According to a press release that I can’t seem to find online, Value Giant, a discount retailer based in Dallas, has announced that they will begin accepting pesos at their stores in the US.

Back in January, Pizza Patron announced that it would begin accepting pesos for pizza at all of its stores nationwide. The announcement resulted in lots of attention, both positive and negative, including death threats. It apparently also moved a lot of pizza. The original one month promotion has become a permanent fixture at Pizza Patron.

From a marketing point of view, Value Giant is likely hoping to emulate Pizza Patron’s success and generate a little controversy, free press, and sales. Likely, being second they won’t get the attention or sales kick that Pizza Patron did, but it will probably work at least a little bit. For example, even though I’m originally from Texas and go back there a lot, I had never heard of Value Giant before today. So it’s working at least a little bit.

On another level, the pesos announcement also demonstrates that Value Giant and Pizza Patron welcome the business of Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal. With the current immigration debate going on at a national level and lots of people voicing very strong opinions, and with all the talk of the Great Wall being built along the border, immigrants can’t be feeling too welcome these days. The peso announcement from these two stores says that not only are immigrants welcome, but they are encouraged to come in and shop.

Both Pizza Patron and Value Giant are regional and based in Dallas, within hours of the border. It will be interesting to see if a bigger company has the chutzpah to try the same thing on a national level.

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