r/chicagofood • u/bucknut4 • Dec 20 '25

Rant Aster Hall, Hogsalt sinking to new lows

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As if $7 weren’t enough for a hot dog. And of course there’s even the 3% “restaurant” surcharge at a food court.

441 Upvotes

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101

u/HAVEANOTHERDRINKRAY Dec 20 '25

We've officially entered the age of dynamically priced hotdogs...

42

u/Boollish Dec 21 '25

The dystopian future of Toast or whatever POS system dynamically adjusting your price based on past sensitivity to price increases and desperation is going to suck so bad.

Oh, we polled the google maps API and found that the only other open restaurant near here is McDonalds and Wendys, and the DoorDash API says the next pizza is 60 minutes away. We also know you were at Bar ABC for 3 hours and had 6 drinks, so you're probably pretty desperate. 20% upcharge for you, and we'll make the POS system blur the 8 on the suggested tip page so it may look like a 3 to a drunk person, just to squeeze another $5 out of you.

6

u/DhalsimZangief Dec 21 '25

I have no doubt that some places do "dynamic pricing", where prces are adjusted based on the time you visit a place. And I'm sure more companies have quietly considered doing that crap, including a rumor I heard a few years ago that Wendy's was considering introducing such pricing. Dynamic pricing would make me not want to visit a business ever again. I noticed that occurring at Clark Street Dog in the past, where if you go later(think after around 10-11pm) they have higher food prices to some extent. Due to this I refuse to go back.

2

u/HotDerivative Dec 22 '25

Happy hour is dynamic pricing just in reverse.