11 Tricks Restaurants Use To Make You Spend More Money

Bumpyroad wrote:

magnusfide wrote:
Thought this was interesting.
http://www.businessinsider.com/restaurant-menus-spend-more-money-2014-7

a lot of talk and no mention of the biggest theft at a restaurant, charging for drinks. one Chinese restaurant charged $1.69 for hot tea, and it was just hot water with one tea bag. ordered water there ever since. unless it is included in the price, it is always only water for me.
bumpy

That's a reasonable price for a cup of tea. A business uses cost accounting to allocate a percentage of all manner of overhead or cost to a unit so for instance it might reflect the price of the tea cup, the dishwasher that washes the cup, a fraction of the water bill, the waiter, the bus boy, etc. And part of the pricing is what the market will bear. no drink around here is under ~$2.50.

Yes we are getting ripped. It started, en large about 1966. When some Germans came over and started such things as community pricing etc. A fair price and fair profit is now not in the business lexicon. W have found some Restaurants that were not too high and served excellent fair and lots of it. In Utah we had breakfast of ham and eggs and toast for just a few dollars. they didn't know what country ham or biscuits were. The ham alone was a good 3/8 thick and larger than the plate. I left a good tip. In Su Saint Marie, I think we ate at small family restaurant that loaded our plates down with pot roast potatoes and green beans and excellent bread. The price was cheap compared to what we saw elsewhere. In Missouri we ate at an Amish family restaurant. They were hopping.
Terrifice roast beef dinner, and the food was served hot on heavy hot dishes as was the norm on family farms. Cold food or tepid food is now the norm, just about anywhere.In southern Michigan, Petersberg, I think ate at a restaurant/ family bar, divided inside. Ate was hot on the stove, that is what they served for that day. It was hot and excellent and again cheap compared to chains.
There is not a family style restaurant, now anywhere around here. The chains buy them up and if they don't want the site sell the site for a profit through their real estate divisions. I was keeping a list but have misplaced, it in the ocach somewhere, of the excellent places we stumble into.

Restaurants are actually one of my economy barometers. Over the last year or so, I've noticed that it doesn't seem to matter which day of the week one goes out, the restaurants are full and busy. Either the economy has in fact gotten better or no one ever cooks anymore. LOL!

Campfire Time wrote:


#10 is not accurate. The reason most successful restaurants limit menu items is pure economics. It doesn't make sense to stock expensive ingredients for menu choices that are seldom ordered. Doesn't anyone watch "Restaurant Impossible"?

Quite a few restaurants, especially franchises, don't make the dish onsite. It comes pre-prepared and frozen and is heated in a mw. They call it "quality control".

Re menus: We stopped eating at Red Lobster years ago when their menu became confusing and the "quality controlled" dishes tasted more like cardboard. Fresh local seafood is what we seek out now.

Yea, we're getting ripped. We should all just stay home and never enjoy ourselves again! That'll teach 'em! :R

Seriously, just enjoy yourselves and stop worrying about such silliness, or live like a hermit.

#10 is not accurate. The reason most successful restaurants limit menu items is pure economics. It doesn't make sense to stock expensive ingredients for menu choices that are seldom ordered. Doesn't anyone watch "Restaurant Impossible"?

the biggest scam out there IMHO, is those ads on TV, buy one for $10.00 + P&H and get a second one free, + P&H. $10.00 plus $8.00, + $8.00 $26.00 for two items worth about $12. and That magic hose spigot angled hookup which they say is a $10 value, I bought one 100 x better at walmart for $3.47.
bumpy

If businesses charged what the public thinks is fair, there would be no businesses. I know I wouldn't want to try to run a restaurant. Dealing with the public is no easy task.

And to think I actually tip, sometimes up to 50% if the service was worth it.

Ever notice that the soup can be eaten in about 10 spoonfuls? Or at least it seems that way? Restaurants have special bowls, that are extra thick, so that the outside it might look like a huge bowl of Clam Chowder, but the inside is only a few ounces.

Yes I enjoy a larger plate full of food, afterall I am 6'4" tall, and can put away more food than my 5' tall kids do. I don't mind paying $15 - $20 for a good sized helping of food, and the kids and wife get to take home leftovers. It is those places with $8 plates and tiny portions that I don't go visit anymore.

Sure they make a lot off of the drinks. $1.99 - $2.59 for a soft drink! The cost is tiny, with the ice actually costing more to make than the soda to produce! Soft drink syrup is mixed 14:1 with water making up 14 parts. Then ice typically is about 20% of the total serving capacity.

Fred.

The $1.69 for the tea includes the cup it is served in, the labor in the kitchen that heated the water, the labor that served it, the energy that heated the water, the water itself, the tea bag itself, the rent or upkeep of the building it's served in, any advertising of the restaurant, taxes and insurance and other utilities etc.

If you factored in all of the overhead costs of serving yourself a cup of tea at home, I wonder if you could beat $1.69.

I don't own a restaurant, never worked in one, never will -- but I am worldly enough to realize that a lot more goes into the price of menu items besides the raw material cost of the basic ingredients.

It's like saying "we're camping in Walmart's parking lot for free, so our accomodations don't cost us a thing tonight." Yeah, other than the payment or depreciation on the rig, the gas to get there, the supplies on board, energy for heating and cooling, the laundering of the sheets and towels, insurance, etc. etc. For what most nights in an RV really cost, most of us could stay in a pretty swanky motel. But some prefer the RV and some prefer a cup of tea instead of water in a restaurant. Neither is a "ripoff."

Super_Dave wrote:
Going out to eat fits in our budget under the heading, "Entertainment". I expect to pay more for my food and drink but if the food is good and the overall experience was enjoyable, everyone is happy. It's kind of like buying a musicians CD for $15 or going to their concert for $75.

X2. When I go out, within reason, I don't worry prices. I certainly do not worry about tea costing $1.69. If I want tea, I will pay it.

If the shrimp cocktail is $6.75, and I want to eat shrimp, I will buy it.

It is all part of the experience and I will not lessen it by worrying about prices. I will be frugal at another time, in another place.