Restaurants Fees - Take out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seventy cents seems perfectly reasonable to cover the extra labor and materials cost for a to go order

What extra labor and materials? Fish Taco is not a fancy restaurant. In fact, a takeout order probably entails less labor and fewer materials than an eat-in one does.

Someone has to pack up your order. If you eat in that person is paid by your tips but for to go orders it’s more work for someone else. Also they have to have to go boxes, cup etc.

It's not either/or. Fish Taco is a fast casual place and if you eat in, you order at the counter, pick up at the counter, and eat off paper/plastic at your table:



The to-go wrapping, cups, etc. are no different from the eat-in ones, and packing up an order entails no more effort than putting it on a tray.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seventy cents seems perfectly reasonable to cover the extra labor and materials cost for a to go order

What extra labor and materials? Fish Taco is not a fancy restaurant. In fact, a takeout order probably entails less labor and fewer materials than an eat-in one does.

Someone has to pack up your order. If you eat in that person is paid by your tips but for to go orders it’s more work for someone else. Also they have to have to go boxes, cup etc.

It's not either/or. Fish Taco is a fast casual place and if you eat in, you order at the counter, pick up at the counter, and eat off paper/plastic at your table:



The to-go wrapping, cups, etc. are no different from the eat-in ones, and packing up an order entails no more effort than putting it on a tray.

Actually, Fish Taco brings you the food and they clean up after you. We ate at the Wildwood location on Sunday.

[Anonymous]

I ate at Original House of Pancakes last week in Bethesda. They have a surcharge but they don't indicate how much it's for. It's on the menu and on the receipt....but how do I know they are charging every table the same amount if it's not written down? I contacted the MoCo state attorney office but no reply....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They lose a lot of revenue when you do takeout. Waiters, busboys, etc don’t get tipped out when there’s no table service. No alcoholic drinks, which usually has a large chunk of the restaurant markup. You can spare the buck.

I sincerely enjoy watching these businesses lose customers and go out of business.
I can do without the restaurant experience.

Exactly. Make good tasty food and you will get a stream of customers and won’t need to mark it up

You obviously know nothing about the restaurant industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I ate at Original House of Pancakes last week in Bethesda. They have a surcharge but they don't indicate how much it's for. It's on the menu and on the receipt....but how do I know they are charging every table the same amount if it's not written down? I contacted the MoCo state attorney office but no reply....

Was it their “temporary inflation fee”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I order Doordash from 1 restaurant near our house occasionally, and generally get about the same amount of food for 3 people each time. They email me receipts. In 2021 it was $75. In 2022 it was $100. Now it’s $130. And portions have gotten smaller, my husband complains and there’s few leftovers. I’m willing to pay for delivery but the increase and extra fees hurt.

I went to order District Taco through Door Dash a few weeks ago and noticed that the menu prices on Door Dash were all higher than through District Taco directly. And then add fees and tip, and I decided to order direct. I knew that Door Dash had fees but I hadn't realized that they also increased the menu prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I ate at Original House of Pancakes last week in Bethesda. They have a surcharge but they don't indicate how much it's for. It's on the menu and on the receipt....but how do I know they are charging every table the same amount if it's not written down? I contacted the MoCo state attorney office but no reply....

Was it their “temporary inflation fee”?

Yes, that's what they called me, and they did not list how much the fee was for but I figured it was about 5% (for me) on my bill. The people at the table next to me could be paying 10%, no one knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I order Doordash from 1 restaurant near our house occasionally, and generally get about the same amount of food for 3 people each time. They email me receipts. In 2021 it was $75. In 2022 it was $100. Now it’s $130. And portions have gotten smaller, my husband complains and there’s few leftovers. I’m willing to pay for delivery but the increase and extra fees hurt.

I went to order District Taco through Door Dash a few weeks ago and noticed that the menu prices on Door Dash were all higher than through District Taco directly. And then add fees and tip, and I decided to order direct. I knew that Door Dash had fees but I hadn't realized that they also increased the menu prices.

