Pet peeve (minor) - restaurants redacting prices from online menus

[ard]

Minor pet peeve and clearly a 1st world problem, but it feels to me that more and more restaurants are posting copies of their menus online on their own websites with the prices redacted. Really annoying when you want to do a quick perusal of a couple of different restaurants to compare. Options are to go to yelp and look for customer photos of the menu which may be outdated, or go through an online ordering process where you don't know if those prices are the same as for dine-in (some restaurants seem to mark up prices for online orders).

(To the best of my knowledge) we do not live in a hyper-inflationary world where yesterday's prices don't apply today. I do not believe that it is particularly difficult for restaurants to update their menus online if they actually do change them. I could see a potential problem if they forget to do that and a customers says "but online it said it cost X" but me thinks that would be the exception rather than the rule

Off soap-box now

Have a nice evening fellow Pelicans.

[stevej37]

I see that a lot around here also.
If I can't see prices...I don't go.


The only thing I dislike more...are the restaurants that will only show a menu if you use your phone to scan the QR code.

[Skytrooper]

If they don't post the prices...they don't get my business. It's not hard to understand.

[ben parrish]

My wheelhouse here… we ARE most definitely in a hyper-inflationary market in our food supply right now. Look for instance at eggs right now; up over 250% in the past year. Shortening/ fry oil up 30% and butter up most 35% since September of this year….not to mention the ridiculous demands of labor. Many restaurants are now paying dishwashers over 15.00hr and up…kitchen staff is 18-20 hr now for little to no skill. Restaurants have always been tough but with spiking costs all around from rent, food, taxes and labor, it is getting harder and harder for them to cut a real profit. Expect to see more “market price” menus as they are just trying to survive in a crazy economy.
BTW, why is it so surprising that restaurants must raise prices regularly? Gas stations and grocery stores are commodity driven businesses that fluctuate by the day on prices. Everything a restaurant serves is reliant on the same fuel and the same market conditions a grocery store and gas station is subjected to.

[Bill Douglas]

Luckily we don't have that around here. I'd be highly pissed off and go elsewhere.

[stevej37]

QR codes for menus are the worst. Sometimes they work...most of the time not.

[ard]

Originally Posted by ben parrish

My wheelhouse here… we ARE most definitely in a hyper-inflationary market in our food supply right now. Look for instance at eggs right now; up over 250% in the past year. Shortening/ fry oil up 30% and butter up most 35% since September of this year….not to mention the ridiculous demands of labor. Many restaurants are now paying dishwashers over 15.00hr and up…kitchen staff is 18-20 hr now for little to no skill. Restaurants have always been tough but with spiking costs all around from rent, food, taxes and labor, it is getting harder and harder for them to cut a real profit. Expect to see more “market price” menus as they are just trying to survive in a crazy economy.
BTW, why is it so surprising that restaurants must raise prices regularly? Gas stations and grocery stores are commodity driven businesses that fluctuate by the day on prices. Everything a restaurant serves is reliant on the same fuel and the same market conditions a grocery store and gas station is subjected to.

Ben thanks for the context and I sympathize with the vagaries in your world. However, you are misinterpreting my post. I am not saying restaurants (or anybody else for that matter) cannot raise prices; prices are a key lever in a free supply and demand economy. I am simply complaining, lightheartedly truth be told, about something, namely price transparency (seemingly) being taken away from me. Will that stop me cold from going to restaurants? No, but I'll gripe about it. Now, to be sure, there are "things" we buy without the benefit of price transparency, health care being the most egregious example, where I cannot see what I am on the hook for until the deed is done, irreversibly.

[Bill Douglas]

THere was a high end coffee machine shop around here. I said to the Italian guy "Why don't you have the prices on things?" He said "Don't need to, you just ask me." I said "Around here it just pisses people off."

I think his game plan was to read each customer who walked through the door and adjust the price accordingly.

A few months later he was gone.

[Gogar]

I'm not pissed off and I'm very happy to pay a premium for a nice place with real servers and real prices. Sometimes those 'real' prices are challenging but i get it. The only new trend that grinds my gears are restaurants that (by design) have no waitstaff and phone QR codes for the menu and human robot servers bringing you food from the kitchen. And then they tab you out and the low-tier tip is 18% but you really never even had a server. And they forced you to fck with your phone the whole dinner. I went out to eat exclusively so I could get away from my phone and you jammed me into my phone for the whole experience so fck you. anyway

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Gogar

I'm not pissed off and I'm very happy to pay a premium for a nice place with real servers and real prices. Sometimes those 'real' prices are challenging but i get it. The only new trend that grinds my gears are restaurants that (by design) have no waitstaff and phone QR codes for the menu and human robot servers bringing you food from the kitchen. And then they tab you out and the low-tier tip is 18% but you really never even had a server. And they forced you to fck with your phone the whole dinner. I went out to eat exclusively so I could get away from my phone and you jammed me into my phone for the whole experience so fck you. anyway

I with you on this. Fooking hate QR code menus. Our suggested tips around here are 18, 22 and 28%. I hear from some of my friends (they aren't the cheap folks) who do not tip food delivery driver well due to whatever reason and they get bent. Haven't these people forgotten its tip, meaning good service, not mandatory payment.

