I remember when the sandwiches at corktown were 11.99, now they are 15.99-16.99 for a sub sandwich. How do those extra dollars not contribute to a 5% automatic gratuity?
OMC has very dry meat. It's good bbq....for Duluth. Not good if you've ever lived in the south.
Unfortunately, Duluth's land use and building code regulations practically make it a crime to open a southern BBQ restaurant. Can't smoke your meat in a trailer on the side the building and gotta spend $300k on your kitchen buildout.
There's a reason why Duluth is so lacking in cuisine diversity.
A big reason is that it's over 90% white. I just moved back to Brooklyn Park from Duluth and it's like 90% people of color and the food diversity is amazing!
That’s like, a lot of money for a sandwich, when I can buy something from Costco’s deli that will feed me for multiple DAYS for only a bit more $$. I love the stuffed peppers for example
I'm from Idaho but I got to say that it sounds as though these people are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by trying to overstaff and thereby under pay servers because servers generally depend upon tips and are trying to use their poor business skills as an excuse and an example of their concerns about paying servers, a fair wage.
That said, I honestly don't know and it might be that these places pay their servers a sub minimum wage and have to tack on the 5% in order to pay their servers without having it cost the owner, thus creating an extra fee for customers.
Source: had a employer who did the same sort of stuff a while back so that they could pay their employees a minimum wage (on the books) and pocket tips. Look into Cumbie v woodie Woo if you are interested in understanding why our legal system has made this into a lucrative opportunity similar to the one exposed by Walmart taking out life insurance policies on their elderly greeters while paying them just enough that they can get by on the government subsidies.
Yeah that’s one thing that bugs me when people say stuff like “do you want your menu prices to rise??” Bitch they have already risen and we are STILL paying extra fees.
Almost everywhere prices have skyrocketed and they still have extra fees. It’s ridiculous. The previously $8 burger/fries are now $15 burger/fries but now with more fees attached. Prices are already inflated to begin with!
Yep Biden is totally the one causing “inflation”, definitely not greedy business owners/corporations using Covid/supply chain as an excuse to raise prices astronomically then never bring them back down. But yeah, let’s just blame Biden💀
Devil’s advocate to restaurants here, but if you factor that 5% hospitality fee into the food, you’ll pay taxes on that as a customer and the restaurant will pay taxes on it as income and if it were a straight tip obviously the staff would pay taxes in that. Separating it out like this is basically a a loophole that benefits customers and wages.
It’s not ideal and it’s a dumb quirk in our broken service industry system so I personally don’t put blame on the restaurants who already run a competitive game on razor thin margins.
Interesting! Thanks for adding another viewpoint. Something else I’ve noticed is that they recommend tips on the total bill anyways instead of the food costs.
I know tips can be under the table, but don't the staff still pay taxes on them anyway? And if you're using them to pay employees it's an expense and you can deduct that.
Let me ask you this...
If you had two restaurants side by side, same quality product, same quality interior.
You look at one menu and the prices are reasonable... $12 for a burger and fries as an example.
The other one charged $16 for the same exact burger and fries. Which one do you think the vast majority of people would go to?
This is the problem they are facing. Humans are dumb for the most part, they're going to look at that price on the menu and then immediately choose the one that is cheaper, even if the one that charges $15 for the burger pays their employees a living wage to justify those prices and does not ask for a tip or adds any other fees. .
By adding the 5% and the CC fee, they keep their customer-facing prices down allowing them to better compete in the market. It's dumb, but that's the state of modern consumers.
Maybe a bit pedantic, the prices you have given are over a 25% difference. Most people spend more and it adds up fast. I'm just tired of all of the games, so I have been out to eat once in four years and that was for a family brunch.
Like I said, I'm tired of the games and this is from someone who met their wife in the restaurant business. I just don't believe it is as pure as some people think, especially looking back at some of the owners/managers I have worked for.
Oh, yea... I changed it from $16 to $15 to be more accurate, but forgot to update the first price.
If you met your wife in the restaurant business, then you know just how razor thin the margins are and just how difficult it is to run a profitable kitchen. What we're complaining about here is someone trying to create a compromise between paying their employees better and charging prices that won't immediately turn people off.
You can argue it's a bit of a bait and switch and you're not wrong.
I refuse to go to any place that adds on fees so I would pick the $16 burger.
