[central_va]

That is just wage inflation, you gotta add in food cost inflation, utility inflation, and maintenance inflation. Inflation is hitting all expense line items of a companies P&L.

That is not what they said, instead the told this whopper:

"California-based El Pollo Locos are raising prices significantly because of the minimum wage increase in the chain’s home state."

[21twelve]

A restaurant that we go to had started adding a 3% “surcharge” rather than raising its prices. (???) We figured it was due mostly to the increasing mandatory minimum wage ($15). Some food costs too perhaps. Anyway, I saw that too late, but told my wife “Next time I’m reducing the tip by 3%.”

A few weeks later was back in there, and the “surcharge” was gone. My wife looked it up on their website and too many people had complained. Perhaps their waiters also complained!

I didn’t notice if they had raised their prices - I don’t think they did. Yet.