Posted on 05/15/2020 5:06:02 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
A $2.19 coronavirus "surcharge" spotted in a receipt at a restaurant in Missouri started a backlash earlier this month. “Scuse me … what? A covid surcharge…?” a Twitter user wrote in a post showing a Kiko Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Lounge patron's receipt that included a “covid 19 surcharge.” The tweet quickly went viral with people upset by the extra charge, the New York Post reported.
"If I ever see this on a bill I wld not pay it," one user wrote. "I’m tryin to recoup too. Who am I suppose to bill ??? Is this evn legal ?"
But the West Plains restaurant isn’t the only establishment adding a little to the bill. As restaurants struggle to keep their doors open amid stay-at-home orders, some feel it’s a necessary addition.
In San Diego, a Mexican restaurant announced it was charging $1 extra for carne asada due to a meat shortage and in Michigan, a burger place is adding another dollar to each meal because of foot traffic they've lost, according to FOX 17 in Grand Rapids and KFMB-TV in San Diego.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Nobody like a surcharge, just make the prices higher or burgers smaller.....................................
Restaurants who want to live will be offering free drinks.
I fully expect any situation that forces a business to operate at reduced capacity to cause a price increase.
Government regulations cost money
Eating out is not essential.
I can cook better at home in a cleaner environment, less stressful environment, and I know what’s in my food.
I am really confused on this.
So, they are finally allwed to reopen. And in order to attract customers to come back. And thank them for coming out to their places they are going to whack them with nuisance fees?
This is now a “dine in” sur-charge?
Seems pretty silly now that people are used to take out. And the restaurants make most of their money on people sitting in their places and drinking hugely marked up alcohol.
“Eating out is not essential.”
It is for the guy who owns the restaurant.
And his or her staff.
And the suppliers.
And the people who work for the suppliers.
And the people who package the food for the suppliers.
And the people who make the packaging for the suppliers.
And on and on and on..
L
In order to attract customers capitalist businesses should lower their prices and lose money. Who needs profits?
[for the idiots who need it, here is the sarcasm tag]
So the magic money fairy is going to cover the increased overhead apportionment due to reduced capacity, the gloves, the masks, the disinfectants and increased labor to run a covid safe environment? Send him or her my way. I need some magic money too.
At least as a surcharge you can expect it to drop off the pricing structure when this crap is all over.
Because we all know how opposed the Dems are to deficits and debt...
“And in order to attract customers to come back. And thank them for coming out to their places they are going to whack them with nuisance fees?’
Restaurants are a business. They have overhead and fees to pay. The income generated must exceed expenses for them to stay in business.
Due to Covid-19 fears many state and local governments are now limiting restaurants to 25% of their former seating capacity. If your economic model requires 50% occupancy, and the state allows you use only 25% of your seats, to survive the business must still find a way to generate enough revenue to cover expenses. Unless the landlord is willing to reduce the rent by 50%, the utility companies are willing to reduce their charges by 50%, the food vendors and the employees will also decrease their costs, the owner of the restaurant must find another way to increase revenue or shut down. Hence the Covid 19 surcharge.
When government regulates a market, in this case mandating the restaurant owner serve fewer customers, costs go up. The potential customer can choose to pay the surcharge, patronize another establishment, or eat at home.
I’ve been doing take out and finally into sit down sports bars. I know they have had a tough time of it, my response, I tip extremely well. But...I will not pay a covid surcharge. That’s insane. Won’t pay it.
These people are not monopolists — not even close — and they need to cover their fixed costs; so the social media crowd should leave them alone. Galling how leftists have so little to say about a semi-monopolistic U-Tube that controls so much of what they can see or hear.
Businesses need to recoup their costs to be profitable. If this amount represents the cost of employee PPE/ sanitation it should become part of overhead and rolled into pricing as a percentage increase. Listing as a line item surcharge is a poor business practice (lazy) and leads to customer dissatisfaction.
The “stimulus” was undeserved for anyone who had not lost their income, either as a retiree, or as someone whose business was not closed by government mandate, or as one of their employees, or as a government employee. The money to all such groups was not money really needed, “essential” or necessary.
The only stimulus money that was deserved were to those whose losses, of employment, income, or business were created by the “lock down” mandates imposed by state government edicts. The rest of us did not lose our incomes and didn’t need a “stimulus”.
I think a big chunk of the “stimulus” has not “stimulated” anything. It’s gone into increased savings of us folks that were not among the people that lost their incomes, jobs and businesses. I understand their “surcharge”. They were forced out of business by government edict on the premise doing so was “saving lives”, “saving” our lives presumably. I don’t accept the premise completely, but I also doubt the government “stimulus” will ever recover all the losses of most small companies. As one whose income was not deprived by government action, I will pay the surcharge without complaint.
I don’t mind the surcharge because it is the only way some restaurant can operate under draconian government regulations like stupid reduced seating requirements.
However, pizza delivery did this during the last big gas shortage and it’s still there - years and years later.
2.19 isn’t such a huge mark up on the bill shown; I think I’d be outraged if I was not warned about it in advance then suddenly confronted with the charge on my bill.
If I had been warned in advance, then I would make a decision to either get a slightly less expensive selection to keep the final bill within a set limit, decide that the mark up was not a big deal, or eat somewhere else.
Also with this bill...because of the unevenness of the surcharge( $0.19??!!) it appears they may be applying a percentage AFTER the sales tax. That’s dirty pool!
That's a recipe for failure.
It won't be the money fairy visiting these restaurants, it will be their banks with foreclosure notices.
The restaurants that succeed are going to be those that can entice customers to come back. Surcharges aren't exactly enticements.
I agree, a more tactful way would have been to increase the pricing across the menu items or to simply announce on the menus that a set surcharge will be added.....people hate surprises!
At least the chopsticks are free
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