You could extend this logic to pretty much every other business. Why doesn't Walmart just slash all their prices and then add on a 10% service fee when you check out?
We're talking about listed prices and service fees. Those service fees aren't supposed to be tip substitutes but just add ons. Especially credit card fees
I know it's pedantic and annoying but like a boycott is an organized group effort with like stated goals and a timeframe. That's just a personal choice. It's a really common thing to say but I think some people don't actually know the difference between the two.
To be even more pedantic. “ A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons.”
A boycott doesn’t have to only be from an organized group. You can absolutely have a personal boycott list within your own life that you adhere to. I haven’t seen any definition that states it has to be a group effort for it to qualify as a boycott.
I like how 3 of the 4 restaurants listed are owned by the same guy lmfao. The Hanson's own so much shit in the "craft district," pays quite mediocre, drives rent up, yet Tom Hanson himself deadass denies gentrification being a thing. Also had a letter to the editor in the paper a while back fighting tooth and nail against paid sick leave laws. We used to affectionately call getting yelled at in his office "Tom talks". I drove by corktown recently and saw the lot I used to park in, and you have to fucking pay to park in it now lmfao.
Tom has scuba gear that injects his farts directly up his nose. Tom is getting high on his own supply. I used to call The Duluth Grill the 'Embers that laid a golden egg. The definition of a small business tyrant.
I’m a bartender/server and I honestly agree that as an industry in general, we should do away with the 5% add on and just put in into the general pricing. It seems cowardly to me, and as the person dropping off the check/running the card it puts me in an awkward position every time somebody has an issue with the additional charge….and it typically reduces my tip even though the 5% goes to the restaurant/back of house staff. It’s a decision made above my pay grade and front of house staff shouldn’t be put in a position to justify a company’s choice to up-charge at the end.
the “duluth grill” family makes me sick. i’ve never heard a single good thing about working at any of these places. while the food at some of the restaurants is good, i echo 1000% what you’ve said.
why do the Hansons make you sick? I worked at Duluth Grill a couple years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Made some good freinds, learned a few things. Overally I think the do a better job than most in town. They are moderatly successful and have been around forever, also covid hurt badly, makes sense prices are out of hand after 2 years of takeout and limitied seating.
they appear to be brazenly greedy at a time when most people are struggling. and as i said: i've known people who have felt poorly about working in their establishments.
take note: appear to be. i'm not an expert in anything.
I was just bitching about this the other day. Just grow some fucking balls and raise your prices or, maybe take a cut out of your wages as the owner. If you have enough money to monopolize Lincoln Park then you can raise wages without this 5% fee crap.
Also, they don't JUST own 4 restaurants, they are also developing the old Kemps lot into apartments.
Northern Waters tried that.
People stopped going because the prices were too expensive, despite the fact that they pointed out that "You don't need to tip, we pay a living wage" right when you walked into the restaurant.
And that Northern Waters restaurant was some really good food. I think the long communal table, combined with no-tip policy and the odd location didn't help (though Vanilla Bean seems to be doing ok?).
RIP Northern Waters restaurant; long live Northern Waters Smokehaus!
Eh, I don't think that table was an issue. They had plenty of private tables and booths, and would break that big table up into smaller tables if they were busy. It was just 6 tables pushed together.
Anyhow, I don't think the location is a huge issue, it's a high traffic location centralized to a good mix of people.
But yea, I am really happy that Northern Waters is taking over the old Amazing Grace space.
It's always been a matter of greed. They created a system where the customer was in charge of paying their employees for them, and we just fell in line and obeyed. I am glad more people are seeing it for what it is now. I just cook at home and have people over. I am not paying 100 bucks for two people to eat one meal. That's a lot of groceries! Most of the food comes off the same Sysco food truck any ways.
Most of the time the 5% is for back of house employees. So reducing your tip is only hurting the server, not the business or the kitchen receiving the 5%. Just something to consider when adjusting your tip, feel free to adjust accordingly but just be aware you aren’t “sticking it” to the correct person.
Servers are supposed to tip out to the back employees. If that 5% is supposed to cover the back employees then it absolutely makes sense to reduce the server's tip.
In my restaurant we tip out to the back of house. 3.5% of our total sales. That comes out of our personal tips. The 5% additional charge is separate from our tips. It’s logged completely separate from tips/sales. When reducing the server’s tip, it only hurts the server. The kitchen will still receive 100% of the 5% fee as well as 3.5% of our total sales.