[ben parrish]

Pricing should be in print and available prior to ordering..anything other than that is simply a lazy operator that is out of touch. I have not seen that in my market and would really have to ask the owner/manager where their thought process was on that decision. I also would be put off by that practice as a consumer.
Service has gotten pretty poor lately all around and tips are expected as a “right” by many servers.
I agree on the QR, order by phone thing..HATE IT!!

[porsche tech]

I also have found that at many restaurants the waiter will rattle off all the specials without mentioning the price. If one sounds good I always ask the price. Should be mentioned up front IMHO.—Dave

[KFC911]

No price .... no sale. Required to order online to get deal .... no sale. QR .... don't even think about it .... that's just me.

My phone number is BR-549 if you must have one too

[stevej37]

Was at the Charlotte airport last year and had an hour wait so I went into Bokampers to eat.
First thing I notice is the big QR code pasted to the table top. I tried to get my phone to read it...no go.
I flagged down the one and only waiter and asked for a printed version. He said "we don't have them anymore and if your phone won't read it, I'll get mine to do it"

About 10 minutes later he appears and tries to read the QR with his phone....no go.

I told him thanks for trying and walked out.

[jyl]

We’re taking here about whether current menu item prices are posted on the restaurant’s *website*, right?

(Not about whether prices are on the menu itself, that you see when you are at the restaurant and about to order.)

Maybe it depends on the kind of restaurant.

For example, there’s a place I go to every couple months. They change their menu often, even daily, depending on what is available. They don’t have the current menu or prices on their website. It’s a locally well-known place, has been around a quite a while, “farm to table” kind of place, dinner for two usually ends up around $250 including drinks, maybe a modest wine, and tip. No takeout or DoorDash, strictly a sit down place. The omission doesn’t seem to bother the customers. No-one is price-shopping that place’s $42 entree against a competitor’s $38 entree, etc.

Other than that they don’t need to, I think updating their menu and prices online would be a pain. The executive chef is handling two restaurants, he already works 12 hours a day, he doesn’t have time to update the web site daily and may well not know how to do that.

I do think that is the exception - most places I go to have more of a “set” menu, with full menu information and prices online - but if the place I described is the “type” of place you tend to go to, then not seeing prices online may be common.

[Baz]

Guess I have a small nit to add........

Yesterday I dropped my car off for a tint job in Daytona, and while waiting went walkabout to some of the area shops. This is on International Speedway Blvd. so lot of businesses!

Fairly new Wawa and I've been seeing these ads for their Peppermint Bark shake/smoothie. Figured I'd try one out. I've never gotten food from a Wawa before - only their non-ethanol gas at the Wawa here in NSB.

I go inside and see a sign that says "Order here". I get the attention of one of the girls and she says I have to use their keypad to place my order. Despite seeming to following the right prompts, I can't find the item I want. I ask them and after doing this twice - both times without their help - I finally find it - and order one. It gives me a ticket which I take over to the "Pick up Order" window, where I am told I have to pre-pay for it next - then return to pick it up, which I do.

I should also add I used a napkin over my finger on the keypad because no way do I want to touch something the general public is also touching - especially after witnessing two patrons leave the bathroom after not washing their hands - yuk! Kudos to the FedEx driver because he did.

The beverage was pretty good - but what a PITA to go through so many hoops!

I'm sure for the younger crowd though it's just par for the course in today's "techno" world.....

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Baz

I've never gotten food from a Wawa before - only their non-ethanol gas at the Wawa here in NSB.

The beverage was pretty good - but what a PITA to go through so many hoops!.

That is funny, Baz. I eat at Wawa at twice a month for lunch take-out and non-ethonal gas. I know the Wawa shuffle and have it down to a science.

[asphaltgambler]

My father taught me two things: "Before you ask for the sale, the customer needs to know the price..........."

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

That is funny, Baz. I eat at Wawa at twice a month for lunch take-out and non-ethonal gas. I know the Wawa shuffle and have it down to a science.

No doubt for regular customers getting the routine down is the key.

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

My father taught me two things: "Before you ask for the sale, the customer needs to know the price..........."

Exactly. Take my tint job yesterday. I phoned the guy a week ago to inquire and guess what.....he was able to both give me the price and set an appointment right then and there. That's all I needed. Flawless and seamless.

[asphaltgambler]

I do know the restuarant business on a second hand level. There are reasons why some higher ticket items may be listed as 'market price' - lobster or crab being good examples. The whole thing? Ummm no.

The QR code was used during Covid for obvious reasons, but now I believe it's a tool targeted to youngsters.