LogFAQs > #946006044

adjl posted...

Seems like a roundabout way to pretend they aren't just increasing their prices to help manage their expenses. It's not really a question of being fair (restaurants can charge whatever they want, after all) so much as it is a question of whether or not the loss of sales from raising the price will be too great to justify the potential for increased revenue.

More or less this. Restaurants are free to raise their prices however they want to either profit or offset costs. The only difference here is that the framing -- which only impacts in-person eating -- clearly denotes that the price increase is temporary.

The only silly thing is that there was a bill "allowing" them to do what they could always do.

ChimeraBlue posted...

I mean, considering that they have to have additional staff to manage the indoor customers, this doesn't seem unreasonable. Not to mention the reduced capacity is affecting their income as well.

The kinda unreasonable element is that they've always been charging the same price for takeout as in-person despite the fact that in-person has always had additional costs (although part of the wage cost is offset by tipping (allowing them to pay less than minimum wage) and they make some of the money up on drinks -- or, in the case of alcohol, often more on the drinks than the food).

SirPikachu posted...

How is this even a question, and why did it have to be made into a law?

They can charge for whatever the fuck they want, it's their business. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat there.

Yeah, the whole bill thing was a silly way to go about it, but I guess they're doing it as a uniform measure so it doesn't feel like it's just some places doing it... although not everybody has to participate.

adjl posted...

The article doesn't call it a tax, that I'm seeing. "Covid-19 recovery charge" is what it says, which I think most people will associate more with helping a struggling business than with taxes. It'll probably still trigger some animosity from the people that are upset that people are doing anything about Covid, who don't clue in that the charge is to help with the ramifications of the shutdowns and not actually contributing to them, but such stupidity is fortunately pretty uncommon.

tbh, the way that it's couched on the bill will make it look like a tax so I imagine at least some consumers will assume it's a government thing.

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There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.