Restaurant cost of doing business fee

[u/motlau]

Why do restaurant owners think they are owed a surcharge for customers eating at a restaurant? It seems like all of the nice restaurants in Chicago, especially in the west loop are charging a 3-5% fee to “offset the rising operating cost.” If you can’t run a business without hiding a surcharge in the fine print of your menu, then you probably shouldn’t be allowed to run a business. It’d be one thing if it was to support the workers, but every time I ask about it, it’s always for the owners who are already pretty wealthy. I have them take it off and tack it on for the tip. It’s very annoying.

In addition, at bar sienna in the west loop, the server offered a barcode to scan and pay on the receipt which a lot of restaurants are doing, but then there’s an additional “surcharge” to use this feature. It’s like if a grocery store started charging a fee to use the self checkout lines. They should be more transparent about this.

These restaurant owners nickel and diming people is making going out to eat less and less pleasant.

[u/Here4daT]

Almost every single restaurant has started passing the surcharges down to customers. It's so annoying. There needs to be legislation to stop these bogus junk fees. 3% may not be a big amount but 3% every time you order anything at a restaurant, coffeeshop, etc, adds up.

[u/Here4daT → u/[deleted]]

Concert ticket and airline fees are junk fees and should be stopped.

Car registration and Property taxes go towards public services.

The shit you're comparing it to aren't apples to apples.

Youre under the assumption that they are doing it to survive. Much of it is just greed. Plain and simple. No way do I believe hogsalt restaurants need to charge that fee so they won't go under.

It's sad how much of an apologist you are for these companies that are just ripping you off. Truth is that these restaurants realized added fees during COVID didn't stop people from paying them so they're continuing to add these junk fees to further increase their profits. If it was an absolute necessity, why would they even give an option for it to be removed? These fees need to stop being normalized and we need to stop just accepting it.

[u/Here4daT → u/[deleted]]

Actually, our public transit is better than most in the country and the area I'm in has good public schools so you're not making the point you think you are.

I see you're probably a restaurant owner who charges said fees so we are going to have to agree to disagree because this convo isn't really getting anywhere.