Chain restaurant fees are getting absurd
I got this fun fee after trying to order takeout from Buffalo Wild Wings (yes I'm naming and shaming). How exactly does adding a dollar help you operate takeout? It's literally less work than waiting on a table. This is nothing more than a shameful cash grab to pad profits.
I cancelled my order and got local street tacos instead.
EDIT: Look what I found this morning, lol https://www.today.com/food/restaurants/buffalo-wild-wings-takeout-fee-backlash-complaint-rcna90228
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“Yes I’m naming and shaming”
God i love not being on Reddit
I'd bet all the cash in my wallet that the tacos were significantly better than anything from Buffalo Wild Wings.
They were delicious, cheaper, and I don't know what my dumb brain was even thinking
We've got a local, competition winning barbecue place that's cheaper than McDonald's. It's gotten absurd really.
Ah convenience fees. I love paying more money for causing less work. Ticket master, oh these digital tickets that will be distributed immediately will have an extra $14 fee... Per ticket!
McDonalds is especially egregious recently. Time was you could get a set for ¥500 (about 5 dollars) Then suddenly all the menu items went up to ¥700 - ¥900. That starts to get very very close to the alternatives which are much better. The only competitive edge they had was price really.
Same in Europe, MacDonalds used to be the cheap fast option. Now it's almost restaurant prices. If I pay restaurant money I expect restaurant quality, not fast food.
No shit. Last time I went with my girlfriend we just had some fries, couple burgers and nuggets.
€34! Not doing that again.
You voted with your wallet. That's how capitalism is supposed to work.
except actual voting is 1 person = 1 vote. shareholders, corporate conglomerates, and lobbyists have made it that 1 person gets millions upon billions of votes. when we do vote with our wallets and buy from the places we want to support, the corporations always win in the end. either by buying them out, or because what we supported decided to cater to shareholders instead of customers. just look at what happened to reddit
Shareholders have no vote unless they also buy from the company. The only vote is the number of dollars spent at the business. Shareholders, boards, and lobbyists can try to manipulate those votes, but your money is your money, and I guarantee you McDonalds wouldn't be around very long if they relied only on the rich to sustain them.
McDonalds is dependent on the lower class. Uber/Doordash even more so because they're dependent both on a) poor people making poor financial decisions and b) poor people being willing to work for almost nothing.
If capitalism worked Buffalo Wild Wings wouldn’t exist. Trash food. Go to a local pub or something.
We don't have pubs in the area next to my local BWW. Lots of places don't have pubs.
Ya that makes sense.
Capitalism does work in the voting with your wallet. However there's two things that tend to get in the way. Laziness and mergers. Either customers don't care and/or all your other opinions got bought out.
The value that chain and fast food restaurants bring isn't quality. Their value is (1) convenience, and (2) consistency.
Many people will often prefer to have a known quantity quickly in preference to a highly probably better but uncertain quantity slower. Every Dunkin Donuts has donuts that taste the same as all the other locations. That's more valuable than people think.
That's why those locations are successful.
These chains are going out of business because their demo is dying. People who know how to use the internet to find well liked local spots don’t go to these places.
https://moneywise.com/life/food/millennials-are-killing-off-these-restaurant-chains
That's how free markets work. Free markets and capitalism are different things.
It's not as if they're paying their waitstaff normal minimum wage in most states; tipped employees can be paid less if the tips make up for it.
You're correct, and that's another beef I have with the whole industry.
It's actually more of the problem. They can pay wait staff 2.13 an hour, but they cannot make them pack up take out orders for that. So it literally does cost them more to do take out.
Yes they can.
I think the point is that if all the staff do is pack up take out orders, they legally cannot make them do it for $2.13/hour. The employer legally has to pay tipped employees minimum wage if tips do not cause them to reach minimum wage. More time on take out orders is less time earning tips.
More broadly, most wait staff aren't going stick around even if they're being paid minimum wage and getting no tips. They'll go elsewhere where they can earn better — presumably somewhere they can consistently earn tips.
If all the staff does is pack up takeout orders, they can legally be paid $2.13 an hour.