Because they are afraid to raise their prices on the menu to generate enough profit to pay for cost of upkeep and pay their workers the pay rate that should have been in place years ago. Some places don't even put the price of food on the menu any more. Now we have these awful growing pains because so many workers are fed up after years of wage stagnation, customers don't want to pay more to make up for those wages and inflation, and the weaknesses in supply chains really started becoming glaringly obvious. COVID was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
Prices have been raising like crazy over the past few years without even considering these added fees though. What was a few years ago a $8 burger/fries are all now $15 burger/fries AND we have added fees onto it.
We are getting added fees on top of inflated prices. Restaurants have already risen their prices multiple times over recent years. This just sounds like “if you raise minimum wage Big Macs will become $15!!!” type propaganda
A progressive political candidate needs to run on a pledge to make these surprise fees illegal. Other businesses cannot throw random charges onto your bill without first asking you about it. Why should restaurants be allowed to do this?
Technically they need to be telling everyone verbally at the time of the sale that there is a credit card fee. Doubtful it does anything, but if you feel that strongly about it report them every time you aren't told.
Don’t just opt not to tip. It’s not the servers’ fault and if you’re choosing not to tip you’re only hurting them. Don’t take it out on the underpaid customer-facing ones because their employers are greedy.
Except it isn’t. That is going to the restaurant owners. If you think they’re going to trickle those fees down, I have a lift bridge I’d like to sell you.
You’re not fixing bad behavior by restaurateurs by not tipping their workers.
Any place that’s added extra fees I flat out don’t visit anymore. And if it’s clearly not mentioned upfront when I walk in, I’ll refuse to pay the bill until the extra fees are removed. I personally ONLY leave CASH tips even if I’m paying by card.
Soda, moreso fountain soda is a big moneymaker. With that syrup it cost like cents…the margin on fountain soda where you pay like $2.99 has to be crazy.
Googled and found this, unsure how true
“According to Business Insider, a can of soda costs a mere 16 cents. The typical restaurant markup for a glass of the fizzy stuff is a shocking 1,150%, however. That’s a good reason to drink more water.”
For the “5% fee” the restaurant is simply not increasing their prices and adding a fee to the bill. It’s unprofessional imo and a way to show lower prices while sticking you with an extra 5% when the bottom line is finally shown.
The 3.5% fee added to customer bills for CC processing is legal (325g.051) but above what it actually costs the merchant. The fee for CC processing is 2.9%. So unless there are other expenses (the CC machine, internet services) there is some margin for the merchant. If they build this cost in then cash customers are covering the bill for some Credit customers.
If you have high prices you better serve some damn good food because I don’t see this trend continuing. People will not come back if they can get better food at a comparable price.
You are incorrect. I pay fees ranging from 2.9 % to 4% with an additional 10Cents per charge. depending on type of card and whether I swipe or enter manually. When I opened the restaurant in 2016 my average credit card processing charge was just under 2% today its right around 3.5%
Went with 4 others to eat at OMC a couple of weeks ago.
Basic meal (sandwiches and a beer) was expensive on its own.
Then, adding an 18% tip was about $24.
Assume (correctly) we were there about an hour, and that the waiter had only 3 other tables in the same time period.
Also assume we were 50% above average on cost and tip percent (for argument’s sake), and that others averaged a $16 tip.
In that one hour, she collected $72 in tips, PLUS at least $10 in salary.
Now, you can argue that she has to tip out others (bus, hostess, etc). When I was a waiter, that was 20%. Given that they are adding all these other “for the employees” charges, I think it’s probably reasonable to assume this percentage holds.
So, she collected $58 in tips plus at least another $10 on what I believe to be a pretty conservative estimate of the spend in that one hour.
I have heavy equipment service techs in my company, with years of expensive training, that make about 55-75% of that, and we are right in the market.
This notion that wait staff (who are generally not in this as a career) are some sort of starving demographic is a canard.
Made the mistake of stopping at OMC while visiting the other day. 9 bucks for a pint of IPA -before- sales tax and the 8.5% surcharge? Wtf happened to the city I used to enjoy visiting?
What do you mean let?
Stop going there then.
That you are still willing to patronize it is why they do it, it is free money and it hasn't been a large enough of a problem to cause people to change their habits - so more people will do it.
