Happy hour
The Happy Hour ( English for happy hour ) is a marketing used term to describe a time interval in which products (often alcoholic beverages in bars can be purchased discounted).
Word origin
The two words happy and hour were historically often used in combination in English-speaking countries to describe “good” or “good” times. This term was already used in the 1920s to describe time intervals that were entertaining, e.g. B. Sports events or concerts. It wasn't until the prohibition in the United States , when the manufacture, transport, and sale of alcohol was banned in the United States from 1920 to 1933 that the term happy hour was associated with alcohol. Often people were already drinking before dinner, as alcohol was forbidden in public bars. Because of the working practices ("nine to five"), happy hour usually starts in the afternoon at five and ends at six. Originally, this hour was the one when a club in central London reopened after the lunch break and served its members returning from work with drinks for the first time in the evening.
The happy hour in marketing
In order to encourage guests to visit a local restaurant at this early hour, some restaurateurs offer an incentive for the happy hour: Lower drink prices according to any rule. Many incentive models have already become known, from reductions in free goods (“Pay two, drink three ...”) to half prices and even a symbolic euro for each drink .
However, guests often have to accept restrictions during happy hour: the kitchen is mostly still closed, meal orders are only accepted from the end of happy hour, and the drinks accompanying meals are then again at normal prices. Occasionally, in order to avoid billing cheating around the time of a drink order, cash payments are made at the end of happy hour.
Some brothels or tanning salons also have happy hours. Some Internet storage services also offer a so-called happy hour when the load is low. During this time, for example, the downloaded data is only charged with a certain percentage of the actual data volume. Furthermore, the Bocholt fair traditionally begins with happy hours.
In France , offering discounted alcoholic beverages during happy hour is only legal if non-alcoholic beverages are reduced accordingly.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Definition of happy hour , in the Duden.
- ^ Athletics in Our Fleet . In: Our Navy, the Standard Magazine of the US Navy . 12, No. 8, December 1918, p. 66.
- ↑ Code de la santé publique Art L. 3323-1 (PDF)