Posted on 01/27/2020 5:20:07 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehustle.co ...
I think it goes back to my childhood.
My parents were missionaries and when you went to someone house they would offer you food and you had to accept. You did not serve yourself you ate what ever they gave you in the amount they gave you. Clean plate. Because we were bigger then they were we would get served big heaping piles of food. Tasty but choking it down could be a real chore. And they would stand around and watch you eat.
It apparently flipped a switch somewhere in our brains because as a family we tend to eat until we are full and then stop. That is the real treat.
I worked in a buffet restaurant when I was in high school.
Amazing that I didn’t get to 300 pounds.
Most media sites let you return to the trough if you simply clear their cookies. A fee are more tenacious.
And no, I am over here being taxed to death in CT, not in the area.
Uh...not in our house. ;)
“I think the casinos figured out that people would come and lose their money anyway, so they raised the food prices.”
That is how I see it. I go sometimes twice a year for the SEMA show and CES. It is difficult to find healthy reasonably priced food in a hotel casino if you are not into the buffet.
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