I disagree with the sense that because a customer prefers a free dessert over a discount of greater nominal value, it is somehow inefficient. Why does the cust

I disagree with the sense that because a customer prefers a free dessert over a discount of greater nominal value, it is somehow inefficient. Why does the customer visit the restaurant in the first place? To maximize efficiency? And this irrational act of a dessert makes it inefficient? People value things in different ways, it's really a complex equation and you are over simplifying it. Maybe the experience of getting a free dessert is more valuable than saving the cash. It is a service business after all. Free markets aren't always easy to understand, but they always give people more of what they want in aggregate than any mechanism of force.