Happy hour. Sixty minutes of merriment. Post-work enticement with pricing specials galore on food & beverages to please both one’s palate and one’s wallet. Restaurants and bars successfully market to this end. A PLETHORA of flat screens broadcasting EVERY sporting event also serve as lucrative lures in attracting the tired throngs of nine-to-fivers to pull up a chair for an hour…..or two.
Aside from reduced prices, here are some other factors that may draw people to Happy Hour: Traffic. I think this is a BIGGIE. As commutes LENGTHEN for many, sitting on the freeways and interstates after a long, grueling day at the office is a TORTURE worth avoiding. Dinner and watching a sporting event while all the other drivers stop and go and play musical lanes seems like a GREAT trade-off.
Conversing with friends and co-workers in a fun, non-work environment is another reason to avoid speeding off to the freeway, A.K.A., parking lot. An opportunity to gab without the boss swooping in to hustle you back to work is a good thing. Eating and drinking for half price is also a good thing.
Given the popularity and success of Happy Hour around dinner time, here’s a question worth posing: Why is there no Happy Hour in the morning? Breakfast time is equally worthy of having an hour of happiness, is it not? Heck…..if we can get onion rings and pizzas for half price during Happy Hour in the evening, imagine how great it would be to sit down to a BIG plate of BACON for fifty percent off! Can you say pig out!! Denny’s & IHOP will be “Makin’ Bacon for you!” Oinkers everywhere will sign up!
What else might make it to the morning menu for 60 minutes of mouth-watering merriment? Perhaps biscuits & gravy would be a popular item/choice…for ALL of the USA, not just in the south. We’d get either the biscuits OR the gravy for FREE. Chickens will be working OVERTIME to ensure we all get our “happy” omelets. How tasty will a stack of pancakes be drenched in maple, boysenberry or blueberry syrup when priced at half-off? My guess is TWICE as tasty!
Doesn’t it make sense to start the day off with happiness? I think we could have both….a morning & evening Happy Hour. Begin the work day with BLISS and end it with EUPHORIA. Happiness BOOKENDS to comfort us should we have “one of those days” at the office. Shortly after the electronic rooster jostles us out of our slumber, we would have immediate cost saving in which to look forward. And our taste buds will surely be ready for MORE rapture when 5 p.m. rolls around.
With a successful AM and PM Happy Hour, you just KNOW that someone may eventually conjure up Happy Hour for lunch. That is TOO much contentment for me to ponder right now. Not sure if we can handle that much happiness. If we are SMILING when we get to work, GRINNING at our desk mid-day and BEAMING when it’s time to slide down the dinosaur, à la Fred Flintstone, our bosses may question if we are truly working. That could impact our reviews and raises or hinder potential promotions. Many have spent a lot of time developing worry lines on their forehead. Have mastered framing “the look” of hard work on their face. Three Happy Hours may not be a risk worth taking if it could lead to superiors second-guessing one’s work ethic.
I believe we could be satisfied with JUST two Happy Hours. One hundred twenty minutes of delight! Morning and evening. A pre & a post. Anything more than that may be overkill. Balance. Equal opportunity and fairness. Happy HOURS. Beginning and end. A sixty-seven percent guarantee of my daily meals being happy!
So sign me up! Makes sense to me. I trust that others will feel the same way. And there is only one way to truly find out: Begin the morning Happy Hour IMMEDIATELY! The only real challenge? Finding the restaurant that has the BEST bacon!