Let’s say it’s 2pm on a weekday. Not a busy time for restaurants or lesser known fast food joints. The restaurant must be staffed nonetheless — cooks, waiters, etc. have to be paid and there are other running costs as well.

At around that time, I open Google Maps and type in “food”. The maps app renders me a list of food joints in the area. Wouldn’t it be cool if in real time Google shows a little tag next to a restaurant name, displaying a discount (that may be valid for the next 30 mins, etc.).

The discount can be manually set by the restaurant owner via some sort of Admin interface. The user can enter days, times of day, etc. and the discount amount. Or you can enter a “flash sale”. The owner would have to know how much she is willing to discount and on what date/time based on restaurant’s sales data.

Alternatively, the discount could be auto calculated based on analyzing the sales data in real-time. AI and analytics engine can look at historic records as well as sales targets for the month to see if any discounts should be given. If it makes sense to discount and get more customers at lower margin so that the monthly sales target can be reached faster — then an appropriate discount should be automatically set.

Google Maps can charge some sort of static monthly fee for this feature, which can be used via UI (admin) or via API.