“Buy a tab” for Christmas
Matias Marquez, 604.288.1438 (o), 604.723.7651 (c); mmarquez@buyatab.com
Terry Lavender, PAMR, 778.782.2154
Two local students are hoping to make life easier for last-minute shoppers with a website that lets people give “tabs” to their loved ones at local restaurants.
Buyatab.com is the brainchild of Matias Marquez, a third-year Simon Fraser University student, and business partner, Ross St. George, a student at BCIT.
The site allows you to search by location or restaurant name, choose your restaurant and calculate the size of your "tab."
You then enter the name and email address of your recipient, choose a theme (Christmas, Valentine's Day, birthday, Mother's Day, etc.) and press "send."
The recipient prints the gift "card" and presents it at the restaurant where it's accepted as equivalent to cash.
Marquez and St. George researched the concept and discovered there was nothing similar for restaurants. “There are a few other websites where you can go online and buy a coupon, but you may not want to send your mom a coupon for her birthday,” Marquez says.
So far, participating restaurants include Monk McQueens, The Lift and Wild Rice in Vancouver, as well as restaurants in Whistler and White Rock.
Future plans include expanding the site's reach across Canada and getting major chains such as The Keg, Milestones and Earls signed up. "We're not billionaires yet,” says Marquez, “but we're selling it, and it looks like the idea is working."
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