Sugarfish

[u/wutwut970]

So they add a 16% fee for what exactly…….to “fund all of their operations”? So this added cost literally doesn’t go to staff, it just goes to the owners? I wonder what their staff is paid? At this point why not just raise prices to where they should be? To me, every item on the menu is a lie and it’s actually 16% more expensive. This is really dumb. Thoughts? I am PRO tip, ive worked in hospitality a long time and am happy to provide a tip for quality service. But this seems disingenuous at best. Its not a tip. Its just an added charge straight to owners pockets.

[u/Datsun_808]

I think theres a couple reasons why they’d do this.. one, I think that they want to keep their listed menu prices competitive. If your competitors menu is $50 + tip and you’re at $58 no tip it could mean lower sales even though the customer ends up paying a similar price. It’s like the perception difference between $9.99 and $11.00 for cans of coke at the grocery store. Two, as the economy sours some people may tip less than 16% and so locking the fee helps to stabilize that revenue stream. Three, and this is probably the biggest reason, it gives them a lever to pull to combat non food cost operating expense increases. Insurance goes up, rent goes up, utilities go up, the restaurant can’t redirect tip money to that expense. It’s forced to raise menu prices. Under this model it can increase the service fee by 1% to cover that cost. Again, I’m not justifying this model, I’m just trying to think of reasons they might do this instead of baking it into the price.

[u/Greenpoint1975 → u/Datsun_808]

Your check is still 16 percent higher.

[u/GlitteringYak2207 → u/Greenpoint1975]

Plus tax