Does this entitle me to a complimentary, personal, one-hour happy hour? I understand that the venue benefits from any drinks ordered after the hour has elapsed, and the business of any friends that I invite (who don't have the app), but I'd imagine this will encourage a lot of tire-kickers > new, loyal customers / regulars. Maybe margins are high enough on alcohol, when combined with tips, that it's a good deal on both sides. Will try it in the EV soon.
@peterkimfrank You've got it. That's exactly how Happy works: personal, 60 minute happy hours. We call it Happy Time.
Re: benefits for the bar - we partner with places that have at least some excess capacity (which, honestly, is the vast majority of bars in NYC with the exception of certain places on Thurs, Fri, and Sat nights). So they value the increase in traffic that Happy can provide.
Additionally, we encourage the bars to price their specials in a way that still allows them to make money on each sale. Of course, we also encourage our users to stick around after the hour, invite friends, order food, etc. driving additional traffic/sales to the bars.
Win-Win!
So I guess the bar has "open hours" for these special HH (meaning I can't pick ANYTIME I want, but whatever they make available). But I'm confused does everyone in the bar at that time also get a deal? Great concept but the execution and wide distribution will be key!
I love to hear from the founders on all these questions.
@VivekMGeorge That's exactly right: the term "open hours"is a great way to describe it. Not every bar is "open" for Happy users all day, but many (over 50%) are!
Everyone at the bar could theoretically get a deal, but they'd all have to be Happy users ;)
Each individual user gets their own individual 60 minutes of personal Happy Time (our term for "Happy" Happy Hours).
Here's how it works:
- Find an available bar.
- Arrive at the bar, ready to order.
- Click "Get Happy" to start your countdown (it's a clock with 60 minutes on it.)
- Show your active countdown to the bartender.
- Enjoy 60 minutes of personal happy hour bliss.
- After 60 minutes, it's back to regular prices.
You can only use Happy once per day per bar. Meaning, if you've used up your 60 minutes at Bar A, you're done there for the day. But you could pop around the corner to Bar B for another Happy Time!
Love this idea. I've gone to plenty of free happy hours where they get you and your friends in the door to have fun and get loose on free drinks for an hour, then when you're hitting your stride they start charging at the bar and everyone typically continues to hang out. Glad to see someone's making something organized around this concept vs bars having you throw a business card in a fishbowl on your way out to get you and your friends back in.
Being a massive fan of happy hours, I of course like the premise... I think executing on it is a whole different ballgame though. I do hope it works, and I can try it when I'm in NYC later this year.
@drewmeyers You nailed it. Execution is the name of the game. We made the product public less than two months ago, so we're certainly still working out the kinks. That's why we're thrilled to get feedback from the Product Hunt community at this early stage.
Do let us know when you're in NYC and how it goes!
Hey all! My name's Sarah and I'm one of the co-founders of Happy. Honored to get input/feedback on our product from this awesome community. Would love to answer any burning questions you have about Happy!
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@ohsarahbartley 1. What are the laws regarding offering certain patrons a deal on alcohol while not offering it to others?
2. Has this situation happened yet: Happy user walks into bar, tells everyone else in the bar who is already there about Happy, many people download it, and the bar looses out on revenue from customers who were already paying full price?
This would be useful. Kind of like Hotels Tonight for happy hour (but it doesn't need to be between the typical 4-6pm timeframe. It's only available in NYC (specifically East Village, Lower East Side, Williamsburg, East Williamsburg, and Fort Greene).
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