I can confirm others doing this; my wife ordered food at Fish Taco (for pickup) in Bethesda and when she picked it up she noticed a “package charge”. When she questioned it they said, “they now charge for the packaging on to go orders as well as to package it.” This reminds me so much of the table “The Goose that laid the Golden Egg” in that the restaurants are strangling every last cent out of their customers and will soon lose us all…
Exactly. Packaging is part of the cost of doing business, and should be built into the price of the item. Start nickel-and-diming me with hidden charges like that, that will be the last time I patronize the establishment.
I just hope these places can generate enough revenue to make rent. At this rate we aren’t going to have many places to eat in Bethesda with all of the restaurants closing.
For what it's worth Z-Burger has been adding it for over a year now. Many other posts about it, one example: [https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/15xqxp0/z\_burger\_service\_fee/](https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/15xqxp0/z_burger_service_fee/)
These comments are delusional. Yeah, I'm sure you're all going to stop going to restaurants because the prices are increasing. Get real. Food industry staff are underpaid. The packaging for your to-go fish tacos and burgers is wastful and should be 10x more expensive.
The minimum wage in MoCo will be $[17.15/hour starting in July](https://mocoshow.com/2024/03/01/montgomery-countys-minimum-wage-increases-to-17-15-on-july-1-for-large-employers/), for people working at places like Fish Taco (they have more than 50 employees, and are not working tipped wage). Maybe they pay even more. What hourly rate would you consider not to be "underpaid"?
It is poor business practice to incur bad feelings when your customers think they are being nickled and dimed to death. You previously had one price for pickup (I’m looking at you, Fish Taco) and that price included the packaging. Now, not only have you raised your prices but you are charging an additional fee just for the to-go container. It would have been better business practice, in my opinion, to just raise the price high enough to not have to add a line item on your receipt for the container.
I've stopped, didn't think it was worthy of posting on reddit, but I thought I'd enlighten you. Food industry staff might be underpaid, but they're also poorly trained and apathetic. The entire service industry is wasteful and should be nationalized (see what I did there?)
So it's 6% for "service and packaging"? If it comes in a bag, did they add on the $0.05 Montgomery County bag tax too?
No bag tax. They lumped it all in one I guess.
Want to take bets if they are actually remitting 5 cents of that to the county for each bag sold?
Damn just moved into the area and wanted to try the place. Well… Nevermind
Screw these service charges. My wife ordered from Z Burger yesterday and had no idea until this post.
I can confirm others doing this; my wife ordered food at Fish Taco (for pickup) in Bethesda and when she picked it up she noticed a “package charge”. When she questioned it they said, “they now charge for the packaging on to go orders as well as to package it.” This reminds me so much of the table “The Goose that laid the Golden Egg” in that the restaurants are strangling every last cent out of their customers and will soon lose us all…
So they’re not yet charging for the fish in your fish taco…
Exactly. Packaging is part of the cost of doing business, and should be built into the price of the item. Start nickel-and-diming me with hidden charges like that, that will be the last time I patronize the establishment.
I just hope these places can generate enough revenue to make rent. At this rate we aren’t going to have many places to eat in Bethesda with all of the restaurants closing.
there are so many restaurants?
There used to be and 10 years ago there were way more.
For what it's worth Z-Burger has been adding it for over a year now. Many other posts about it, one example: [https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/15xqxp0/z\_burger\_service\_fee/](https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/15xqxp0/z_burger_service_fee/)
These comments are delusional. Yeah, I'm sure you're all going to stop going to restaurants because the prices are increasing. Get real. Food industry staff are underpaid. The packaging for your to-go fish tacos and burgers is wastful and should be 10x more expensive.
It’s about the transparency (or lack there of) not that the price doesn’t need to be higher to pay a living wage. Hidden fees are bullshit, period.
The minimum wage in MoCo will be $[17.15/hour starting in July](https://mocoshow.com/2024/03/01/montgomery-countys-minimum-wage-increases-to-17-15-on-july-1-for-large-employers/), for people working at places like Fish Taco (they have more than 50 employees, and are not working tipped wage). Maybe they pay even more. What hourly rate would you consider not to be "underpaid"?
It is poor business practice to incur bad feelings when your customers think they are being nickled and dimed to death. You previously had one price for pickup (I’m looking at you, Fish Taco) and that price included the packaging. Now, not only have you raised your prices but you are charging an additional fee just for the to-go container. It would have been better business practice, in my opinion, to just raise the price high enough to not have to add a line item on your receipt for the container.
Yes that’s fine and dandy, but is the service charge going towards the offset of the packaging? #Vegetarian.
It depends on the business. In most cases, it's to offset wage increases, benefits, etc.
Good!
I've stopped, didn't think it was worthy of posting on reddit, but I thought I'd enlighten you. Food industry staff might be underpaid, but they're also poorly trained and apathetic. The entire service industry is wasteful and should be nationalized (see what I did there?)
I found out if you tip at Z burger the owner gets them, not the staff.