Denny's Grand Slam Tuesday

Today is Denny's free grand slam Tuesday. For the last couple of years, Denny's has been giving away one free grand slam meal to each customer that walks through any of the chain's doors on the first Tuesday after the super bowl from the hours of 6AM to 2PM. Each grand slam is priced at $6.00, and is comprised of two eggs, two pancakes, 2 sausage links, and 2 pieces of bacon; for a whopping 770 calories. Last year over 2 million people visited Denny's for the grand slam deal, with an average of 130 grand slams served per hour, in each of their 1,500 locations. This year with the new popular catch phrase, "Great Day to Be an American, Tough Day to Be a Chicken," and a pricey super bowl commercial to go with- they are expecting even more customers to come through the doors.

Morgan and I decided to drive over to Denny's for lunch today and get our free meal (minus the meat of course), and we were greeted by a line out the door, and a restaurant packed full of hungry customers and busy waiters. While we were there, I have no doubt that they met the 130 grand slam per hour quota, if not exceeding it. So that means, in the roughly one hour that we were at the Denny's, 260 sausage links, 260 strips of bacon, and 260 eggs were consumed. Just think about the environmental impact of that.

Roughly 15% of the average 230 pound pig goes towards bacon. So, that is roughly 35 pounds of bacon per pig. That means that several dozen pigs must be slaughtered in order to sate all of those hungry Denny's hungry customers per hour per restaurant. Assuming that there is roughly 1/2 a pound of meat per order, that means that out of those 2 million orders, roughly 1 million pounds of meat will be consumed. That means that just for those animals that produce the meat for the grand slams of that 8 hour period, 3,000 tons of grain were used, emitting around the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV around the Earth roughly 1,500 times! Not to mention the millions of gallons of water, and millions of miles driven by people all across the country in order to make the round trip from home or work the Denny's and back.

So, what exactly does Denny's gain from all of this? $5 million dollars down the hole. The average customer that walked through the door, as far as Morgan and I could tell did not order anything besides the grand slam. The promotional value may have been great, and there is no doubt a large customer return due to the satisfaction of a free, satisfying meal, and good service. But there is a huge environmental impact from that one promotional campaign.

Out of all of the cons I've listed, what are the pros? A free lunch, delicious food, and the potential for future profit in a monopolizing breakfast chain? As far as I can see, although the rewards seem great- they do not outshine the cost. And although Morgan and I did partake in the Denny's breakfast rush, we also abstained from the meaty portion of the meal. That does limit our portion of the emission total, but we were still supporting a mass market campaign with a blatant disregard for the environment, and for animal rights. With the slogan of, "Great Day to Be an American, Tough Day to Be a Chicken," it is obvious that conservation was not their top priority. I hope that I've yet again illustrated the huge impact that meat can have on the environment, and the impact that such consumer driven campaigns can have environmentally. See you on Thursday...

- Amber