Bottled water? I'm guessing $17 each, plus tax, cc fee and tip?
Rant, eating out
- Thread starter Bailey28
- Start date
A lot of this here is minimum wage nonsense. No kids or people working part time in restaurants don't need to earn enough to support a family of 5. FL is $15 I think, here is over $20/hour now. Rents/lease are crazy high.
The add on CC is terrible business practice, but we all know why pho places are cash only. Nothing like hiding income from the IRS
The restaurant business is nasty. In a bunch of ways. I no longer eat at randomly picked places. I want real food and will pay, IF I have some knowledge. I mean all this $ for crud food. I've learned to be a bit more hungry and prepare almost all our food. Real food.
The add on CC is terrible business practice, but we all know why pho places are cash only. Nothing like hiding income from the IRS
The restaurant business is nasty. In a bunch of ways. I no longer eat at randomly picked places. I want real food and will pay, IF I have some knowledge. I mean all this $ for crud food. I've learned to be a bit more hungry and prepare almost all our food. Real food.
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
That's a lot of money for eating out IMHO. This month my restaurant CC was $118 less their 4% rewards. My lady friend buys most of her meals when we go out. I bought her two meals this past month. She spends far more each month, as she lives her daughter and she's, to be nice, not a good cook. It's her money and she gets to spend it her way, I bite my tongue.
We only eat out on vacation or special occasions. Saves us a lot of money and we eat much healthier.
There is a lot of this going on these days. To be fair, businesses are paying a similar sized fee to the card companies. Either they charge it only to those using a card, or they bake it into their prices meaning both cash and card users are hit with a smaller percentage fee.
The piper needs to get paid.
Debit cards have no fees, why wouldn't you just use that?
Me and wife always looked at eating outside home as a treat and 'extra', still do and going out less ever since covid restrictions. Most places suffered from staff loss and food and services quality going down while prices went up. Never seen a fee for using CC yet, but we normally bring enough cash to cover bill while don't always pay cash.
Restaurants have overhead. Less people have money to eat at restaurants so margins go up to afford that overhead. The restaurant model only works in a regular economy.
We just had our boat repaired.
We found out last minute if we used our credit card to pay the $2500 bill they would add 4% onto the total due.
So we wrote a check which to me sounds almost weird, but I guess they’re confident that the check was good
We found out last minute if we used our credit card to pay the $2500 bill they would add 4% onto the total due.
So we wrote a check which to me sounds almost weird, but I guess they’re confident that the check was good
My view exactly. It has always irritated me that if all else is equal (items purchased, etc.) I am effectively paying for someone else's credit card points/miles/whatever when I use cash.
The predictable response from someone who wants to use their credit card for "free" would be "Well why don't you just use a credit card too, so you also get points?" That just promotes proliferation of credit card use, leading to the credit card corporations skimming a few percent off of all of the transactions, driving prices up further.
Others have posted that a CC charge is off-putting, which is understandable. I would be fine if the business bumped their prices up by 2-3%, and offered an equivalent "cash discount". The optics are a bit more friendly that way.
We had a few mom and pop places around that we would hit on occasion. One by one they have fallen off our list due to lack of value. I don't care if they raise prices to cover inflation but the value and quality have plummeted at the same time. Latest was this Saturday - our former favorite Vietnamese place. Its literally in a falling down old house. Had a plate of fried noodles with shrimp. Half a portion from before. $18 now - used to be like $12. Wife's dish was similar.
We agreed we wouldn't go back on leaving. That place has been there at least 15 years.
Few months ago it was our old Hibachi place. Before that it was a simple Mediterranean place. And so on.
We agreed we wouldn't go back on leaving. That place has been there at least 15 years.
Few months ago it was our old Hibachi place. Before that it was a simple Mediterranean place. And so on.
C-19 killed the model
We enjoy going out and have started to more that we are semi-empty nesters. Typically, split an app or two and a drink just to get out and try somewhere new, preferably a local type hole-in-the-wall. The food is almost secondary.