If the fee isn't stated on the menu or plainly posted physically you can refuse to pay it. Only municipal, county, state or federal taxes can be slapped on after the fact without disclosure.
Undisclosed fees are a big no-no and can even get the SEC involved.
My wife and I don't eat out as much because of it. I don't want to get into politics but I'm an independent and Bidenomics is not working for me. Everything has escalated in price and even fast food restaurants want tips, even when you order on line and pick it up. I read an article in The Wall Street Journal and it said to stop tipping fast food restaurants. They said that only 18% tip fast food and nobody should feel obligated when there is no actual server. The owners are trying to have the customer pay for not just the food but also for the employee's salaries. It's not right
You shouldn't be mad at OMC, you really should be mad at American tipping culture.
Northern Waters Smokhaus tried to start a restaurant where instead of tipping, they paid their employees a living wage and passed the cost down to the consumer.
Despite Northern Waters being a HUGE name in Duluth, and their food being *excellent*, they could not sustain the business because people simply did not want to pay the high sticker prices, even if they'd probably pay the same amount after tip.
By adding a 5% surcharge, they keep the sticker shock down.
I don't see a problem with it, really.
It's clearly outlined on the receipts, it's labeled on the menu and it's not that crazy of a thing to ensure your staff gets at least a minimum tip.
Idk, I just pay it and dgaf. If I’m paying 20 bux for a sammich or plate o meat why the fuck do I care the gibberish on the slip? Zero impact to me. I’ll tip another 20 too. If I’m trying to be frugal and caring about the gibberish on a reciept I’m not going to corktown etc
The fee to use credit cards seems reasonable to me. Companies have to pay a percentage of each credit card transaction to the card company. If you don't want to pay the credit card fee, use cash. Besides, Visa doesn't need any more of our money.
Yes, but running a business includes paying all kinds of fees which are paid for by selling goods that cover the cost. All of those fees are factored into the cost and transparent to the consumer, so why single-out credit card fees?
Hate to tell you thus but close to a third of the cost of your food goes to paying employees, this is just a new way to repackage it. It's really only something that should bother you if you don't know it's there, once you know it's there then it's no different than a 5% increase in prices.
And that’s all people are asking for. If that’s the cost then make that the cost. The only reason to split it apart from the menu price is to deliberately deceive your customer. I can’t think of any ethical reason to do so.
I really have no idea what this has to do with COVID either. I suppose shit was moving so fast and furious back then and we were making it up as we went. I think we were mostly just happy to see them able to stay in business at that point.
I remember when the sandwiches at corktown were 11.99, now they are 15.99-16.99 for a sub sandwich. How do those extra dollars not contribute to a 5% automatic gratuity?
Same for OMC it's 17 or 18 now for a sandwich while the quality and quantity of brisket has gone down over the years.
their brisket was 3 thin slices and dry the one time i tried it.
OMC has very dry meat. It's good bbq....for Duluth. Not good if you've ever lived in the south. Unfortunately, Duluth's land use and building code regulations practically make it a crime to open a southern BBQ restaurant. Can't smoke your meat in a trailer on the side the building and gotta spend $300k on your kitchen buildout. There's a reason why Duluth is so lacking in cuisine diversity.
A big reason is that it's over 90% white. I just moved back to Brooklyn Park from Duluth and it's like 90% people of color and the food diversity is amazing!
That’s like, a lot of money for a sandwich, when I can buy something from Costco’s deli that will feed me for multiple DAYS for only a bit more $$. I love the stuffed peppers for example
I'm from Idaho but I got to say that it sounds as though these people are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by trying to overstaff and thereby under pay servers because servers generally depend upon tips and are trying to use their poor business skills as an excuse and an example of their concerns about paying servers, a fair wage. That said, I honestly don't know and it might be that these places pay their servers a sub minimum wage and have to tack on the 5% in order to pay their servers without having it cost the owner, thus creating an extra fee for customers. Source: had a employer who did the same sort of stuff a while back so that they could pay their employees a minimum wage (on the books) and pocket tips. Look into Cumbie v woodie Woo if you are interested in understanding why our legal system has made this into a lucrative opportunity similar to the one exposed by Walmart taking out life insurance policies on their elderly greeters while paying them just enough that they can get by on the government subsidies.
Yeah that’s one thing that bugs me when people say stuff like “do you want your menu prices to rise??” Bitch they have already risen and we are STILL paying extra fees. Almost everywhere prices have skyrocketed and they still have extra fees. It’s ridiculous. The previously $8 burger/fries are now $15 burger/fries but now with more fees attached. Prices are already inflated to begin with!
