so lets make it worth $5.00.

I'm eating and drinking for free!

That's great, but doesn't Swiss Chalet realize calling it their Festive Special offends all of us who don't celebrate Festivus? Where's their sensitivity? They dropped Christmas for Festivus??!!

And that's the way the festivized Ball bounces.

13 comments:

Paul M said...

Their radio commercial uses "Seasons Greeting" and "Happy Holidays" but NOT "Merry Christmas". That offends me

BallBounces said...

Like others, they're willing to offend the many lest they offend the phantom few.

Rural and Right said...

I am glad you posted this ... my wife and I had the 'festive meal' the other night and were joking about how politically correct it was. Doing all the math and all Merry Festive does not equil Merry Christmas.

LorneR said...

Swiss Chalet closed up shop in Kelowna recently. A casualty of the HST, .05, increased minimum wage assault on the hospitality industry in BC? Or perhaps just not meeting market demand for decent food at a fair price (the service was always good)? Or a combination of both?

Who knows but I won't miss their "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" this year.

Merry Christmas to their laid of employees.

Anonymous said...

TangoJuliette sez:

Considering that this Festive Meal Special starts in late October/early November and runs into the end of Dec/early January, it spans more than just Christmas.

FESTIVE? I'm good with that.

And if you're lucky enough to have a Ukrainian Orthodox background, Christmas falls on January 6-7, and the traditional greeting is "Christ is born!" and responded to with "Praise Him!"

"Merry Christmas" is considered a no-no.

I s'pose that if the Festive label is offensive to some, perhaps considering the other option will satisfy the purist beating in one's soul. Feel free to order anything else off the menu that is not tainted with the word Festive.

By the way - these voiced concerns carry more weight if one adheres to the many other teachings of much of Christendom. Like - does one eat or eschew meat and other proscribed items during Lent?

ttfn
tj
t.e.&o.e.

BallBounces said...

In much of Christendom the feast of Christmas begins Christmas eve, and then lasts... 12 days. Up until that point it's Advent, which is hopeful but not festive. No Christmas carols until Christmas eve.

In North America, the Christmas season begins the day after American Thanksgiving, lasts until Christmas Day and then ends abruptly a day or two later.

The day after Christmas is the feast of St. Stephen (think Good King Wenceslas), the first Christian martyr. It is interesting that the church fathers remind us of martyrdom in the midst of this joyful season.

BallBounces said...

The Christmas season in N/A is, as much as anything, a cultural celebration rather than a religious celebration. In denying Christmas, retailers are negating Canadian culture -- while seeking, of course, to profit mightily from it. Hence the common distain for the go-half-way try-to-have-it-both-ways hypocrisy.

Simeon (Sam) George Drakich said...

Never liked Swiss Chalet so loss.

Anonymous said...

ianTangoJuliette sez:

.. . back when - St. Nicholas Day was on Dec.6. Nick was the gift giver, Christmas was Dec 25 according to Western Rites.

Eastern Rites placed St. Nicholas Day on Dec 19, Christmas on Jan 6/7.

If today's Christians get antsy about "retailers and governments usurping/replacing Christmas" NOW, what do you expect our reactions might be when they start after us LATER, at the celebrations of Bread & Circuses, when it's time to feed Christian Kibbles&Bits to the lions in the new and expanded coliseum?

Perhaps our G+D is too small?

No blasphemy intended here, it's a paraphrase of the title of a great 1961 book by J.B. Phillips, entitled "Your God Is Too Small."

ttfn
tj
t.e.&o.e.

BallBounces said...

Yes, it's a good book, and the J.B. Phillips translation is a good one.

Thanks for contributing to a lively discussion.

Reid said...

Swiss Chalet? Who gives a crap. They must be more popular back East. There's very few out West and I don't think many people go based on LorneR's comment about one closing in Kelowna.

I think in my entire life I've eaten at one 1 time. Goes for Harvey's as well.

Keep your crap on the Eastern side of the ON/MB border. While you're at it take that dishwater you Easterners think is coffee, Tim Horton's, back as well.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why you are all so offended by this I don't celebrate Xmas myself and I find there nothing wrong with it being called the festive special. I mean you don't hear other religions out there saying how you have to praise them or their religion and eat there food or call it let's say the hannukah special so why should it have to be called the xmas special festive special is the perfect name for it so stop all this complaining and live with it. Concerned customer.

Anonymous said...


According to Merriam-Webster, the "Simple" definition of festive is "Cheerful and exciting". For the "simple"-minded original poster, who thinks it's an "offensive" word. What's so offensive to you about celebrating a happy time, anyway? You are ignorant: "lacking comprehension of the thing specified."

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"