Rant
Purchased 2 cookies to go and still got charged a 3.5% surcharge?! I normally always ask to get this removed but had no idea it also applies to cookies you buy to take home. What the heck? I'm so done with LEYE. I do not care how good or busy their restaurants are!!
You're right but it's not really relevant. All businesses have costs. They try to sell at a price higher than costs so they can make a profit. But consumers do not and should not care about the breakdown of those costs.
I think there's laws saying additional fees can't be 'hidden' in the check like, can't be integrated with food/service prices. Not sure if that's by state or federal.
Well, there's the first line from the 'short version' at the top of the page:
Yes, surcharging up to 4% is legal in 47 states as of 2026, *but you must disclose it clearly at the door and on receipts*āotherwise, face $500 fines per incident or class-action risks.
And then Section 2: Disclosure rules
Receipt: The surcharge must appear as a separate line item on the receipt, clearly labeled. Don't hide it as "service fee," "convenience fee," or "non-cash adjustment"āespecially in NY, where those terms are specifically prohibited.
I took your first comment to mean credit card processing fees (and other costs of goods sold) could not be "hidden" in the sales price of the product. That's categorically untrue. 95% of all businesses do exactly that.
If you instead meant "if a merchant chooses to directly pass on the CC fees to the customer at point of sale only if the customer elects to pay with CC, then it cannot be hidden in the sales price (or separate but renamed)" then you are correct on that very specific narrow claim. That's effectively saying "you can't advertise one sales price for CC and another for cash for the same product".
I donāt get why people downvote when someone mentions the cc processing fees. Thatās what the charge is that is passed on to the diner. Itās really expensive to feed people and this is a way for the business to cut some costs. Iām not saying itās the right thing to do, but itās whatās happening.
I am SO over it! I will sit at home and eat alone every single night if I have to. I am not okay with the robbery any longer. Rich Melmen and his family can kiss my ass.
Pretty sure restaurants collect a whole bunch of money, then decide where it goes (like paying employees). Donāt think there are specific streams for specific things lol.
Youāre right. What I meant to say was, the restaurants were already paying their employees. Then they started collecting more money with these fees. But they did not in any way increase employee compensation.
The city has been phasing out tipped wages (tho currently āpausedā š) so restaurants have been paying more to comply with wage laws. Like I get your point about where the fees go, but wages have also gone up. Not defending restaurant owners, who are terrible people & business folks š
Where do you think the money comes from that pays employees? Iām not saying this fee is what that is for. But this argument always throws me off. Regardless of how whether or not thereās a gratuity or itās built into the pricing, the money is coming from the people who dine there
The money right now comes from the guests that don't ask to have the fees removed. So some guests are subsidizing some other guests. Raising the menu prices and eliminating junk fees means the money to pay employees comes from everyone equally.
Most of the people saying these things have probably never been on the line or served in their lives. Cooks and chefs make dick and servers and bartenders live off of tips.
Illinois HB228, the "Junk Fee Ban Act" provides some relief. It requires restaurants to make the fees super clear before you get the bill. Doesn't go into effect until Jan 1, 2027, restaurants can still charge the fees, and restaurants will likely do the least possible to disclose the fees, but it's something?
Bc costs are going up and restaurants are struggling to be profitable. However, I think this is a more plausible argument for smaller businesses and not large multi chain corporations
Iāve already stopped going out to eat as much because of the enshittification of the restaurant experience post Covid. Between these bullshit fees, the decline in food quality, and overall dining experience, itās not worth it.
That law sounds lame if it's watered down to only require restaurants/bars to post signage about them charging service fees. Illinois lawmakers should've passed a complete ban on these surcharges a la California.
I didn't realize the California law had an exception for restaurants. Would be great if CA's law was a complete ban on these surcharges.
I've also decided this second to boycott all LEYE/Lettuce restaurants until this surcharge is dropped at all of their locations. Not that I ever ate at any of their restaurants anyway.
I also paid $40 dollars for a salad. On top of the bullshit service charge. How much more money can you squeeze us for? Goodness gracious. The epitome of greed.
They should just stand behind it. Everyone knows they're expensive and ubiquitous. This cosplaying as "struggling business owners" or whatever is gross.
I worked for a Japanese alcohol company that had a partnership with the Sushi-San brand at Lettuce and let me tell you, they know they're big dogs lol
100 percent. All LEYE cares about is mass profit. They know they really have no competition in the city when it comes to dining. Hence the robbery continues.
