Reply to Restaurants' sneaky fees -- a guide

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I haven’t studied the fees controversy in depth but it always seemed to me that restaurants were using it as the scapegoat for raising prices by adding fees. The tipped wage increase should have just been added to the cost of doing business but owners would rather add fees in random ways that result in more revenue under the guise of “but you voted for this!”[/quote]

When you ask people in the restaurant industry about this, they'll say they can't just raise prices to cover the costs because then people won't come to eat/drink there because it will be too expensive. This is pretty explicitly an admission that the fees are *intentionally* misleading, to bring people in with artificially low prices and then hit them with extra fees on the backend when they can't do anything about it. But people in the restaurant industry in DC think this is a persuasive argument.

And the whole thing obscures the larger issue, which is that if you can't figure out how to offer your product/service at a price people are willing to pay, then your business model is fundamentally bankrupt. Now this isn't entirely the fault of bars and restaurants -- as is the case with many cost issues in DC, a lot of the blame lies with landlords who overcharge on rent because they are inadequately disincentivized to leave storefronts empty (they can use them to declare a business loss and write down taxes, and DC doesn't not sufficiently penalize landlords who don't make real efforts to find tenants for commercial spaces). But it's still annoying when we have so many restaurants and bars charging these fees specifically to trick customers into dining there, thinking it costs less than it does, but then complain that this is the only possible way for them to stay afloat as a business. Then your business is bad! [b]No one made you open a restaurant.[/b][/quote]

No one made you eat at restaurants either.  The vast majority of people whining here about fees and tipping can easily afford both but yet they have nothing better to do than act like they are being bled dry by such costs.  It's pathetic.  [/quote]

Then assumption that every single person who dines at a restaurant can "easily" afford to pay both a 20% service charge and a 20% gratuity over the listed menu prices is precisely why people don't want to go to these restaurants. A lot of people have created this false dichotomy where the world is composed of waiters and rich people and no one else.

No, friend. Middle class people go to restaurants. Grad students on teaching stipends go to bars. Lots of people have limited budgets for dining out or getting drinks and when every time the go, they have to pay 40% more for service, it results in them going out less.

If you only want to serve rich people, get a job at Minibar or go work at a resort in Aspen and maybe they won't complain about these charges. If you are a waiter at a middling restaurant in Logan Circle or Capitol Hill serving a mix of working stiffs, families, and tourists, expect people to complain because no, not everyone can afford to pay this garbage.[/quote]

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