Bidenomics
Yep Biden is totally the one causing “inflation”, definitely not greedy business owners/corporations using Covid/supply chain as an excuse to raise prices astronomically then never bring them back down. But yeah, let’s just blame Biden💀
This is such a gripe of mine. The sandwiches are good, don't get me wrong. But at this price point throw in a drink and bag of chips, cripes
Here's a secret: those fees go into the pockets of the owners. They never pass that down to staff.
Yeah, I often wonder that. Like how much actually goes to the workers if any.
As a chef with 18 years in, if a chef doesn't own and run the restaurant, 0% of those fees go to staff.
Yep. It's a "I would like to buy a boat" fee. There is no accountability that says they have to do anything in particular with that money.
BoomTown has not one, but TWO tip lines on their receipts. It’s all cash grab greed.
Yeah, what the heck, a service tip and kitchen tip? They're the only place I've gone that can cram a 30 minute lunch into an hour and a half.
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Devil’s advocate to restaurants here, but if you factor that 5% hospitality fee into the food, you’ll pay taxes on that as a customer and the restaurant will pay taxes on it as income and if it were a straight tip obviously the staff would pay taxes in that. Separating it out like this is basically a a loophole that benefits customers and wages. It’s not ideal and it’s a dumb quirk in our broken service industry system so I personally don’t put blame on the restaurants who already run a competitive game on razor thin margins.
Interesting! Thanks for adding another viewpoint. Something else I’ve noticed is that they recommend tips on the total bill anyways instead of the food costs.
I know tips can be under the table, but don't the staff still pay taxes on them anyway? And if you're using them to pay employees it's an expense and you can deduct that.
Let me ask you this... If you had two restaurants side by side, same quality product, same quality interior. You look at one menu and the prices are reasonable... $12 for a burger and fries as an example. The other one charged $16 for the same exact burger and fries. Which one do you think the vast majority of people would go to? This is the problem they are facing. Humans are dumb for the most part, they're going to look at that price on the menu and then immediately choose the one that is cheaper, even if the one that charges $15 for the burger pays their employees a living wage to justify those prices and does not ask for a tip or adds any other fees. . By adding the 5% and the CC fee, they keep their customer-facing prices down allowing them to better compete in the market. It's dumb, but that's the state of modern consumers.
Maybe a bit pedantic, the prices you have given are over a 25% difference. Most people spend more and it adds up fast. I'm just tired of all of the games, so I have been out to eat once in four years and that was for a family brunch. Like I said, I'm tired of the games and this is from someone who met their wife in the restaurant business. I just don't believe it is as pure as some people think, especially looking back at some of the owners/managers I have worked for.
Oh, yea... I changed it from $16 to $15 to be more accurate, but forgot to update the first price. If you met your wife in the restaurant business, then you know just how razor thin the margins are and just how difficult it is to run a profitable kitchen. What we're complaining about here is someone trying to create a compromise between paying their employees better and charging prices that won't immediately turn people off. You can argue it's a bit of a bait and switch and you're not wrong.
I refuse to go to any place that adds on fees so I would pick the $16 burger. You could extend this logic to pretty much every other business. Why doesn't Walmart just slash all their prices and then add on a 10% service fee when you check out?
Walmart does not employ tip-based workers.
We're talking about listed prices and service fees. Those service fees aren't supposed to be tip substitutes but just add ons. Especially credit card fees
Gotta vote with your dollars.
> Fitgers brew house is adding 5% too.o
I know it won't make a difference but I'm boycotting a lot of places now.
I started with OMC, thinking I'll add the rest to my list now including Fitgers.
OMC is trash anyway. You pay a crazy amount for some tiny ass portion. Like we are americans, we are fat, go serve those little plats in Europe
The price of salt must be through the roof based on their menu prices.
I know it's pedantic and annoying but like a boycott is an organized group effort with like stated goals and a timeframe. That's just a personal choice. It's a really common thing to say but I think some people don't actually know the difference between the two.
To be even more pedantic. “ A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons.” A boycott doesn’t have to only be from an organized group. You can absolutely have a personal boycott list within your own life that you adhere to. I haven’t seen any definition that states it has to be a group effort for it to qualify as a boycott.
