The last time I shopped at Bloomingdale's, when it came time to check out I asked the sales girl what the current promotions were. I didn't have coupons, I don't open the sales flyers Bloomingdale's sends out by the truckful, I don't carry a Bloomie's charge card around.

But I was at Bloomingdale's, the epicenter of retail discounting. And, of course, I was able to talk the girl into giving me every single promotion on offer, which included extra discounts for using a Bloomie's card, which I don't even own.

The thing is, whoever buys a damn thing full price at Bloomingdale's? I'd argue no one who is willing to admit it in public. Why? Because they took the road to discounts a while ago and now the product (and experience) is devalued to such an extent that it would be an embarrassment to shop there and not get at least 30 percent off.

What's this got to do with restaurants? Well, it seems everyone and their brother is discounting these days. I even briefly worked with a restaurant that discounted their brunch before they even served one eggs Benedict. The dude was discounting before he even knew if the brunch service was gonna fly.  Needless to say, our relationship didn't really work out when I suggested that if he was that worried about the viability of brunch, maybe he needed to rethink his brunch!

Pretty much as a rule, I am not a fan of chef-driven restaurants discounting their food. And when I say discounting I pretty much mean any special deal of 8 courses for price of 5, half-price lunch, or giving everyone a $25 gift card for a $100 purchase. What I am talking about is Discounts. On Food. No matter how that discount is delivered.

Half-price wine nights, held regularly, can help drive business on a Tuesday like nothing else can. Specially offered Sunday Suppers with platters of food at a reasonable price that is roughly commensurate with your current pricing  seems great. Kids of a certain age, I sometimes think, should always eat free. Those are things that build a following and, if only on a Tuesday or a Sunday, a customer base that appreciates your restaurant.

But discounting your food, well, that just does two things:

• it just pulls in a lot of people who are eating there because, finally, they can — and they won't come back when they can't eat for cheap.

• it gives a discount to someone who would pay full price anyway.

So I don't get why anyone does it, let alone why everyone seems to be doing it.

Look, the economy still sucks, private dining is dddooowwwnnnn, and there are so many more tasty restaurants these days competing for the same dollar that I realize it is hard to stay focused and not panic.

But this is really the time when restaurants should be evaluating how much work they put into day-to-day outreach to customers. Not just throwing discount spaghetti on the walls to see if it sticks. They should be getting real about why it is they need to make time for social media and engaging their customers — because they then have a following and fan base they can leverage when things do get lean.

And if business is really bad, well, maybe it is time to really evaluate why — because you should know, some people are doing really, really well these days.