Few get rich in the restaurant business, and no one is getting their new boat on pass through credit card charges. Foodservice is a tough and very low margin business as said earlier; wages, insurance, rent, utilities (esp a/c removing the heat from a dense crowd and food prep), spoilage.....
Few get rich in the restaurant business, and no one is getting their new boat on pass through credit card charges. Foodservice is a tough and very low margin business as said earlier; wages, insurance, rent, utilities (esp a/c removing the heat from a dense crowd and food prep), spoilage.....
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^^Pablo's point is well taken but I'm happy to report I've seen places where there was enough foot traffic to "keep the blood flowing".
The explosion of take-out food has added much more to the cost than people want to admit.
Also, I firmly believe many entities endeavored to make up their "Covid losses" overnight. How rapidly or fairly the economic reload occurs is up for anyone to review. However, I believe it's impossible to plan for a "return to normalcy", so some suppliers will gladly sit tight with their upward adjusted prices.
Hopefully a new kind of restaurant can develop.
Hopefully owners of vacant spaces will lower their rent rates before the neighborhood around it slips too far into poverty. <see my opening sentence.
Also, the vast increase in wet food and packaging waste has upped garbage, litter and vermin. Rats eat garbage. "Starve a Rat" campaigns pertain to garbage management.
My dentist has a sign matching that in most restaurants which reads "3% fee for credit cards". It'd be nice to know how the money flows, as in fsdork's post above, but I'll start with paying with cash of check when I can.
FAMILY NOTES:
1) Mrs. Kira's old fashioned mom always paid by cash at restaurants. Her stated theory was that long after you're finished with a meal, the bill comes. Better to eat and pay and be done with it.
2) In the '70's + '80's, my father worked in a neighborhood where a number of restaurants only took cash. We all were for that.
The credit card companies charged then too.
The explosion of take-out food has added much more to the cost than people want to admit.
Also, I firmly believe many entities endeavored to make up their "Covid losses" overnight. How rapidly or fairly the economic reload occurs is up for anyone to review. However, I believe it's impossible to plan for a "return to normalcy", so some suppliers will gladly sit tight with their upward adjusted prices.
Hopefully a new kind of restaurant can develop.
Hopefully owners of vacant spaces will lower their rent rates before the neighborhood around it slips too far into poverty. <see my opening sentence.
Also, the vast increase in wet food and packaging waste has upped garbage, litter and vermin. Rats eat garbage. "Starve a Rat" campaigns pertain to garbage management.
My dentist has a sign matching that in most restaurants which reads "3% fee for credit cards". It'd be nice to know how the money flows, as in fsdork's post above, but I'll start with paying with cash of check when I can.
FAMILY NOTES:
1) Mrs. Kira's old fashioned mom always paid by cash at restaurants. Her stated theory was that long after you're finished with a meal, the bill comes. Better to eat and pay and be done with it.
2) In the '70's + '80's, my father worked in a neighborhood where a number of restaurants only took cash. We all were for that.
The credit card companies charged then too.
I eat out infrequently and seem to almost never enjoy it. Learned to cook years ago and I enjoy that. Wife has hundreds of cook books, each loaded with interesting challenges. If a meal is a disappointment I know right away who's to blame. Do most of my own car maintenance for the same reason. For a favor a friend gave me a very generous gift card to an $$$ resturant downtown. Doubt I'll use it. Probably give it away,.
Times I ate out and felt comfortable was at the Curmudgeon Cafe.
Times I ate out and felt comfortable was at the Curmudgeon Cafe.
Security. I don’t want to give out a number that accesses my checking account. If that card is compromised - they can drain your account. Sure, if the bank finds that it is not your fault - they will put the money back in your account - 15 business days later.
No thanks.
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I positively cant afford it. I went to Chipotle once recently. It was like 19 bucks. Nope.