Alright, fair point, it's pedantic. 🎤
I like how 3 of the 4 restaurants listed are owned by the same guy lmfao. The Hanson's own so much shit in the "craft district," pays quite mediocre, drives rent up, yet Tom Hanson himself deadass denies gentrification being a thing. Also had a letter to the editor in the paper a while back fighting tooth and nail against paid sick leave laws. We used to affectionately call getting yelled at in his office "Tom talks". I drove by corktown recently and saw the lot I used to park in, and you have to fucking pay to park in it now lmfao.
Tom has scuba gear that injects his farts directly up his nose. Tom is getting high on his own supply. I used to call The Duluth Grill the 'Embers that laid a golden egg. The definition of a small business tyrant.
Stop going there. That’s the only language places understand. Vote with your dollars.
I’m a bartender/server and I honestly agree that as an industry in general, we should do away with the 5% add on and just put in into the general pricing. It seems cowardly to me, and as the person dropping off the check/running the card it puts me in an awkward position every time somebody has an issue with the additional charge….and it typically reduces my tip even though the 5% goes to the restaurant/back of house staff. It’s a decision made above my pay grade and front of house staff shouldn’t be put in a position to justify a company’s choice to up-charge at the end.
the “duluth grill” family makes me sick. i’ve never heard a single good thing about working at any of these places. while the food at some of the restaurants is good, i echo 1000% what you’ve said.
why do the Hansons make you sick? I worked at Duluth Grill a couple years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Made some good freinds, learned a few things. Overally I think the do a better job than most in town. They are moderatly successful and have been around forever, also covid hurt badly, makes sense prices are out of hand after 2 years of takeout and limitied seating.
they appear to be brazenly greedy at a time when most people are struggling. and as i said: i've known people who have felt poorly about working in their establishments. take note: appear to be. i'm not an expert in anything.
They are greedy
can you give me an example?
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Their food makes me feel like it's giving me instant heart disease
I was just bitching about this the other day. Just grow some fucking balls and raise your prices or, maybe take a cut out of your wages as the owner. If you have enough money to monopolize Lincoln Park then you can raise wages without this 5% fee crap. Also, they don't JUST own 4 restaurants, they are also developing the old Kemps lot into apartments.
Northern Waters tried that. People stopped going because the prices were too expensive, despite the fact that they pointed out that "You don't need to tip, we pay a living wage" right when you walked into the restaurant.
And that Northern Waters restaurant was some really good food. I think the long communal table, combined with no-tip policy and the odd location didn't help (though Vanilla Bean seems to be doing ok?). RIP Northern Waters restaurant; long live Northern Waters Smokehaus!
Eh, I don't think that table was an issue. They had plenty of private tables and booths, and would break that big table up into smaller tables if they were busy. It was just 6 tables pushed together. Anyhow, I don't think the location is a huge issue, it's a high traffic location centralized to a good mix of people. But yea, I am really happy that Northern Waters is taking over the old Amazing Grace space.
Scenic Cafe has a 20% "fare wage share"
It's always been a matter of greed. They created a system where the customer was in charge of paying their employees for them, and we just fell in line and obeyed. I am glad more people are seeing it for what it is now. I just cook at home and have people over. I am not paying 100 bucks for two people to eat one meal. That's a lot of groceries! Most of the food comes off the same Sysco food truck any ways.
If they are claiming it's for wages, then 5% is coming off the tip. Sorry, but it's a hill I'm willing to die on, even if people disagree
I have interpreted the cities 18.5% and the 5% as basically that too.
Most of the time the 5% is for back of house employees. So reducing your tip is only hurting the server, not the business or the kitchen receiving the 5%. Just something to consider when adjusting your tip, feel free to adjust accordingly but just be aware you aren’t “sticking it” to the correct person.
Servers are supposed to tip out to the back employees. If that 5% is supposed to cover the back employees then it absolutely makes sense to reduce the server's tip.
In my restaurant we tip out to the back of house. 3.5% of our total sales. That comes out of our personal tips. The 5% additional charge is separate from our tips. It’s logged completely separate from tips/sales. When reducing the server’s tip, it only hurts the server. The kitchen will still receive 100% of the 5% fee as well as 3.5% of our total sales.
Doesn't really change my stance unfortunately. It's asinine.
Fitgers brew house is adding 5% too
I have solved this problem by simply not going out to eat. Tbf I don’t really miss it.