Wrong. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped "Basic Combined Cash & Tip Minimum Wage Rate" means that if tips do not meet the federal minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference.
Not enforced doesn't mean legal. You said they legally can be paid that rate. They cannot legally be paid that. Full stop.
I do agree that "tipped minimum wage" shouldn't be a thing and they should just be tied to the standard minimum wage.
It's averaged out across a pay period, and in my twenty plus years in the service industry I've never heard of a server making less than minimum wage. They're generally the highest-paid employees on a per hour basis.
The group of people who benefit the most from tipping are the servers.
Stick to topics you actually know something about.
What part of that do you think applies to this discussion?
Do you think it's illegal to tip on a Togo order?
I don't know if this is the case everywhere, but here a lot of chains are switching to doordash partnerships, which is just gross. At this point I'll stop ordering delivery/takeout from any chain that does this because I'm just that disgusted by Doordash and Uber.
On the bright side, if you're in a city, usually there are more than enough delivery co-ops or in-house delivery services available that it's not too painful to ditch delivery apps.
Why does dd and Uber disgust you?
Can’t speak for the other person, but Uber is disgusting for hacking a raped woman’s medical files to try and slander her in court.
Guardian
I'm guessing because those have fees and the restaurants increase their prices to compemsate for that.
That's exactly why for me. I'm not lazy enough (and I have good transportation) to drive and pick up food if I'm doing takeout instead of getting stuff delivered and paying fees and tips on top .
I grabbed a single burger at Wendy's last weekend and it was $6.50. That was my last trip to Wendy's....I expected half that!
I have to say, where I live Wendy's is actually cheaper than McDonald's, so if I'm craving a cheeseburger I hit up Wendy's instead. But yeah prices for fast food are absurd nowadays.
Same here. Literally no reason to go to McDonalds these days, worse food for a worse price.
As a non-US citizen, this is a ridiculous greed.
As a US citizen, this is a ridiculous greed.
I barely even go out nowadays, I just try and fail to make it myself.
Fortunately I married someone who can cook better than anyone I've ever met and they're frugal. Every meal is centered around whatever main ingredient is going to go bad first to ensure we don't throw away food, ever (and any scraps we do have leftover get fed to the chickens to produce more butt nuggets and meat).
These days the quality of food at restaurants has gone way down and one can often cook a much better meal at home. Like we have gone to a few hole-in-the wall places with pretty decent food, and then we have gone to pretentious up-scale places where the prices are 3x higher than normal and the food was still only mediocre - even fancy yacht club restaurants where almost everyone is stuck up and acts like they're better then the staff have terrible food. I have to laugh that they think it's worth $50 for a cheesburger when it tastes no better than what I could get from Applebees (at least they could have used higher quality beef for the burger! Nope - sysco special).
ChatGPT really helps make things easier for even novice cooks like myself - just tell it what you have and ask for suggestions then directions.
Honestly I don't miss going out for food and paying those dumb ridiculous prices
Tiping culture has gotten wildly out of hand
Over COVID I tipped 20-25% times we're tough for everybody and service workers kept it all going. But in other words back to normal I've made a conscious effort to put it back in the 15 to 20 range.
And everyone wants a tip, even just picking up food you're asked to tip.
I hate when restaurants force me to tipe
Honestly, how can they? (non-american here)
They don't actually force you, it's just very strongly encouraged. Like some places will have you tip while the cashier/server is staring you right in the eye, so if you hit 'No Tip' they give you a disapproving glare.
I had plenty of sympathy for restaurants when the pandemic first hit. Extra fees? Yeah, I get it, and I'll throw in an extra tip for the workers who are braving the place so that my fat ass can get some delicious food. The problem is that they haven't dialed back the fees/tipping requests. If anything, they've gotten much worse.
If you are sitting in the restaurant, you are probably paying for some ridiculously overprized drinks as well.
Maybe compare it to ordering the same stuff but picking it up yourself.
Or compare it to yet another innocuous bs fee slipped in under the radar by companies testing what they can get away with
Street tacos are going to be better anyways. As good as bww might be, I'll take a truck with a passionate team any day.
