Restaurants, including Applebees, will be doing discounts for Veterans Day tomorrow, according to Restaurant News & Eater.com. At first, I was a bit hesitant when I read this story, partly because it was in a trade mag and also because I tend to question Corporate America’s actual motivations for doing discounts like this.
Once I skimmed the story though, I changed my mind.
Applebees is expecting to serve more than 1 million free meals to veterans and active duty military tomorrow. Locations will feature a special menu (read: serve lots of big cheeseburgers) and some locations will be extending their hours. They also created a Veterans Day website that incorporates some social media elements as well as a discussion board where you can post thank you notes honoring our veterans.
Outback Steakhouse will be serving a free Bloomin’ Onion (Aussie for Onion Rings?) and a non-alcoholic beverages which is cool but not as generous as Applebees. For the promotion, they’ve partnered with Operation Homefront which “provides assistance for our troops, their families, and wounded warriors when they return home.”
After some basic googling I found a few more restaurants and venues doing special events, such as Busch Gardens & Sea World are doing free admissions for veterans and actively enlisted personnel.
I must admit, I was bit disappointed by what I found. Why aren’t there more events? I think this week will be a time were a lot of Americans will ask that magic “why” question and reflect on the current war. It comes at an interesting time especially with Obama’s kind-of under-publicized address to the Muslim World later today in Indonesia.
For more discounts, check out Military.com and for ways you can get involved and learn more about issues facing veterans, check out the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).
