Race for the $200 Taco
I am not a fan of the membership stamp cards for most places I go. They are a pain for me, and sometimes for other people too. Every time you go to a new place and buy something, they ask you if you have a membership card. If you tell them no, they will either accept the fact and move along in the transaction (more common at grocery stores or video places, I think), or they will stop and make you one whether or not you requested it (at just about every other location imaginable). For those places in the latter category, I wonder if they realize that they are costing each customer in line an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute of wait time every time they throw an unsolicited membership card down on the counter. Of course, they are also wasting print and paper resources, but hey, do what you want, I guess. In my opinion, the former places have it right anyway – don’t throw away your cards through a customer middleman. Just give them out if they are requested. The other kind of funny thing that I have noticed is that the businesses in the former grouping also tend to have better incentives… Anyway, for most cards, I nearly always wind up getting one stamp on them and trashing them.
Having said that, let me pontificate for a spell about one card – the completion of which I am currently ardently pursuing. (Becky – I can totally say “pursuing with a vengeance” in place of “ardently pursuing” in this sentence. Just for one case in point. Nyaa.) Anyhoo, my reasons for completing the card have very little to do with the prize awaiting. I just wonder if anyone else is a weirdo like me.
I want to finish my membership stamp card for the Mexican Café, Mañana, in Imabari City. Sure, their food is a highly Japanized version of Mexican food, but it is the closest thing that resembles southwestern cuisine anywhere near here. Instead of TexMex (Texas crossed with Mexico for the absurdly slow out there), we could refer to it as Mexipan (Mexico crossed with Japan, again, for those who aren’t so quick to pick up on such obvious clues). Why? Sure, I admit, I love the Mexipan food there. It is a bit strange to feast upon the “Taco Rice” – a plateau-style heap of rice topped with a ladle’s worth of chile con carné, beef, tuna or chicken; fresh tomato, cheese, lettuce and salsa; and a fried egg (and a zigzag of mayo unless you ask kindly, which I always do) – but it tastes darn good. The thing that probably keeps me coming back, though, is the buñuelo dessert that they serve. It is freaking delicious. (Not just normal delicious, but freaking delicious.) They simply fry some tortilla pieces until they become crisp, and surround a small scoop of vanilla ice cream with said tortilla pieces. I keep trying to get them to reveal their secrets to me – I suspect the introduction of honey or sucrose or something – but they have yet to cave. Perhaps when I finish my membership stamp card, I’ll ask for the secret to the buñuelo recipe, instead of the official options.
Speaking of which, the official options are “1 taco of your choice, or a piece of original Mañana goods.” I assume they mean something of equal value, like a slap bracelet, or a cell phone charm. I have yet to see the original goods. But the tacos, those I have sampled frequently. (My tongue says the jury’s still out on whether the soft or hard versions are better.) Now, remember, you must get 20 stamps to fill the card. That is 20 separate visits to the café. I find it uber-convenient to eat there when I am teaching at Imabari South HS or Imabari West HS, because they are both within a 4 minute walk’s radius. I can easily get there, wolf down some Mexipan chow, and saunter back in time for class. So convenience is a bigger factor than the prize. Another huge factor is the conversation. The café is run by an amiable family – mother and daughter team, at least – and they talk to me each time I go. We chat about all kinds of things – trips we have taken / want to take, weather, the current tortilla shortage in Mexico due to the increasing price of corn thanks to the rise in popularity of ethanol fuel in the United States, dogs, students, life, particle physics, jokes we like, and pretty much whatever else comes to mind. In short, it’s great Japanese practice for me, with good food, and it’s close. Plus, I feel like I have cultivated it as a haunt of mine now. I feel comfortable there. So why not go ahead and finish off a membership stamp card?
Here’s a brief analysis of the economics of finishing my card. On an average visit, I spend between ¥750 and ¥1200. That averages out to ¥975 per lunch. (I tend to switch between ordering items at regular intervals, so this average is reasonably accurate.) ¥975 multiplied by 20 separate visits is ¥19,500. (The range would be ¥15,000 for all ¥750 meals to ¥24,000 for all ¥1200 meals.) In short, the taco that I receive at the end has been the product of ¥19,500’s worth of previous purchases. A taco costs ¥250, if I remember correctly. That means that this card’s total value is 1.28% of the total previous purchases. (Again, the range would be 1.67% for ¥750 meals only to 1.04% for ¥1200 meals only.) 
That isn’t exactly a marvelous return, now is it? Ha ha.
My last visit brought me to the halfway point on my card – 10 stamped visits. My first visit was on October 11th. My card expires on April 11th. Can I do it? I don’t know. Is it a bit odd to ask customers to come 20 times within a 6 month period? (That’s 24 weeks to make 20 visits…) And is it worth ¥19,500 to get a free taco? I dunno. But I like the place, the people, the conversation, and the Mexipan food. Plus, I am already halfway there. I’ll shoot to finish this one, in order to have a sense of accomplishment. That way I’ll be able to say that I have finished a membership card once in my life (with no intention of repeating the feat). Plus, I bet there aren’t too many people who have dropped ¥19,500 for a taco so far. I might just be the first! 
As of writing this entry, the exchange rate was ¥122.25 JPY to $1 USD.
(¥15,000 = $122.70, ¥19,500 = $159.51, ¥24,000 = $196.34, and a taco at ¥250 = $2.04) Sorry if this was incredibly boring. I was bored. So there. Btw, I’m going to visit again next week.
