Lawmakers want to crack down on “junk fees,” but restaurants are trying to stay out of the fight.
Surcharges or fees covering everything from credit card processing to gratuities to “inflation” have become more popular on restaurant checks in recent years.
Last year, 15% of restaurant owners added surcharges or fees to checks because of higher costs, according to the National Restaurant Association. In the second quarter, 3.7% of restaurant transactions processed by Square included a service fee, more than double the beginning of 2022, according to a recent report from the company.
Opponents of the practice say those fees and surcharges may surprise customers, hoodwinking them into paying more for their meals at a time when their wallets are already feeling thin. Fed-up diners compiled spreadsheets via Reddit of restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and D.C. charging hidden fees. Even the Onion took a swing at the practice, publishing a satirical story in May with the headline “Restaurant Check Includes 3% Surcharge To Provide Owner’s Sugar Baby With Birkin.”
Note that by “stay out of the fight” the article means “stay out of the Biden administration’s crosshairs” which actually means something different.
Restaurant operators say the fees keep their menu prices lower
lmao, they just want to use deceptive pricing in their menu.
Fuck that, increase the price of your stuff instead of being dishonest.
“Lying about our prices on the menu keeps the prices on the menu lower!”
They should have started cracking down years ago when restaurants started charging “delivery fees” that the delivery drivers didn’t get.
- get rid of ridiculous fees
- get rid of tips
- pay your staff a living wage with proper benefits
- set real prices on the menu to account for the above
Which is what restaurants in a number of places that are not the US actually do.
And if we aren’t willing to pay those prices we can let the industry shrink. I love restaurants, but I see people using them as a convenience instead of a night out but that makes financial sense some places but not here not today.
As someone who grew up in the US and worked in nearly every position in a restaurant (from serving to cooking to managing) and now lives in another country, it’s wild how cheap restaurants are in the US. They can definitely shrink. Maybe at that point we might do something about food deserts. I’m also not sure if/how it’s correlated with the obesity epidemic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also a factor.
All listed prices should be the final maximum cost for any specific product. “Additional fees may apply” should not be allowed, as they exist to deceive the user about the final cost.
Upcharges for additional things is fine, as long as the customer knows what the additional cost is.
Also, tipping needs to fuck off and all employees need to be paid a living wage. If businesses can’t pay a living wage they don’t need to exist.
Yup, at this point it’s just false advertising. Per the article, restaurant owners are saying they want to keep menu prices low as to not scare off customers, which is really just a fancy way of saying they’d rather bait them on the promise of low prices, and then ram the full cost of the meal up their asses at the end of it.
Just roll everything (cost/taxes/tips/fees) into the menu price. This constant bait and switch in the US needs to finally die. If you won’t survive by showing the true costs your customers need to pay, maybe you need to rethink your business model or find a new profession.
The way I see it, if a restaurant can’t provide a living wage and also provide reasonably priced food, then the restaurant is being run poorly and the money is not being managed properly.
And/or the cost of materials is also extortionate. I’m sure Sysco and other restaurant supply companies have also jacked their rates in recent years.
The thing is, they most non chain restaurants could just buy locally and it’ll be cheaper. It just takes some elbow grease and effort which owners don’t wanna do for better quality stuff.
I know it’s possible cause every trendy area I’ve gone to eat at has restaurants advertising local produce from farmers market and they’re prices are always the same or cheaper than other trendy restaurants in the area.
That would require taking the time to actually go out and do the shopping, as opposed to filling out an order sheet and having it brought to their door. Don’t get me wrong, I’m with you, I just don’t see many of the chefs/restaurant owners I know having that kind of time. Margins are already razor thin in that industry as it is, thus why they’re all so crazy about labor costs, and they’re already wearing so many hats to not have to hire someone to do things because they’d end up in the red. It’s not a great business to be in as an independent unless you can manage stupid low rent. But this is also why the chains/corps can thrive the way they do, they have the buying power to actually squeeze out a profit.
Yea that’s also why the quality of a lot of those type of restaurants is mid.
abiutbthe fi al
You okay?
My thumbs must have had a seizure!
