Petty to boycott local restaurants due to this?

[Wife226]

We are quite fortunate to have a really good selection of restaurants where we live. Two are under the same ownership but are different themes etc.

One in particular recently re-opened after a refurbishment and there has been a string of local ‘influencers’ and I use the term lightly putting up posts of them eating there (multiple courses) with it being clear that they were given it for free.

They also did similar with their other restaurant in the summer.

Is it petty to no longer visit them as a result? I would resent paying full price whilst the ‘influencer’ (PT with 2000 followers) gets it all for free.

😂😂😂

some people seem unnecessarily offended by this thread! @5intheevening I think an awful lot of posters on here are retired, they are on it all day!

I follow people on Instagram who might be called 'influencers' to get gardening advice, cooking inspiration, gym and exercise advice and also clothing recommendations - posts by women like me who shop at M&S and Uniqlo so I can see what the clothes look like on a normal person before deciding whether it's worth a visit to the High Street. I suppose it fulfils a role for me that magazines used to - but I haven't bought a magazine for years (except Private Eye if I'm travelling).

You want to stop going because they advertise their business?
Would you be happier if their adverts included pictures of food that then went in the bin instead of someone getting a free meal out of it?

Unless you're a rival influencer miffed you didn't get a free meal (and even then that would be pettytastic), this is the pettiest thing I've heard. Quite hilariously so

Would you begrudge them paying for flyers to hand out, or a billboard. The influencers are invited so that they get marketing, they pay for the marketing with free food.

And actually social media is better than traditional print media because the algorithms tailor the ads and posts to your specific interests. Instead of showing £££££££ designer clothes on stick thin models or tiny portions of food with blobs of foam.
Dahlias, I get a lot of posts about dahlias and sometimes I might discover a new variety I wasn't familiar with.

I really dislike influencers too OP so yes, it would also influence me as to whether I went there or not, but not in the way that I imagine they are hoping.

It's not just influencers though - I fairly much dislike anyone who works in marketing (and HR, banking, diversity & inclusion....)

This influencer malarkey seems like a low level protection racket to me.
Give me free stuff or I’ll tell all my followers you’re crap!

It doesn't work that way ...

Why are you following the "influencers" if this bothers you?

I was just about to make an identical comment! How odd to think that knowing about your good pension or your husband's wonderful package would have any bearing on whether we think you're being unreasonable or not, @Wife226 . Go on and boycott them if you wish. I doubt they will notice. They won't even know you're boycotting them unless you stick your head round the door and say "We're out for a meal but we're not coming into your restaurant, so there!" as you march past with your nose in the air. And if you did that, I'm sure they'd just think "Thank God for that!"

You resent a small independent business, working in one of the toughest sectors there is, finding an affordable and effective way to market?

Would you be happier if they have lots of money to Google for google ads instead?

At least their marketing is also supporting someone local…and it works, if you’re seeing the ads.

Hospitality is hard. Don’t make even harder for them because you dislike how modern marketing is done, for some reason.

Well if they giving away all these free meals, no wonder restaurants are struggling. Make them pay, then they can lower their prices. Does anybody remember the Dublin hotelier who made an influencer/free loader cry by telling her to off.

I don’t understand the point either.

It’s simply part of their marketing strategy. Restaurants have always done this -offered food for reviews pre influencers.

I would let the restaurant know that this has "influenced" you to eat elsewhere.

Genuine reviewers, like Kalani, pay for their meals!

Well it's a form of advertising for them. It's the way things work now. I doubt they have a free pass to eat there free forever. You can not eat there for whatever reason you want.

YABU, it's the cheapest kind of advertising the can really do and will be seen by up to 2000 mostly local people. It's right that influences say when they have received a gift.

Only some of the places that influencers hype are actually worth that hype, even when they pay. Always feel like for some, it's all about aesthetic but their standards are r all that high. Up to you to decide where is worth eating, but if it were me then I absolutely wouldn't be put off by this alone.

It's a bit weird that you say you don't want a freebie whilst saying you resent paying full price when these people are getting a free meal You don't really know who instigated it. You could make a suggestion to them that a midweek cheaper early evening or lunch menu would get more people through the door. I feel like this might be what you're getting at. Influencers getting a free meal and not putting offers on for paying customers?

More fool them but you won’t have them at all if you do this sort of thing.

What is the point then, because I have missed it too? What is the reason you want to boycott the restaurant?

Sure, but that money goes to workers doing real jobs, not some of the worst parasites of society.

So instead of paying a local small business to promote their restaurant, you'd rather they paid Google or Meta to advertise to a much less targeted group of people?

Are you often on the side of Big Tech when they're up against sole traders or local independent businesses?

I hate the influencer culture with a passion. Whenever they approach me for a freebie they get ignored. Grifters one and all

Whilst I wouldn't formally boycott a business taken in by them it would be a factor in me choosing which restaurant to eat in. If I wanted Italian for example and they were the only one nearby then I may eat there (depending on genuine non paid for reviews) but given a choice I would probably eat at another one.