Freedom Folks

Monday, January 08, 2007

I For One Welcome Our New Overlords

Source: dallasnews
Dallas-based food chain to accept Mexican pesos

Starting Monday, patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos.

Restaurant experts and economists said they knew of no other food chain with locations so far from the Mexican border offering such a service.

"We're trying to reach out to our core customer," Antonio Swad, president of Pizza Patrón Inc., said Friday.

"We know they come back [from Mexico] and have pesos left over. We want to be a convenient place for them to spend their pesos."

While U.S. restaurant chains have stepped up their marketing to Latino consumers and incorporated Latin flavors in the menu, it's unusual to see that outreach extend to the cash register.

"I think it's a very interesting idea," said Ron Paul, president of Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based restaurant market research firm. "They are catering to that audience."

But Mr. Paul said he did not see other chains rushing to emulate the program, in part because of bookkeeping headaches.

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