The economics of all-you-can-eat buffets

The Hustle ^ | 25 Jan 2020 | ZACHARY CROCKETT

[DUMBGRUNT]

Like most restaurants, buffets operate on extremely thin margins: For every $20 in revenue, $19 might go toward overhead, leaving $1 (5%) in net profit.

Larry’s got a reputation around town for being a gourmand. He’s got an appetite that puts Homer Simpson to shame — and on this particular day, he’s ready to do some serious damage.

Larry pays his $20 and proceeds to eat 5 servings of steak and chicken, far more than the average customer.

The cost of this food to the buffet amounts to $16.90. This means that after factoring in other expenses, Larry has handed the restaurant a loss of -$8.50.

While the restaurant loses $8.50 on Larry, it makes $3.70 from the under-eater and still takes in its steady $1 margin on the average eater.

. Over the years, buffets have made headlines for kicking out guests who eat too much:

A 6’6″, 350-pound Wisconsin man was removed from a buffet after downing 12 fried fish fillets (and subsequently arrested for protesting outside). A German triathlete was asked to prematurely leave an $18.95 buffet after consuming 100 plates of sushi. A woman was booted from a Golden Corral for eating all the brownies, then attempting to smuggle home extras in her purse.

[DUMBGRUNT]

I swore off many years ago after a feast at the Boston Sea Party. Like a python that swallowed something too much... and a multi-day gestation period. NEVERMORE.

[shelterguy]

I go to a buffet whenever I feel like getting ecoli or botulism poisoning.

[2111USMC]

I very seldom go to buffets.

The times I have, the first thing I’ve noticed is that 95% of the clientele are people who should NOT be eating at a buffet.

[irishjuggler]

I occasionally go to these things at Vegas casinos when I’m with people who want to go. Overeating isn’t something that I like to do, but it’s a rare bird who goes to one of those places and doesn’t overeat. Basically, unless you have an eating disorder of some sort, it’s impossible not to be tempted into trying multiple entrees, sides and desserts. Hard to imagine that that the casinos aren’t losing money on most buffet customers. Presumably, though, they’re making it up on the gaming floor.

[Fungi]

Go to a restaurant, order a normal meal and you are satiated. Go to a buffet and somehow your appetite becomes insatiable. How does that compute?

[EvilCapitalist]

Two friends and I would go to the Ponderosa buffet while we were teenagers in High School. We’d wipe-out the chicken wings.

[cyclotic]

I travel a ton for work. I’m surprised my boss hasn’t questioned all the Chines Buffet’s on my expense reports

[posterchild]

Vegas: The only place where you can lose $5K on a saturday night and still be excited to find a $1.99 buffet on Sunday morning.

[DouglasKC]

When I eat at a buffet I want my money’s worth and then some so if I know I’m going it’s my only meal of the day.

[wgmalabama]

Fat slobs eating like pigs at a trough. Buffets are diseased Petrie dishes. All those unwashed hands on the trough utensils. Cheap crappy food for the cheap crappy masses. People licking their fingers, picking noses, .... then getting another load of crap from the line. You think they wash their hands after going to the bathroom lol. Watch the kids. They will just use their hands to grab something. Disgusting.

I admit my hatred of buffets is close to psychotic.

[Chickensoup]

Vegas: The only place where you can lose $5K on a saturday night and still be excited to find a $1.99 buffet on Sunday morning.

LOL

[shelterguy]

“””””Two friends and I would go to the Ponderosa buffet while we were teenagers in High School.””””””””””””

Yes, good times. Same with Bonanza. Of course the best was the Bunch O Lunch at Shakeys Pizza.

But now living in Minnepaolistan with gobs of skinnies and other third worlders everywhere I wouldn’t touch one.

[Moonmad27]

I do miss the Carnival World buffet at the Rio in Vegas. Moving from LA back home to Texas made a frequent trip to Vegas a little less possible.

[Fightin Whitey]

Wait till the power all goes down.

Then you will see psychotic.

[cyclotic]

I just got back from a week in Las Vegas. It’s probably the tenth time I’ve been there, all for work.

It’s also the tenth time I’ve lost exactly $0.00. That’s because I played $0.00

I truly despise Las Vegas.

[cyclotic]

We ate there last week. Was very good but far from great.

[OttawaFreeper]

I noticed that buffets were that much more common in Virginia when I went down there (Alexandria, Charlottesville, and Williamsburg) this past May compared to my locale up in the Great White North. The Wood Grill in Charlottesville that I went to was not bad, but I don’t think I’d want to make that a habit if I actually lived in that locale, lol.

[C210N]

People licking their fingers, picking noses, .... then getting another load of crap from the line.

No different from the paid servers in some places.

[Viking2002]

LOLOL Let me tell you a quick one: my brother-in-law (one of them, anyway) I nicknamed Uncle Fester, for many valid reasons. (Imagine the genetically-mutated love child of Uncle Fester and Ernest T. Bass, looks like Jackie Coogan, and you get the idea.) Well, back when Hurricane Katrina hit Nawlins, my other brother-in-law (who owns a trailer moving business), got hooked up with a contract to move FEMA trailers around down there. One evening, the two of them and their CDL pilot went to an all-you-can-eat buffet at one of those choke-n-puke cafeterias that didn't get too beat up by the storm. After he ate a steak, he got up to go get some steamed Gulf shrimp, another patron in line got the last of the current pan, and he raised holy hell with the customer and the line staff. Well, it took them another 20 minutes to get a fresh pan prepped. He sat there, waiting, and was more steamed than the shrimp. LOL He got up from the table, went over to the serving cart, and took the whole damn tray of shrimp. LOL! The line server said, "Sir, that tray is meant for the buffet line, you'll have to bring your plate." Fester pointed at the menu board on the wall and said, "You see that sign? It says 'All You Can Eat Buffet $12.99'! Well, by God, I am eating all of it, you sumbitch!" A few minutes later he got into it with the shift manager and they had to leave since someone had called the cops. Word has it he stuffed his coat pockets with shrimp on the way out the door. LOLOL!!!

[EvilCapitalist]

My Uncle lives in Vegas now, but used to live in Florida. When visiting Vegas he used to spend $10.00 in pennies on the penny slots, and then tour Vegas on the double-decker bus.