THIS is why we need Government OUT OF OUR LIVES (except in the Bedroom and Doctors Office)! If these Regulations go away then OBVIOUSLY Prices will DROP!
So those restaurants don’t want visitors anymore? What kind of shortsighted idiots run those places?
Comments like this are just the definition of irony…
I’ve never been to a restaurant with fees and if I ever found one, I wouldn’t be going there. I rarely eat out anymore at all though. High prices for mediocre food and mediocre service keep me away.
Get rid of banks processing and merchant fees to start. Banks can make it by just fine without those.
How enforceable are these fees? Like if I sat down, ordered from the menu with whatever set prices they had in the menu, get back a bill with fees added on that I never agreed to, what would happen if I just refused to pay those fees? Like I’m not coming back either way, so don’t care if they ban me, but can a restaurant tack on whatever they want and the police would treat it as a non-payment of what’s due or is the legal obligation only for the food ordered plus reasonable expectations added on (such as taxes, though personally I also believe they should be included in the advertised price)?
If it is listed on the menu, you must pay it. I can see if it’s not mentioned that you could make the case it’s BS, though
Give me the real price or I will go elsewhere.
Am I the only one? The whole thing of charging 4% if someone’s paying by credit card, because that’s what it costs to run their credit card, makes perfect sense to me.
Maybe it is because I used to be involved with a business that paid credit card fees. What we eventually wound up doing was publishing prices that were nice round numbers that roughly included the CC fees, giving a discount below the published prices for cash payments, and including a separate 3% CC fee onto custom quotes that were itemized, if people were paying with a card. That seemed like a pretty solid system. But yeah I definitely get it if a restaurant wants to say that there’s a certain percent fee if you’re paying with a card.
“Cost of living adjustment” can fuck off though
Keep in mind, these “service charges” are usually double to triple what the actual thing costs…
Cash has fees associated with it too when you have a business bank account. It’s probably not a as high but might be now that there is so much cashless.
?
What do you mean? Depositing $100 has always credited me $100. There are monthly fees and etc associated with the account sometimes, but they are irrespective of whether you’re depositing cash.
Usually what we would be trying to motivate people towards is ACH instead of credit card (very low fee but still everything automatic, not a pain in the ass like cash is). But idk of any cash fees associated with any business account I’ve ever been involved with.
Page 11 as an example: https://www.chase.com/content/dam/chase-ux/documents/personal/checking/biz-how-your-transaction-will-work.pdf
It’s pretty low comparatively but not usually free.
Cash deposited at ATMs: No charge.
I do see the 0.25% fee for teller cash deposits but (a) that’s nowhere near as high as CC fee and basically not worth worrying about (b) generally speaking I don’t do that unless I had some massive wad of cash, the ATM is far more convenient unless you have a big pile all at once
Cash discount is the way to go. Price is the price but offering discounts is fine.
“Restaurant operators say the fees keep their menu prices lower, improve employee compensation and are better for customers.”
HA!!! *but we want it this way so people don’t realize how expensive their meal will actually be until they’ve already eaten and it’s too late. We want to hide our profit grab in innocuous fees that visually feel like non-negotiable taxes they are just used to paying without objection!!!"
The weirdest one has been watching the “15%+ service fee” go from groups of 8 to 5 in only 2 years.
Also an easier way to alleviate junk fees would be to remove credit card transaction fees.
You know the thing that banks have been exploiting for decades to make profit out of virtually nothing.
It’s like paying for gamepass but for every time you open the game.
And don’t come in here saying that it covers PCI DSS requirement. This technology is cheaper to run than a rassberrypi mining dodgecoin.
There are quite a few places around me that add a service fee for everyone. I don’t frequent those places. Which is sad because some of them actually have good food.
Just make people pay the fee when they dine and you will see how many switch to other payment options
Restaurants are seconds away from charging a per-bite subscription to their menu. 30 bites per month individual plan or shared 150 bites per month family plan
- Any large bites count as 3 bites
- All bites where you open your mouth are categorized as large bites.
- Uneaten food is evaluated by our proprietary AI and given a remaining bite count (which is then doubled and subtracted from your regaining monthly bite total as a penalty).
