I learned something new last night, which only goes to show I am behind the times... [View all]

Ever hear of "ghost" restaurants? It seems Denny's (and many other places, according to the manager I spoke with last night) is home to several restaurants that are name-only, "ghosts" that are set up for online orders under wholly fictitious names. These "ghosts" are just Denny's under a different name, offering their own menu, but with everything cooked and handled by the Denny's in which they are putatively located. Most of the employees of the store don't even know the "ghosts" are there -- I called the store last night because of a no-show delivery, and the people there answered "Dennys" and were all "Huh? I never heard of the Meltdown." (Which is the name of the restaurant I *thought* I was ordering from).
Many points occur. Here's one: how little pride and faith must one have in one's own product, one's own company, that one would masquerade as another store to get customers? And I wonder how many people who sneer at Denny's and claim they would never eat in such a place have ordered items from one of their "ghosts" and feel smug and cool because they're eating from some posh place and not a greasy spoon like Denny's?

-- Mal