If the taco truck is behind an alley and the owner has a mustache and scratches his ass and the pork tastes great but a little raw, don't eat there.
Feels oddly specific.
The Greatest Taco
Cost of takeout bags, containers, IT, all that jazz, the company believes it should be able to pass on to the customer without raising it's menu prices. I don't know it's a classic "cash grab" so much as a business attempting to recoup as much as it can from a sale. Last time I checked BFF wasn't doing all that great. But in the end, I agree completely with you in that these Fees are so fucking annoying, one after another, never ending.
Yeah, and that was on top of having it "suggest" a 25% tip, which I had to manually type in a custom amt of 0. I'm not tipping for goddamn takeout ffs
Automatic and compulsory tipping culture in the US for every single thing is just out of control.
And then we subtract the cost of plates, dishwashers, chairs, menus, tables, IT for their internal POS and seating systems... gosh, sounds like I should be getting a discount!
Did you submit a handwritten ticket,pay with cash, and order without ever looking at the menu? Did you do so without taking up any time of an employee or occupying any space in their establishment for any amount of time? Did you ask them to just give you all of the raw ingredients in a Togo container without actually cooking anything?
Of course not, so you used everything you just whined about getting a discount for.
Do you really think they plate the food in the back of the house, then turn around and dump that plate of food into a container, and then wash the plate?
No wonder they need to charge extra.
Do you really think the food just springs into existence without having to be cooked or prepped?
This take is insane. You must be a mod at r/antiwork
That’s crap too because of you dine in and have leftovers they don’t charge for a take home container. They didn’t have to wash plates or silverware. It should wash out.
I haven't ordered from BWW in a few years but that is shameful what some of these corporations will add in "fees" to see how much they can nickel and dime their consumer.
Maybe the owner is taking the tips from the servers, and this is to "compensate" that
This may be imposed by the take out provider. Some states/municipalities also tack on extra fees
There is no provider. This is me, driving to the restaurant, walking to the counter, and getting my food.
Payment provider. BWW may have a contract with a payment provider, in which they don't pay the fee to use this payment platform for a flat fee of $1 per.
This is of course, all speculation.
For only takeout orders?
I could see it. Online billing probably uses a different payment provider than physical machines. And it's probably a smaller proportion of their business, so they're not willing to eat the cost like they do for physical machines.
It was/is just Buffalo Wild Wings themselves.
https://www.today.com/food/restaurants/buffalo-wild-wings-takeout-fee-backlash-complaint-rcna90228
The payment provider would also be taking payments for dine-in customers, no?
I don't think I'd call $1.00 absurd, but I'm not a fan of such fees. Am I allowed to bring my own containers and bags to avoid this cost?
Borderline absurd but 100% asinine
i spent $20 at Arby's for a burger, fries, and shake (as a meal). just go to Olive Garden... seriously lol
I haven't had BWW in over a decade. Saw their mango habanero sauce in the grocery store the other day and realized I now have no reason to ever visit one again.
Last time I ordered to go from there I got home and there was a live fly walking all over my salad. We threw everything away and disputed the credit card charge due to unsafe food.
Was the location you were ordering from one of these? Maybe instead of paying proper wages like fast food restaurants these assholes were trying to make up for people being unlikely to tip for pickup to keep the profits from being able to pay employees barely anything?
Mine was not, it was a traditional BWW establishment. Tbh, I didn't know they had such a thing lol
I mean,it's only a dollar. In general, tipping culture is our of control but I'm fine with nominal fees for local places. I know during covid, Chinese restaurants closed for awhile around us.
It's a dollar going to corporate, not the employees.
Stupid me read that as Chinese instead of chain. Reading comprehension is not my strong suit.
It's a charge for the container your takeout food went into. They're a significant expense, especially if it's any type of sustainable packaging. This is not new. It has been a thing since at least the early 2000s.
I'd disagree with that there, these things are bought in bulk for literal pennies from wholesalers
I have never seen that style of container for takeout in my life and I spent two decades in the service industry. That's not common in America.