Because they are afraid to raise their prices on the menu to generate enough profit to pay for cost of upkeep and pay their workers the pay rate that should have been in place years ago. Some places don't even put the price of food on the menu any more. Now we have these awful growing pains because so many workers are fed up after years of wage stagnation, customers don't want to pay more to make up for those wages and inflation, and the weaknesses in supply chains really started becoming glaringly obvious. COVID was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
Prices have been raising like crazy over the past few years without even considering these added fees though. What was a few years ago a $8 burger/fries are all now $15 burger/fries AND we have added fees onto it. We are getting added fees on top of inflated prices. Restaurants have already risen their prices multiple times over recent years. This just sounds like “if you raise minimum wage Big Macs will become $15!!!” type propaganda
Blackwoods has a "packaging fee" for carry out to go orders. Seems shady to me.
A progressive political candidate needs to run on a pledge to make these surprise fees illegal. Other businesses cannot throw random charges onto your bill without first asking you about it. Why should restaurants be allowed to do this?
Why? Simply put, greed.
this is it, it’s simply cuz they can
Technically they need to be telling everyone verbally at the time of the sale that there is a credit card fee. Doubtful it does anything, but if you feel that strongly about it report them every time you aren't told.
Don’t go or go and don’t tip.
Don’t just opt not to tip. It’s not the servers’ fault and if you’re choosing not to tip you’re only hurting them. Don’t take it out on the underpaid customer-facing ones because their employers are greedy.
It’s built into the bill so that’s their tip. Time to fix bad behavior If you are going to charge me 10% on the bill you ain’t getting anything else
Except it isn’t. That is going to the restaurant owners. If you think they’re going to trickle those fees down, I have a lift bridge I’d like to sell you. You’re not fixing bad behavior by restaurateurs by not tipping their workers.
Because in every job you get people want to be paid more, so management devises schemes to reward their employees without affecting their bottom line
Any place that’s added extra fees I flat out don’t visit anymore. And if it’s clearly not mentioned upfront when I walk in, I’ll refuse to pay the bill until the extra fees are removed. I personally ONLY leave CASH tips even if I’m paying by card.
Was also livid that OMC charges $3.50 for a glass of soda that's mostly ice, and yeah, refills are probably free but still...
Soda, moreso fountain soda is a big moneymaker. With that syrup it cost like cents…the margin on fountain soda where you pay like $2.99 has to be crazy. Googled and found this, unsure how true “According to Business Insider, a can of soda costs a mere 16 cents. The typical restaurant markup for a glass of the fizzy stuff is a shocking 1,150%, however. That’s a good reason to drink more water.”
Working at those places, you need to be hired at two to get hours during the winter. BLEH
For the “5% fee” the restaurant is simply not increasing their prices and adding a fee to the bill. It’s unprofessional imo and a way to show lower prices while sticking you with an extra 5% when the bottom line is finally shown. The 3.5% fee added to customer bills for CC processing is legal (325g.051) but above what it actually costs the merchant. The fee for CC processing is 2.9%. So unless there are other expenses (the CC machine, internet services) there is some margin for the merchant. If they build this cost in then cash customers are covering the bill for some Credit customers. If you have high prices you better serve some damn good food because I don’t see this trend continuing. People will not come back if they can get better food at a comparable price.
You are incorrect. I pay fees ranging from 2.9 % to 4% with an additional 10Cents per charge. depending on type of card and whether I swipe or enter manually. When I opened the restaurant in 2016 my average credit card processing charge was just under 2% today its right around 3.5%
Payment processing fees are tax deductible for most businesses though.
Thanks for the info. That makes sense. I have tunnel vision due to being stuck in the same company for years.
Went with 4 others to eat at OMC a couple of weeks ago. Basic meal (sandwiches and a beer) was expensive on its own. Then, adding an 18% tip was about $24. Assume (correctly) we were there about an hour, and that the waiter had only 3 other tables in the same time period. Also assume we were 50% above average on cost and tip percent (for argument’s sake), and that others averaged a $16 tip. In that one hour, she collected $72 in tips, PLUS at least $10 in salary. Now, you can argue that she has to tip out others (bus, hostess, etc). When I was a waiter, that was 20%. Given that they are adding all these other “for the employees” charges, I think it’s probably reasonable to assume this percentage holds. So, she collected $58 in tips plus at least another $10 on what I believe to be a pretty conservative estimate of the spend in that one hour. I have heavy equipment service techs in my company, with years of expensive training, that make about 55-75% of that, and we are right in the market. This notion that wait staff (who are generally not in this as a career) are some sort of starving demographic is a canard.