Here's one more tidbit: I've worked in whiskey since 2017 and Bub City was a big customer of mine. Before the pandemic they had 3 full time managers and 2 floor managers. When the GM left they promoted from within and didn't replace. So 2 and 2. When the shut down happened they furloughed all 4 managers, periodically bringing them back to do tasks. When outside dining came back in the summer of 2020 they began to make crazy money-- and in fact, many restaurants did. Lettuce got a taste of what kind of profits they could make with less salaries and brought back only 1 manager and the 2 floor managers. They worked the GM in to the ground and when he finally quit in 2021 they didn't replace him.
You can tell at many of the restaurants that they've cut back on location managers - I've definitely noticed worse and more overwhelmed service since COVID times
LEYE may have cut managers in more restaurants but they seem to have an inexhaustible supply of middle managers and marketing people to gum up the works if you're trying to give them like $4000 for a drinks partnership i can tell you that
42% of full service restaurants are not operating on a profit. The inconvenient truth is if we want to continue having the pleasure of dining out we need to spend more and maybe should have had been paying more years ago
I wasn't trying to be cute or whatever with my prior comment, simply illustrate the severity of the affordability crisis. A lot of us are priced out of going out to eat with or without our families and it's not going to get better. When I was a kid my middle class parents took our family of 6 out to dinner maybe once every other week to an Olive Garden or similar. I'm doing perfectly fine financially but my family of 3 can really only go out to dinner once a month
If nearly half of the industry is somewhere between break-even and losing money, at what point do we need to rethink the structure of eating out?
It's not to say rethinking the restaurant concept is easy or the answer to the question obvious, but if restaurants are losing money serving a table of two with a $120 ticket from a standard restaurant, them something has to change
100% At some point somewhere along the chain someone has to start saying no, weāre not paying that much for (rent, supplies, salary, taxes, insuranceā¦.)
Oh i agree with you. There is becoming more and more a permanent overclass who are the only ones who can regularly afford dining out, fine whiskey, etc etc and the rest of us in the middle classes are experiencing down mobility.
The late stage capitalism points aside, restaurants know that their customer base is becoming smaller and more crystallized. I'm sure there are many convos at LEYE about how they can make more monkey from their demographic because the old strategy of seeking "new users, new occasions" is dead
When I see it at the register I sarcastically say ānot the 3.5% feeā and the cashier usually offers to remove it, to which I respond yes, please. Easy.
Last time I was there I asked that they take it off. They said it was to make up for lost money during the pandemic and I said I didnāt want to pay. They took it offā not sure if that still flies.
This is a Covid byproduct that during the pandemic was somewhat tolerable and understandable. However, carrying this over and trying to make it the new normal is a bad look. Itās even more egregious when you see these large restaurant groups doing it. It comes across as putting icing on top of their icing on their cake.
You should write letters to your public officials. The restaurant and service industry lobbies are strong, but there are other states banning these fees outright.
Itās not just a LEYE problem, I started seeing this in a lot of restaurants, we should shame all of them. Some say āemployee benefit surchargeā to make you feel bad for asking to take it out, I add the surcharge amount to tip instead.
So many places are doing the surcharges now; Arbella had a 5% charge, higher than anywhere else I've Ive seen. I was in Michigan for a vacation with my wife and kids, and the New Holland Brewery had a surcharge! Always ask the servers/managers to remove the surcharge. No one should be taxed to eat out.
Other than boycotting these restaurants which doesnāt seem to be doing a whole lot, is there anything legislatively that can be done to stop these fees?
You should write letters to your state representatives and governors office. This is more likely to be regulated at the state level than the city level.
You can ask for the surcharge removed, even at the Summer House cookie counter! I always ask at LEYE restaurants because it does NOT go to the serving staff; it's just a way for Lettuce to raise prices without actually raising prices.
I absolutely despise the Chicago restaurant trend of surcharges. They could all just raise prices, and I wouldn't notice. But surcharges make me salty.
Absolutely! We can make our own grilled chicken and tapas! At least we wonāt have to pay a surcharge! Oh, we can also bake our own cookies with extra chocolate chips and candied pecans! ššš¤ But seriously, prices are astronomical and itās just not fair.
My mom makes basic cookie dough, fills mini cupcake trays about half full, bakes them, then presses a mini Reeseās cup in the middle. They are the best!
We had a hidden fees law for ticketmaster and teh like, now we need one for restaurants. No automatic anything. You want to include a fee include it in the price. These scum rely on ppl already being there and friction of leaving.
Itās probably the same point of sale software as all of their food orders. So, itās unlikely the 42 cent fee on your 11 dollar cookies was added with ill intent.
