Tested something new, but is it sustainable?

I own a meal prep service and have been going back and forth on closing it down over the last few months to focus on our catering service which is doing great. Sales have been on the decline for the last three years and with two franchise competitors that opened in the last year, it made it even harder for us.

Two days ago I decided to offer meals at a huge discount and make each meal only our menu only $5. Now, our margins are extremely slim but the response has been incredible. On average, our meals were $8.5-$10.50 so this was a big deal.

In all, our following immediately began to grow and our orders jumped by 950%. We discussed adopting this model full time and focusing on being a volume seller. My obvious concerns are this price point making our food costs 50%. Second concern is that once the excitement dies down from this sale, our volume goes back to what it was and we absolutely can’t survive. I don’t think the second one is something to worry about because $5 meals is a pretty big deal but it’s certainly a risk.

I consider the idea that $5 meals markets themselves which has these last couple of days and could cut marketing cost tremendously. So I can essentially say the discount was covering our marketing and customer acquisition.

I thought about just running this special once a month but then customers will just wait for the next sale and not order in between sales. We serve our local area but also ship nationally.

So if we become the $5 meal prep company, could that spell great success or disaster?