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Olive Garden’s Pasta Pass – $100 for 7 weeks of unlimited pasta – leaves some hungry customers unsatisfied
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By Sarah Halzack September 8 at 6:55 PM
The Olive Garden is offering a Never-Ending Pasta Pass for $100. (Courtesy of Olive Garden)
Hell hath no fury like an Olive Garden fan who
missed out on seven weeks of never-ending pasta.
Earlier today, the restaurant chain announced a new
twist on its popular “Never Ending Pasta Bowl”
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promotion: Dubbed the Never Ending Pasta Pass,
it allows diners to pay $100 for a pass that lets them
enjoy all the pasta they can stuff in their bellies any
time they visit the restaurant between Sept. 22 and
Nov. 9. (They get unlimited Coca-Cola sodas, soup or
salad and breadsticks, too.)
The company announced it would sell only 1,000 of
the passes and that they would go on sale at 3:00
p.m. EST. The good news for Olive Garden? Interest
in the promotion clearly was high, as the passes were
sold out by the time we checked Olive Garden’s Web
site at 4:15 p.m. The bad news? Many diners who
missed out on their chance for a low-priced, almost-
two-month-long carb-fest are taking to the
company’s Facebook page to express frustration
about how the promotion went down.
Some are complaining that the promotion sold out
too quickly: “That was bull. The site was crashed
and never let me in. You totally underestimated the
demand.”
Some are complaining that there were glitches in the
process: “This was not the best promotion. I tried to
get in starting the second it turned 3:00 p.m., and
no go. It actually makes me less likely to go now.“
Another added, “Please please I would love
a #pastapass. I tried for an hour, starting at 3pm
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You can check out the Facebook thread here:
So how does this shake out for Olive Garden? On one
hand, they appear to have made many of their loyal
fans disgruntled. On the other hand, the media
coverage and social media attention could benefit the
struggling Italian restaurant if the frenzy over the
Pasta Passes helps lure diners into their restaurants
for the wider Never-Ending Pasta Bowl promotion.
That annual offer allows customers to eat an
Olive Garden Restaurant/Cafe · 6,257,973 Likes · Yesterday at 10:40am ·
Never Ending Pasta Bowl is bigger than ever this year—get unlimited visits with a Pasta Pass for just $100! http://bit.ly/1qHhI8o
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unlimited amount of pasta during their visit for
$9.99. The chain restaurant says it is its most
popular promotion of the year, resulting last year
in 13 million bowls of pasta served.
Olive Garden has struggled in recent years, as its
core customer base has eroded amid the rise of fast-
casual options and a heightening focus on fresh,
healthy eating.
Darden, the parent company of Olive Garden, has
recently launched what it calls a “brand renaissance
plan” for the casual dining chain, which has more
than 800 restaurants nationwide. The company has
rolled out new lunch and dinner menus. The dinner
menu includes some tapas-style items to reflect the
trend toward small plates concepts, as well as
options priced at $9.99 to appeal to millennials and
value-oriented diners.
Olive Garden is also working to use online ordering
to beef up its take-out business and is experimenting
with a remodeled restaurant design.
Sarah Halzack is The Washington Post's
national retail reporter. She has previously
covered the local job market and the business
of talent and hiring. She has also served as a
Web producer for business and economics
news.
