Restaurant Surcharges

[Anonymous]

I know there is more and more of this -
Why not just raise menu prices?

Here is something I saw recently and although I fully support all the it covers - IMO should be baked into the costs for items on the menu.
"Wellness Charge: We believe hospitality begins with a healthy team and a stable, equitable work environment. To ensure both, a 5% surcharge is added to all dine-in checks that supports free mental health resources for our teams and their families, access to health insurance, paid sick leave, and increased operating costs. "

[Anonymous]

Great, sounds like a 15% tip then.

[Anonymous]

It's a dishonest way of increasing prices without looking like prices have increased.

There was another thread about this. I would pay it once, complain to the manager, and never go back to that restaurant until/unless the deceptive practice ends.

This sort of thing will continue as long as customers are willing to pay it. Same for "resort fees" at hotels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a dishonest way of increasing prices without looking like prices have increased.

There was another thread about this. I would pay it once, complain to the manager, and never go back to that restaurant until/unless the deceptive practice ends.

This sort of thing will continue as long as customers are willing to pay it. Same for "resort fees" at hotels.

Ugh the worst! $50/night for what, wifi??? 2 bottles of water?? I'll use my data and grab my own water, thanks.

[Anonymous]

When Target advertises product X for $99, then I'd be 'somewhat taken aback' if I went there and discovered the product is $99, but there's also mandatory warehouse fee of $39 and checkout fee of $19. Both displayed in tiny print somewhere, of course.

I think restaurants shouldn't be allowed to display prices as lower than what they actually are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know there is more and more of this -
Why not just raise menu prices?

Here is something I saw recently and although I fully support all the it covers - IMO should be baked into the costs for items on the menu.
"Wellness Charge: We believe hospitality begins with a healthy team and a stable, equitable work environment. To ensure both, a 5% surcharge is added to all dine-in checks that supports free mental health resources for our teams and their families, access to health insurance, paid sick leave, and increased operating costs. "

It’s the last thing that makes this incredibly disingenuous. Exactly how much of this extra charge is really going to health resources for staff, and how much is going to whatever else “increased operating costs” covers? Generally restaurants seem to be doing it this way rather than baking it in because the only way to get people to pay this is to essentially trick them. People won’t choose something that costs more, so they price it the same and then add the extra on at the end.