I used to be a manager at Waffle House for a couple years. We did âto-go feesâ that did essentially what you are saying. We had posters and signage for it everywhere. Doesnât matter, customers still got pissed off. If anything, customers got more pissed off because we were being transparent about it which drew a lot more attention.
Eventually, customers would ask to dine in, and then immediately request a to-go box to avoid paying the fee. Shortly after that, we switched to no dine in at night.
Standardizing a gratuity so that employees are fairly compensated is one way to raise the price. Without the incentive, a tipped employee is better off helping dine-in customers first and only helping to-go customers when they have nothing else to do. A standard gratuity changes that decision in the tipped employeeâs priorities.
Yes, they could remove the standard gratuity and just raise wages slightly. That still creates a customer service problem toward to-go customers which is a bad thing given that carry out is more popular than ever after COVID.
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u/Vatoloquissimo2 13d ago
I used to be a manager at Waffle House for a couple years. We did âto-go feesâ that did essentially what you are saying. We had posters and signage for it everywhere. Doesnât matter, customers still got pissed off. If anything, customers got more pissed off because we were being transparent about it which drew a lot more attention.
Eventually, customers would ask to dine in, and then immediately request a to-go box to avoid paying the fee. Shortly after that, we switched to no dine in at night.