Dating Service News

Definitely go to your company's holiday party, but if you're dating someone new, consider whether to bring him or her along, says Alana Beyer, vice president of It's Just Lunch, an international dating service for busy professionals. "If you just met or it's been a week or two, you may feel uncomfortable and they may feel uncomfortable," explains Beyer, whose Palm Desert, Calif.-based headquarters has offices in 100 locations worldwide.

"Another popular dating service, called It's Just Lunch, was started in Chicago in 1991 by a professional woman turned off by blind dates and personal ads. The ideal date, she decided, was a lunch date or a drink after work. Today, it has locations from New York to Singapore and here in Grand Rapids. 'There's a segment of people out there who don't have the time or the interest to surf the Internet or loor look at videos and they are looking to meet like-minded persons,' said Tim Carter, who owns the Grand Rapids franchise."

"At It's Just Lunch [a datingservice with locations in Ann Arbor and Detroit], the average female client tells 12 friends about the service…But the average male confides in just three. 'Women do our marketing for free,' notes Daniel Dolan, CEO…To achieve gender equality, mathcmaking chieftans admit to trying everything from plying men with extra dates to channeling marketing into male-dominated arenas such as gym locker rooms and newspaper sports pages. One recent It's Just Lunch direct-mail promotion sent to 45,000 men featured a latte cup with the slogan: 'extra tall, fat free, low maintenance blonde' and offered $200 off to join."

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