We eat out often but when the take out chicken place ends up being $83 for four chicken sandwiches and fries then it’s got to be reconsidered. A recent stop at McDonalds was $47.00
Today, even a sandwich is $10-15 bucks. For retired people, it’s impossible. And even if one can afford it, it’s not worth the price.
We used to eat out 5-7 times per week(usually lunch/dinner). I think we’re down to about 2-3. Restaurants have to feel the loss of regular customers.
I would NEVER pay 30% for a tip. I’ve always paid 20%, my husband will pay 22-25%.
Again, for me, it’s at a tipping point. Prices aren’t relative to value anymore.
I thought so too. But recently in my area (which sees a lot of Summer tourists) and has a high average income, there have been less people in restaurants. Weekends are still full
( though not packed). But the Mon-Wed crowds we normally see at our regular places are much smaller. Some restaurants have even closed for all but weekends due to staffing.
People seemed to go out a lot early this Spring, post pandemic. But maybe inflation or slower service has caught up. I think a lot of restaurants will go under in our area. And the staffing levels haven’t risen. It’s not unusual to wait up to an hour to get your food.
I feel that the quality of the moderate priced restaurants near me went down significantly. And we are in a large city favored by tourists. I don’t like mediocre food. I can cook better. For us eating out is part of entertainment and food exploration. We never return to restaurants that are just ok.
I’m not in a touristy area but I am in the South where the climate allows for a lot of outside dining & entertainment options for 9-10 months of the year. It’s definitely a phenomenon that I’ve noticed over the past 5-10 years.
@4kids4us - That would be a red flag for me too. Literally every restaurant here is hiring and most of us have been very empathetic with staffing issues. Some restaurants have had to alter their open hours on the fly to deal with staffing issues, but I haven’t noticed any closing permanently for those issues.
I take payments for construction work and I have no way to even process a credit card. I cannot imagine how I would do that. I take Zelle, Venmo, cash o r check. Am rarely paid in actual cash. I do report the income on taxes, but processing credit card payments would add a whole new layer of complexity to my job. I’m guessing they have new ways to process credit cards via a phone or something and I wouldn’t have to carry around the little hand held machine.
I just don’t need to add the headache of trying to add the credit card fee to transactions and don’t want to get involved with that. And, since I have to pay my guys in cash (whether through payroll or with actual cash) I could get in a situation where I am still waiting for money to get into the account and be short on payday.
We ate at a restaurant while traveling, so a new location for us. Good food. Average prices for the area. BUT, we noticed (after ordering), there was a discrete paper notice on the side of the table (with the condiments), that the printed menu prices do not reflect the actual prices. Apologies explaining that increasing costs to the restaurant were requiring that they increase the menu prices, and if needed, to ask the waiter for the current price of the meal.
Interesting approach! I understand they cannot update their printed menus constantly, but advance warning, or temporary paper menus would be appreciated.
Wow, that’s expensive, we usually order chicken at our local El Pollo, 10 pieces for $10, then it went to 8 pieces for $12, and now they don’t offer that anymore. But for 3 persons, it’s about $20-$24 with all the side orders.
My husband stopped eating out at his favorite burger place, he said he didn’t think it’s worth it.
I can’t imagine how annoying it is for the wait staff to have to tell the price of each item. Many restaurants started using QR codes during the pandemic. That seems like an easier fix.
That’s very confusing. I can’t imagine ordering something without knowing exact price. Many restaurants in our area use QR code placed at the table that you scan to get menu on your phone.
Or they just use paper printed menus, which can be printed quickly. I like it when a restaurant hands me a menu that I can actually see. I hate having to pull out a phone, scan the QR, stare at a phone when I want to talk to people. Fed up with the way we must make everything tech-y. Different rant, of course.
Restaurants need to remember that there are a LOT of people over the age of 40 who can actually afford to eat out, but who maybe can’t see as well as they used to, or who like not being forced to look a gadget in all aspects of life.
Wow—I hadn’t noticed the price creep and definitely would be unhappy if menu prices didn’t reflect “current” prices. How is one supposed to know what they’re obligating themselves for? Printing a paper menu if your prices change often of have it posted online and update your prices.
We still are rarely eating our due to crazy Covid rates in our state and been saving a to. Of $$$ because we are eating at home. When no we do dine out, the prices are mainly slowly creeping up and the places we’ve been still have pretty good service and food. I have not paid a 30% tip and that feels pretty over the top to me. Being charged a 20% back of the house plus tip would be too much for me as well. Being charged 5% back of the house has been added at a few restaurants and we haven’t complained.
Restaurant costs are skyrocketing. Local fishermen have been complaining about the cost of diesel for months, even to the point recently where they are not going out because they are losing money. This is impacting supply which is driving up prices even more. Restaurants are forced to pass these costs along or offer lower-quality products. If your local place hasn’t raised prices to a certain extent, it might throw a red flag that they are trading down quality for the price.
Also, Restaurants are trying to devise creative ways to avoid menu “sticker shock.” Surcharges and service charges are ways to try to disguise the increases. In addition, there are pricing thresholds; when your chicken entre hits 30, shellfish hits 40, or steak passes 50, you get a noticeable diminishing return.
For better or worse, we have two set nights out for dining at places with less than fabulous food. We play trivia every Tuesday and go to a run group every Wednesday. Trivia is in our local pub. We have to arrive early enough to get a table, so we always eat there. After our run group we go to a place that has $0.75 cent wings - with a minimum order of six. It’s a pizza joint. Those designated nights out associated with our activities mean we just don’t often go out to nicer places as I feel guilty having us go out to dinner more than twice a week.
Our friends who used to come frequently to trivia with us have stopped because they prefer to spend their dining out dollars at a place with better food.
We are in a tourist area, so prices are always kinda high-ish.
They do that at some places here too…charge a surcharge if you use a credit card at restaurants. I was at one yesterday. It was annoying but I just brought cash…
Haha, we used to play in a couple of golf leagues where as you say the food was less than fabulous. This year we opted out of the leagues. The upside is that we are spending a lot less on mediocre food.