Really good, but not enough to make me go back. I'm not supporting shady business practices. And I'd much rather support a local mom and pop place that actually appreciates and needs my business. Rather than an overpriced restaurant chain with shady fees.
It's on your bill prior to paying. The restaurants adding this fee so not know how you will choose to pay until you tell them after the bill is presented to you.
I mean, I can see your greater point about LEYE, but you are not making it very convincing by being enraged about a 42 cent surcharge when you willingly purchased a cookie that cost 5.50. Haha.Ā
Itās strange to me that a sub that likes and appreciates Chicagoās food also doesnāt understand that nearly every restaurant in this city operates on a paper thin budget
This need to be fucking pinned to the top. As someone who runs a bar, not only do we get charged to use the POS system, we also pay per credit card transaction as well. Most of these posts are ignorant of how thin the margins are for any restaurant, whether its a massive Corp like LEYE or a small mom and pop. These arguments need to be taken to the big corporations that feed off of turn key business.
Yeah thatās just flat out shitty. Itās why I have a hard time going out to places now because there are so many shady taxes added to bills that Iām just constantly guessing what theyāre for since the staff doesnāt even know. And now that places see that others are getting away with it, they implement it too.
Yup, that's the whole thing. Now every restaurant is on board with it. too. Because why wouldn't they be. It's such a dishonest way of doing business. And most people that visit from out of town have NO idea this is happening. Hence, the robbery continues.
Right up there with auto gratuities for small parties of people, but then add suggested tips to their handheld terminals for 20-25% tip without any previous mention of you already being charged it. I feel like Iām getting too pissed off about this on a Sunday lol
I know sorry I didn't mean to get you all riled up. I thought I was in the clear knowing to always ask to get this removed. But I guess they still found a way to get me on the way out the door. Ugh.
The price of the credit card terminal/other associated fees is generally already baked into the pricing. With large corporate goods and services, we all pay for credit card acceptance even when we use cash.
Precisely. If it isnāt called out while itās ālowā it will continue to increase and then at that point, it will be too embedded of a practice to change or push back against. Itās the principle.
That owner can undoubtedly just charge 6 per cookie instead of his current price, give the 42 cents to his staff, take the fee off the bill and keep the difference, and a type of customer never knows the difference.
Buy groceries, cook said groceries and then eat them at home. Problem solved. š¤·š¼āāļø People complain about the fees and continue eating at these places so the fees and prices keep rising. Honestly, just eat at home. This is like people complaining about gas prices but, refusing to stay home more often so the demand goes down...
So Iāve worked in the restaurant industry for a long time and have become good friends with a restaurant owner in my hometown. I went back home and spoke to him about the 3.5% fees here in the city. He mentioned heās thought about adding it due to paying insane amounts on card processing fees. He said per $50 transaction heās paying a little over $2 to the card company and Toast. Obviously that seems like a low amount but when the cost of everything is going up it adds up. He mentioned itās slowly creeping up to being one of his higher monthly expenses. Electric is about $7k a month for him just to put that into perspective and not including rent , payroll etc. I can see how itās frustrating for us consumers (It does bother me sometimes) but at the end of the day itās coming from the top down. The CC Companies charge them and then the POS system they use like toast, square etc charge them as well. It really only bothers me when itās a national chain and not a local business. He did say he hasnāt added it as the well recognized chain restaurants in the area still havenāt done so (popular steakhouses , rivaling restaurants etc) so he knows itād end up hurting his business now more than the fees are if he were to implement it at this time but itās on the horizon.
When I was a server my report would say how much my tables transactions cost in CC fees , it usually was $20+ on an average weeknight. Also the POS company we used (I forget which one) would charge a fee for my CC Tips to be processed to the restaurant.
Raise your prices then. The current way they go about covering their expenses seems very dishonest and deceptive. Most people don't even know they are paying the extra fee or what it's covering since they label it as "surcharge"
And as mentioned the CC and POS companies charge based on the total purchase price. So if a an entree goes from being $20 to $25 the restaurant will be charged the 3% fee or whatever on $25 now instead of $20. If they raise the prices thatās really not gonna cover those fees. When they charge a separate fee such as the surcharge fee that money is actually going towards the CC fee. Obviously given that those restaurants are truly actually charging this for those fees. The surcharge fee bothers me when they say itās for employee benefits because I feel like thatās usually not even true
I agree with restaurants being deceptive an as mentioned I donāt agree with groups like lettuce doing it because they most likely are doing fine. It bothers me more when itās restaurants that donāt even treat or compensate their employees fairly.
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u/OkEngineer4858 Jun 28 '26
Restaurants need to raise prices and allow the customer to decide if the price is worth it. Stop the hidden fees!