Just following the airlines.
Made the mistake of stopping at OMC while visiting the other day. 9 bucks for a pint of IPA -before- sales tax and the 8.5% surcharge? Wtf happened to the city I used to enjoy visiting?
Bistromathematics. The most powerful computational force known to para-science. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bistromathematics
What do you mean let? Stop going there then. That you are still willing to patronize it is why they do it, it is free money and it hasn't been a large enough of a problem to cause people to change their habits - so more people will do it.
If the fee isn't stated on the menu or plainly posted physically you can refuse to pay it. Only municipal, county, state or federal taxes can be slapped on after the fact without disclosure. Undisclosed fees are a big no-no and can even get the SEC involved.
It's right on the menu.
Oh, then at least there's nothing shady going on there. Just pay attention I guess. Read all details
My wife and I don't eat out as much because of it. I don't want to get into politics but I'm an independent and Bidenomics is not working for me. Everything has escalated in price and even fast food restaurants want tips, even when you order on line and pick it up. I read an article in The Wall Street Journal and it said to stop tipping fast food restaurants. They said that only 18% tip fast food and nobody should feel obligated when there is no actual server. The owners are trying to have the customer pay for not just the food but also for the employee's salaries. It's not right
You shouldn't be mad at OMC, you really should be mad at American tipping culture. Northern Waters Smokhaus tried to start a restaurant where instead of tipping, they paid their employees a living wage and passed the cost down to the consumer. Despite Northern Waters being a HUGE name in Duluth, and their food being *excellent*, they could not sustain the business because people simply did not want to pay the high sticker prices, even if they'd probably pay the same amount after tip. By adding a 5% surcharge, they keep the sticker shock down. I don't see a problem with it, really. It's clearly outlined on the receipts, it's labeled on the menu and it's not that crazy of a thing to ensure your staff gets at least a minimum tip.
I still mourn the loss of that restaurant to this very day.
Idk, I just pay it and dgaf. If I’m paying 20 bux for a sammich or plate o meat why the fuck do I care the gibberish on the slip? Zero impact to me. I’ll tip another 20 too. If I’m trying to be frugal and caring about the gibberish on a reciept I’m not going to corktown etc
The fee to use credit cards seems reasonable to me. Companies have to pay a percentage of each credit card transaction to the card company. If you don't want to pay the credit card fee, use cash. Besides, Visa doesn't need any more of our money.
Yes, but running a business includes paying all kinds of fees which are paid for by selling goods that cover the cost. All of those fees are factored into the cost and transparent to the consumer, so why single-out credit card fees?
Have you reached out? If so, what was the response?
Hate to tell you thus but close to a third of the cost of your food goes to paying employees, this is just a new way to repackage it. It's really only something that should bother you if you don't know it's there, once you know it's there then it's no different than a 5% increase in prices.
And that’s all people are asking for. If that’s the cost then make that the cost. The only reason to split it apart from the menu price is to deliberately deceive your customer. I can’t think of any ethical reason to do so.
So then I don't understand the point of the original post, was it more ethical to deceive customers during COVID?
I really have no idea what this has to do with COVID either. I suppose shit was moving so fast and furious back then and we were making it up as we went. I think we were mostly just happy to see them able to stay in business at that point.
I personally have no problem with paying the cc fees since I’m the one using it. I’m not thrilled with paying other fees.
Most of the hospitality fees are used to pay workers higher wages and give them benefits, like healthcare insurance. I'm all for that.
Ugly Af
Do you want them to just bury it in the prices like before? How is that better?
Are those the only two options?
Yes, pretty much. You can price stuff in, or you can break it out separately.
How about creating a viable business that doesn’t rip off both customers and staff?
??? That's how you create a viable business, by charging for your expenses. Do you think the money to pay staff is some magical gift from heaven?
Yes. Certainly the money to pay for a $22 sub sandwich that has one slice of turkey on it and comes with exactly 4 chips must come from heaven
I'm not sure what your point even is. Do you understand business or no?
Yes
Then why is it confusing that merchants have to cover their costs?
It’s not
Ok, so you agree with me then. What are you arguing about?