Another thing people miss is how inflation creates disaster in the supply chain.
Restaurants have to pay much higher costs for everything from food to lighting to wages. The short sighted corporate response is often to start cutting corners on the quality of the food. Doesn’t take very many poor quality meals to lose the senior crowd.
Restaurants have usually absorbed the cost of carryout containers and bags but those items can easily add about 5 - 10% to the cost of materials.
Since carryout was their bread and butter during the pandemic persecution they understandably don’t want to charge a “carryout fee” but...