For lunch today I ventured over to Barros Luca, a phenomenal Chilean sandwich spot in NYC’s Midtown East. I’d been before, and knew there was a Foursquare special, so I figured what the heck, I’ll ask the cashier if I can redeem. “Sorry,we don’t support that any more, we usually only run our specials for 15 days.” Oh. Not a problem, probably better if I don’t tack on an extra cheese empanada to my chacerero completo.

Earlier this month I was on the isle of Oahu and much to my surprise, Tiki’s Bar and Grill had an amazing special… show you’ve checked in and a 50¢ Mai Tai is yours. Wow, just so happened that I was on a multi-day, highly scientific quest for the best Mai Tai. Same thing, bartender had no clue what I was talking about, called the manager over, who concurred, “The old manager set that up, we don’t do it anymore.”

source wallofhair

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a fantastic service that solves the primary function of making it easier to let your friends know where you are and vice-versa. However, as Foursquare continues to grow it’s user base and pitches these business specials as a value-add to both users and business owners, they’re going to need to put some mechanisms in place that keep it legit. Otherwise, the specials will become a distracting side benefit that eventually detracts from the overall value of the service. I’d say to scrap it entirely as it’s an administrative nightmare to keep tabs on all these specials, but I imagine it’s part of their longer term vision to really be a tool for business owners to enable them to know who some of their most valuable clients are*. 

*yes I think we’re valuable, we go out more than the average bear, tend to be the “mouth” in word-of-mouth references, and have been known to engage in extreme repeat visits purely to regain mayorship; spending money all the way.