A digital loyalty card for your gatukök or burger bar

A gatukök lives on habit. The same people come for a hamburgare at lunch, a tunnbrödsrulle after the pub, a korv med bröd on the way home from training. Tickets are small, usually 50 to 140 kr, and a lot of the crowd is young: students, apprentices, night-shift workers. They don’t plan where to eat, they go where it’s open and where they feel known. A stamp card in their phone tips the decision when there’s a burger chain on the same street.

This page is about burger bars and gatukök with a fixed counter. If you run a truck that changes spot, see the food truck page; for pizza, see pizzerias.

What to reward, and after how many stamps?

Reward the meal deal, not a single item. It’s what your customers actually buy.

• 10A free meal: burger, fries and drinkThe headline reward for regulars.
• 5Free upgrade to large fries or a drinkA quick win that keeps new customers going.
• 8Free tunnbrödsrulleFor the late-night gatukök crowd.
• 4Free korv med brödShort card for a korvkiosk with small tickets.

Example calculation: a burger meal sells for 119 kr and costs you around 32 kr in meat, bread, fries, drink and packaging. Ten paid meals bring in 1,190 kr, so a free meal costs you under 3 % of that. A drink upgrade at about 5 kr after five visits costs less than 1 %. These are example figures; use your own costs.

Set between 3 and 30 stamps per card. If you change the number later, only new cards follow; customers mid-card keep their deal.

Which card type fits a gatukök?

A stamp card (Essential) covers most places. One stamp per visit, the meal deal at the end, nothing for staff to think about at 01:00.

Points (Pro) suit burger bars where one person often pays for the whole group. Staff type the amount on the scanner’s pad, the customer gets points per krona, and you can set up to six rewards at different levels, such as fries at a low level and a full meal higher up. A bigger order earns more, which stamps can’t do.

VIP levels (Pro) can mark your real regulars, for example a level after 25 visits that shows on the pass and on the scanner as “New level”. It costs nothing and gives the night staff a reason to recognise them.

How does stamping work during the rush?

You have two rushes: lunch, roughly 11:30 to 13:30, with workers and school kids, and late night on Fridays and Saturdays, after the bars close. In both, scan at payment, never when the food is handed over. The phone sits on a stand next to the card terminal, logged in with a PIN. The customer pays by card or Swish, holds up their phone, and the scanner shows “+1” and “Elias · 6/10”.

• Friends sharing: a group can’t take turns stamping one card; the cooldown blocks a second stamp on the same card for 5 minutes by default. Make it longer if you see abuse.
• One pays for everyone: that’s one stamp on a stamp card. With points, the whole amount counts.
• Late-shift staff use the shared PIN phone. Staff accounts can only scan.
• Wrong scan in the chaos: the owner or a manager corrects the card in the dashboard with Adjust stamps; the reason and who made the change are logged.
• Full card: “Claim + add today’s stamp” gives the free meal and counts tonight’s order on the next card.

The scanner needs internet; a phone on mobile data is enough. Low battery on the customer’s side is their problem, but a charger behind the counter wins you friends.

Seasonal and occasion ideas

• Tentaperiod (exam weeks): students living on fast food. A free drink during exam week goes a long way.
• Skolstart and nollning (August to September): new students in town looking for their place.
• Valborg (30 April) and summer festivals: long nights, big crowds.
• Football and hockey nights: before and after the match.
• Winter: the warm gatukök on a cold January night is hard to beat. Remind people you’re open.

What to send by push or e-mail

Push messages (Pro) appear on the lock screen through the wallet pass. Examples:

• Example · title: “Exam week fuel” · message: “Free drink with every meal deal until Friday. Show your card at the till. Good luck on the tenta.”
• Example · title: “Open until 03:00 tonight” · message: “Late-night tunnbrödsrulle and burgers after the pub. Your stamp is waiting.”
• Example · title: “New burger this week” · message: “Smoky cheddar and jalapeño, only until Sunday. Try it and get a free upgrade to large fries.”

For e-mail, a short note about a new menu item or changed opening hours is enough, sent from your own shop address. Don’t push every weekend; twice a month keeps it welcome. The “not seen in 30 days” audience is useful for lunch regulars who have gone missing. Only customers who opted in to news receive messages.

Common objections

“My customers are teenagers; they’ll lose interest.” They never lose their phone. The card sits in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet next to their train ticket, and joining takes a first name and an e-mail.

“Staff turnover is high.” A shared PIN phone means you don’t create an account for every summer worker. Change the PIN when someone leaves.

“It slows the late-night queue.” The scan is two seconds after payment. Fix the phone next to the terminal and it’s part of the payment, not an extra step.

“Burger chains have big apps.” They do. Your card needs no app at all, and the person behind the counter greets the customer by name.

What does it cost?

Essential costs 299 kr a month for one gatukök with a stamp card, unlimited customers and scans, and the first counter stand included. Pro costs 599 kr a month and adds points by amount, VIP levels, push messages and e-mails. Most places start on Essential and move to Pro when they want to message students in exam week. Pro has a 14-day free trial, and all prices are excl. VAT.