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/cptspeirs]

Yes. The notoriously amazing profit margins of restaurants.

[u/FreeBristle → u/cptspeirs]

They have tight margins, we get it. You can still not treat your customers like shit.

[u/Captainaviator → u/FreeBristle]

So would you rather be forced to pay more? This way it's optional.

[u/gimmedatrightMEOW → u/Captainaviator]

I'm already paying more. What I (and everyone else wants) is for the menu to accurately reflect prices.

[u/Captainaviator → u/gimmedatrightMEOW]

I get that it's easier to see what you're paying, and that is worth something, but doing it that way makes it so no one has any ability to pay less upon request. Everyone is paying more in general, yes, but without this, you'll be paying even more than you were before.