Still, for arguments sake that works out to about £.05 per box. Of course, that's if you go to the wholesaler to pick it up. If you're running a restaurant, you probably get it delivered with the rest of your dried goods. You pay for that, just like you pay for the cutlery and the napkins and the sauce packets and the bag it all goes in.
A buck really isn't unreasonable here. I've worked at spots where the takeout container was $0.30 each, and that's without figuring in the delivery/fuel surcharge.
These containers are really common with independent curry/chinese places.
Even on this wholesaler website had loads of different containers, they aren't that expensive at all. There are places here that do charge for cutlary and only provide it if you ask.
Also I'm not disagreeing with the price, just that the containers are expensive. They really aren't, good businesses will buy them in bulk from a wholesaler. A place like that you get discounts anyway it just makes sense to do so.
You're wrong.
I'm wrong? Was it the part where I sourced a website showing that a container costs less than 5p or was it the part where I mentioned the fact that restaurants who actually know how to do business will go to a wholesaler to purchase containers on mass?
I'd like to know where you think I'm wrong
You're quoting British prices to an American topic, you clearly don't understand how any part of the wholesaler process works, you don't know that it's en masse, not on mass, and you don't seem to understand that the container isn't the only cost associated with takeout orders.
I don't live in america, I can only source prices and facts that are local to me.
What about the cost of eating in, because I don't think you're considering the price of cleaning and serving.
Can we factor in napkins? Again pennies. These are things they already have in the restaurant, along with sauces so that is already in the price of the business. The company doesn't need to give you cutlery, so take that out but if you want to include it again, barely anything. Being generous let's say it costs them a grand total of 0.30 cents, they're still making a profit. Takeout costs are minimal. I'm not arguing a company can't charge, they can do whatever they want it's their business but saying it's to cover the cost of containers/napkins/cutlary it's just plain wrong.
Why are we bringing up grammar? I never attacked you for grammar, that's pretty shitty All I asked was for you to clarify how I was wrong, because just saying "you're wrong" isn't really selling me on it
Mf really pulled out the "typing error, argument invalid"
From what I read, they understand everything perfectly well.
If they have a $4.40 table area credit to compensate me for the lack of physical rental space I’m not taking up, and a $0.35 silverware wash&roll power, water, and labor credit, plus a $1.25 parking space credit for the hour I’m not using the lot, and a $0.45 reception/waiting area credit for not standing around paying someone to call me when my table is ready, then I’d accept the $1.00 boxing fee. But if I’m paying the cost of waiting to be seated, taking up a table for an hour, and parking - which is bundled into the entree price - I think they can spot me a take out container.
(Interesting that places like Gregg’s, Costa, and Pret sometimes actually do charge more if you eat in)
Just FYI, the eat in price difference (at least from Costa) are actually usually because of taxes that you don’t have to pay when you take out.
Food taxes are weird
TIL
A dollar fee seems like a small price to pay to not have to deal with you as a customer.
And yet they’re charging me, not paying me.
But, also, they’re going to lose out to ghost kitchens if they keep adding these fees…and when they go out of business they’ll never have to deal with people like me again. Win-win, I guess.
Yeah, you don't want reasonable people as customers or shit like this won't be acceptable!
Yes, I agree. Death to anyone who tries to turn a profit of checks notes $0.70.
I find it hard to believe that a cheapass disposable container costs more than keeping up with the dishes
If that is the issue, then they should have a different menu price for takeout vs dine in.
Tacking on these fees at the last minute in an order is just exploiting people. It’s the sunk cost fallacy… I drove here and already ordered, so I’ll just go along with it.
Not cool. This is a dirty tactic.
Why bother? You would just bitch about that instead.
Walmart started putting their grocery delivery in half-size paper bags so they can charge 2-3 times as many bag fees. I paid almost a dollar this week for shitty bags I can't reuse.
Can lemmy please not be the curmugenoy spot where people whine about restaurants? Please?
This is a community dedicated to what is... mildly irritating.
Lemmy and kbin have a bunch of sublemmys/magazines, and there are probably going to be a lot more.
You could maybe argue that [email protected] shouldn't have that, but anything and everything is going to show up somewhere on the Fediverse.
It can be, but it seems unlikely. Too many r/antiwork users are here already.