Door dash charges the restaurant a (pretty high) fee so the cost is passed onto customers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I order Doordash from 1 restaurant near our house occasionally, and generally get about the same amount of food for 3 people each time. They email me receipts. In 2021 it was $75. In 2022 it was $100. Now it’s $130. And portions have gotten smaller, my husband complains and there’s few leftovers. I’m willing to pay for delivery but the increase and extra fees hurt.

I went to order District Taco through Door Dash a few weeks ago and noticed that the menu prices on Door Dash were all higher than through District Taco directly. And then add fees and tip, and I decided to order direct. I knew that Door Dash had fees but I hadn't realized that they also increased the menu prices.

It’s like Instacart. You’re paying a markup for convenience.

[Anonymous]

That is absurd. They have to put the food in a container regardless of it you eat there or eat out and if you eat in there are other costs associated. I stopped going to lots of places I liked due to smaller portions and I don't eat much so if I am still hungry there is a problem, insanely high prices and extra fees. You read online and see how restaurants are doing well and expanding and the best way to get their attention is to stop going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I order Doordash from 1 restaurant near our house occasionally, and generally get about the same amount of food for 3 people each time. They email me receipts. In 2021 it was $75. In 2022 it was $100. Now it’s $130. And portions have gotten smaller, my husband complains and there’s few leftovers. I’m willing to pay for delivery but the increase and extra fees hurt.

I went to order District Taco through Door Dash a few weeks ago and noticed that the menu prices on Door Dash were all higher than through District Taco directly. And then add fees and tip, and I decided to order direct. I knew that Door Dash had fees but I hadn't realized that they also increased the menu prices.

It’s like Instacart. You’re paying a markup for convenience.

This, stop with the delivery services. We don't use them except if we are sick or absolutely necessary if they charge higher fees.

(Walmart for food is great as they deliver without extra fees and you just need to tip but even with a tip its far cheaper than other places).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They lose a lot of revenue when you do takeout. Waiters, busboys, etc don’t get tipped out when there’s no table service. No alcoholic drinks, which usually has a large chunk of the restaurant markup. You can spare the buck.

I sincerely enjoy watching these businesses lose customers and go out of business.
I can do without the restaurant experience.

Exactly. Make good tasty food and you will get a stream of customers and won’t need to mark it up

You obviously know nothing about the restaurant industry.

I’m in the restaurant industry and two of our restaurants do not do takeout. The chef said it would compromise the food, etc. You can’t even order a dish to go at the end of the meal, the only way food is leaving in a box is as leftovers or if you beg and plead and she takes pity on you. We have another restaurant that does do takeout. It’s a bbq restaurant where you order at the counter and then seat yourself. Someone will clear your plate if you do not, but the front of the house service costs and expected tipping is far far less.

So for the taco example, they are already operating without much of a front of the house budget. Incrementally, takeout is more profitable than dine in, because there is no opportunity cost of losing seats and no one cleans up, the trash is not the responsibility of the restaurant, no one is using the bathrooms, etc. But the biggest bonus is that they lose no dine in customers and can sell more food. Imagine if you walked into a restaurant there were 20 people waiting and no table available? You might walk out, but with takeout, the restaurant can serve all those people.

For a restaurant with table service, takeout is much more profitable because it doesn’t require a waiter, a host, busboys, and doesn’t clog up a table. We did the math with the two restaurants that don’t do takeout. In addition to 60 covers a night, they could do 60 takeout orders by adding an extra cook to prep earlier in the day and one or two to the evening shift and a person to coordinate the orders etc. So in terms of personnel, it would be about 1/2 what is needed for dine in. We even discussed setting up a ghost kitchen, which would have really raked it in. But it was all about the quality of the food for the diners, so none of it happened.

The economics of restaurants are tough because there are so many ways to lose control and lose money. Too generous drink pours, food wastage, too high food costs, lightfingered bartenders, too many comps to “friends and family”, payroll mismanagement, paying everyone overtime, kitchen equipment disaster, kitchen fire, rats, bad review. It’s a lot of juggling. But if you think you are being overcharged, vote with your wallet.