Businesses jump at Leap-Day offers

By Carrie Mason-Draffen - 02/29/2008

MELVILLE, N.Y. — For leaplings, as people who are born on leap day are sometimes called, Feb. 29 signals the end of a four-year birthday drought.

For businesses, the extra day in February, which occurs Friday, represents an additional marketing opportunity in today’s sluggish economy.

The United States has about 200,000 people who were born on Feb. 29, according to the Census Bureau.

And some people may wonder why all the fuss, since the leapling demographic isn’t large.

But some companies are looking at the exponential factor. A restaurant promotion might pull in not only the birthday boy or girl but family members and friends as well.

That’s the thinking of Ronald Gelish, the chef-owner of Mac’s Steakhouse on Long Island, which is shaving $4 off the price of every entree, including lobster, and off the price of bottles of wine for all customers Friday.

The lobsters, which typically sell for $22 a pound, will go for $18 a pound for everyone, Gelish said.

He believes the discounted lobsters in particular will prove profitable, because if a husband and wife come in, for example, she might order lobster, but he might order steak, Gelish said.

“People aren’t just coming in for the lobster,” he said. “It’s just a reason for people to come in.... It’s a win-win.” Some local promotions are an extension of a sales campaign with a leap-year twist.

Gelish’s promotion is a case in point for that, too.

He initially offered the $4 off on lobster last Friday night as a way to entice customers who gave up meat for Lent.

But the season’s first big snow storm hit, which put a dent in business. So he decided to revive the promotion as a leap-year special. And it seemed like a natural, given the $4 discount.

“Every four years, four dollars, it sounds good,” he said.

Joe DeNicola, the chef and owner of Ruvo, an Italian restaurant with locations on Long Island, had been offering a $45 four-course meal with unlimited wine on Thursday.

This Friday, DeNicola will shave $1 off to make the price leap-year friendly.

“We thought it would be fun to celebrate in connection with the promotion for a new menu for the winter,” he said.

The four-course meal, which includes such southern Italian entrees as leg of lamb on polenta and squid ink linguine with shrimp, normally sells for at least $70, DeNicola said.

Some companies see the leap-year promotions as a way to perk up business in a slow economy.

The economic downturn has taken a bite out of the corporate business of Long Island’s Ultimate Class Limousine. So the company is reaching out to nonbusiness customers this leap year. If you’re a woman who is waiting until Friday to propose to your beau, Ultimate Class will offer two hours of free limo services and complimentary Champagne this weekend. And the company will throw in a dozen roses for the woman’s beau, said owner Matthew Silver, whose company was born in the leap year of 1988.

One couple has already booked, he said.

“People are still getting married and spending lavishly on weddings,” Silver said. “The prelude to that is the engagement.” With its promotion, the company is capitalizing on a centuries-old leap-year tradition of women proposing to men.

Supposedly Scotland passed a law in 1288 allowing women to propose in a leap year. The government fined men who turned the women down.

Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service