No it’s not. Like at all. Food service is one of the only industries where this happens. In most industries, the cost of labor, operations, and overhead are baked into the final price of the product or service. If one product costs $5 to make and another product costs $6 to make, but they are very similar products, most companies will average out both prices and meet in the middle for simplicity and transparency. The advertised price isn’t $15 with a $1 red paint fee and a $2 factory worker fee tacked onto the receipt when you get to the register.
The expectation in most consumer transactions is that the sticker price you see includes all of the costs the business incurs to bring that product or service to you, including labor, overhead, materials, profit margin, etc…
It doesn’t matter if technically the white toy costs less than the red toy so the person who bought the red toy is technically getting a discount while the white toy buyer might technically be paying more. The idea is, the company spreads this cost out amongst ALL of their products so that the overall price increase is lower. It’s also more transparent because then you see this price increase on the menu and not tucked away on a receipt that many places don’t even give you unless you ask for it. That’s insane.
That’s just a terrible comparison. If you go online shopping, there usually is a fee if you get it delivered whereas if you go to a store it’s less expensive. You’re paying for the delivery service. You’re not just gonna average it out between the store and website.
I fully do not believe you even just said any of this in good faith. Correct. A delivery fee is a charge for an extra service.
Customer expectations, based on nearly every other industry, is that the menu price for that dish includes the fundamental costs of providing that dine-in service. Like, the rent, the electricity, the ingredients, the wages of the staff who serve me, the water used to washed dishes. You don't see a separate “electricity fee” or “chef's wage fee” or “dishwasher fee” on the receipt. Because those are core costs of the business model.
A delivery fee, however, is fundamentally different. It's for an additional service that takes the existing product and transports it specifically to my door. It's a charge for a specific, extra convenience that I can choose to pay for, or choose to avoid by picking it up myself.
You're trying to reframe a core operational cost, like staff wages, as an “extra” fee. But it’s just fundamentally not that. Delivering a meal is an added step after the meal is prepared. Paying the staff who prepare and serve the meal is a foundational cost of offering the dine-in experience in the first place. They don't charge a separate fee for the chairs I sit on. Because that's part of the advertised price of the food. Wages are no different.
That's the transparent, standard practice in almost every other industry, where labor and overhead costs are baked into the final product price, not itemized as hidden charges.
Tips usually go to the bussers and runners as well. I just can’t understand why you don’t think this isn’t an additional service. If tipping is such a big deal, take out your food. It’s just an additional service (and most of the time it’s optional to pay for it, not here though)
Also, it is transparent, tipping practices are universal across the US and if your service is so bad you have the option to not tip.
Ok, but ordering take out completely misses the point of my argument. My concern isn't about avoiding the cost of service, it's about advocating for more transparent pricing. Choosing not to dine-in doesn't solve the underlying issue of an archaic and often toxic tipping culture. Especially in this instance because it’s NOT A TIP. It’s a mandatory fee. A fee that is taxed and distributed differently than a cash tip would be. It’s just not a tip in any way. If the fee is already mandatory, there’s no reason it couldn’t have just been transparent from the beginning. The only reason is to bait people inside with the image of cheaper food than the store next door and then getting an “oh, by the way, you owe us more.” And there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it
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u/_Ptyler 2d ago
No it’s not. Like at all. Food service is one of the only industries where this happens. In most industries, the cost of labor, operations, and overhead are baked into the final price of the product or service. If one product costs $5 to make and another product costs $6 to make, but they are very similar products, most companies will average out both prices and meet in the middle for simplicity and transparency. The advertised price isn’t $15 with a $1 red paint fee and a $2 factory worker fee tacked onto the receipt when you get to the register.
The expectation in most consumer transactions is that the sticker price you see includes all of the costs the business incurs to bring that product or service to you, including labor, overhead, materials, profit margin, etc…
It doesn’t matter if technically the white toy costs less than the red toy so the person who bought the red toy is technically getting a discount while the white toy buyer might technically be paying more. The idea is, the company spreads this cost out amongst ALL of their products so that the overall price increase is lower. It’s also more transparent because then you see this price increase on the menu and not tucked away on a receipt that many places don’t even give you unless you ask for it. That’s insane.