That idea sounds too good to be true probably but it is something that the locals around here, or at least the apparently older portion of them are all clued into. It involves one the fancier and higher-profile bars / smokehouses in town called Dirty Fingers. The name is a bit nasty sounding but I'll be damned if it isn't memorable. I frequently forget the names of bars I have only been to once or twice but there is something borderline naughty about the name of this place that just sticks in your memory.
Well even though this special offer has been around for a long time I only became aware of it about a month ago. It isn't really advertised but if you buy one of their t-shirts for 500k VND, which is about $20, you are entitled to free beer from 4-5pm every single Sunday.
The shirts themselves are pretty good quality, a lot more so than you expect to get out of a promotional t-shirt. I would say that the fabric is actually a bit too thick for my liking seeing as how it is extremely hot here every day outside of December and January, so I never wear this shirt unless I am going to the free beer party. On Sundays you can see people all over the An Thuong area wearing these shirts and you know exactly where they are going. If you were visiting and were unaware that this shirt has to be won in order to get the free beer you would probably think that this community really likes something called Dirty Fingers and would want to go and check it out. I think that was the idea.
During that one hour, you are entitled to as many Huda or Tuborg beers as you can drink. I will admit when I first got the shirt I kind of treated this as a challenge of sorts but as time went by I realized that drinking 5-6 beers in an hour in a race against the clock doesn't make you feel very good, especially if you don't go home at 5pm after the free flow stops.
Even if you aren't here for the free beer this is a pretty nice bar anyway. They have air conditioning and do not allow people to smoke indoors, both of which are things that really appeal to me. If you are one of the few smokers remaining in the world you can take it easy because they have a large outdoor area serviced by some powerful fans so that you can come back in stinking and remind everyone that you are still a prisoner to one of the stupidest habits of all time that basically guarantees ill health effects later in life.
From a customer's standpoint the 500k VND shirt pays for itself in a bit more than a month presuming that you can drink 3 beers in an hour, which I can. These beers are normally 30k VND each so let's round up and say that it saves you 100k VND a month. The crowd there is also pretty talkative and tend to be mostly local men. So if you are a shy person, you can probably meet some locals here. I wouldn't say that I am dying to fill my ranks of friends with 50+ year old men, but hey man, people are people and I have had some pretty great conversations here. The only thing I don't like about the environment is the massive amounts of TV's they have and they will put just anything on there, even if there are no important live sports on at the time. There was a tennis final that just happened to be on this past week and I guess that was ok.
I know a few bar owners and I was asking them how a promotion like this is possible without negatively affecting the bar. They informed me that Dirty Fingers is a major purchaser of beer and has a massive storage area for stock and therefore they buy thousands of bottles of beer every time. Basically enough to empty an entire truck each week. Because of this mass purchase the individual bottles of beer cost them around 5k VND per bottle so if we come by and drink 3 beers for free, they aren't exactly losing their shirts on this. Plus, a lot of people also get something to eat while they are there and therefore they break even just on that. Plus all of us walking around gives them a lot of advertising and many of the crew stick around after the free beers are finished and order more drinks that they are paying for.
I've had my shirt long enough to pay for it several times over and according to the staff the shirt has no expiration date. So if you find yourself on a 3 month visa in Da Nang you should head down and get your shirt right away, then when you are leaving maybe give it or sell it to someone else. It's a great value!
It is actually a quite cool concept, great advertisement for the bar, and an interesting business concept... sounds like something I for sure would buy myself if I would ever end up in Danang...
i see no reason not to, well, unless someone doesn't like beer. Huda and Tuborg are pretty terrible beers and basically guarantee a hangover, so I like to keep it around 3-4 anyway.
They must make extra with customers staying on after the time is up. You never just go out for an hour and most people would carry on drinking and eating way after the free hour is over. The concept is a great idea and I guess Sunday afternoons were generally considered a quiet time before.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