The Dishoom Dice
This story is about an Indian restaurant in London called ‘Dishoom’ , which has ingeniously applied probability theory and economics to its business model. Dishoom found that while they are generally booked out, they tend to have vacant tables before 6pm, Monday to Thursday. So, they came up with a unique loyalty program in which members who pay their bill before 6pm, Monday to Thursday, are given a die to roll at the end of their meal; if a 6 is rolled, the meal is free. Apart from the maths (discussed below), the idea is clever because of its simplicity and the buzz that it has been able to create. Here's the maths. For the customer, there’s the excitement of the possible free meal and the luck of the roll – a 1 out of 6 chance that the meal will be free. However, the mathematical analysis is as follows. Assuming a meal cost of £60, the customer’s expected saving is (1/6 × 60) + (5/6 x 0) = £10 pe r the expected...