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{Imagine photo of Minneapolis here}
I am having a dilemma and can use your help. I want to continue to be a great source of local deals and offers for readers in the Twin Cities and Minnesota. I also want to be relevant to the ever-increasing number of Pocket Your Dollars readers that live outside Minnesota. My dilemma is how to best do this. Last week and again right now I am consolidating a number of local deals I am aware of into one post. While local readers gain the knowledge, national readers can easily skip it. The downside is that local readers actually have to read the post not just the headline to understand the content. Will you do that? I don’t know.
Restaurant Week. Mpls St Paul Magazine partnered with all sorts of local restaurants to offer two-course lunches for $10 or $20, and three-course dinners for $15 or $30 now through October 2. Participating restaurants vary from casual to high-end including Barrio, Café and Bar Lurcat, Campiello Ristorante, Café Vin, Crave-MOA, Kincaid’s, La Belle Vie, Palomino, Lord Fletchers, Sanctuary, Sea Change, Seven Steakhouse, Solera, Spasso, Sushi Tango, The Melting Pot, The Oceanaire Seafood Room and Wildfire. Check out the menus and prices for all participating restaurants here.
Buffalo Wild Wings. The Champlin location has Kids night every Wednesday from 5-8pm. Kids meals are just 99 cents and they play WINGO (just like BINGO) and give away prizes. Does your local Buffalo Wild Wings do something similar?
Kraft Cheese at Festival Foods. Michael let me know that today and tomorrow (through September 29, 2009) you can get 16 ounces of Kraft American Cheese Singles for $1 at Festival Foods. They are on sale for $2, but the flyer has a $2 off 2 coupon.
Coupons for Consignment and Second Hand Shops. Hennepin County put together this free downloadable coupon booklet devoted to retailers that sell second hand merchandise.
Your turn: Local readers – does this work for you to get highlights of local deals? National readers – does even an occasional post like this annoy you?
I did get the kraft cheese at Festival it was the best deal this week. I have two college kids and they both took a pack back to school.
Buffalo Wild Wings in Savage has 99 cent kids meals on Wednesday night as well. I’m not aware of any bingo games though.
I am not sure if this is just around the Twin Cities or not, but I just found out from a coworker that Champps has half price burgers on Mondays! I am so excited! I love their Blue Burger. Thought Id pass on that info.
I think this is great! I am a local reader and I understand that you want to help all readers but one of the things I love about your site vs. the other sites listed on Be Centsable is that it IS minneapolis specific…
I think this is an OK way to do this. One of the reasons that I enjoy your site so much is that it is Twin Cities/Minnesota specific. There are PLENTY of other sites out there that are tailored to people around the nation, and they just don’t have the same feel that this blog did, at least at the beginning. I understand that you want to appeal to a broader base, but please keep your loyal local readers in mind, too! There seems to be much more of a community feeling here than on some of the other blogs BECAUSE it is so area-specific.
Carrie,
Your website is one of my top sites ever and the number one reason is because you post for us locals. I quickly browse other sites for other freebies, etc. (that usually end up on your site as well!) but yours is by far number one because like Nicki and Laura said… it is Minneapolis specific! :)
I like that your site has MN deals. Having a weekly MN deal roundup like the one above would be great. I also like that people leave comments for other deals for us to find in the area.
I have to agree that I really appreciate your site because it is local. I don’t mind having to read the post to see the deals though. I really enjoy a few other money saving sites, but often find that the prices they say things are selling for at Target are much lower than the Targets up here. I am assuming it is because they live down south (which I know they do) and it seems that most things are cheaper down there. That sometimes makes what sounds like a good deal on their sites, not such a great deal for me. Your site is so much more accurate to local prices, and includes Rainbow Foods. I love it!
Here are some deals I have found south of the river:
Buffalo Wild Wings (Apple Valley)- kids night on Wednesdays. $0.99 kids meals.
Applebees (Rosemount)- Tuesday kids night. Free kids meals with purchase of adult meal
Old Chicago (Eagan)- Tuesday kids night. Free kids meals with purchase of adult meal
Ruby’s Redeye Grill (Rosemount)- Wednesday kids night. Free kids meals with purchase of adult meal.
Qboda (Burnsville Center)- Kids eat free on weekends with purchase of adult meal
I would recommend calling ahead to make sure the promotions are still going on.
I think one of the best deals in the twin cities is the check out a museum at the library- you just need a librarty card to get free passes to local museums and zoos- the pass lasts for one week and it is just like checking out a book- the como zoo pass gives you five free ride tickets in the summer and a buy one get one free coffee in the winter.