Tribune reporter Jake Sheridan tweeted the database out earlier this week to the delight of the diners who contributed to the Google Sheet. Figuring out how to make restaurants more career-friendly has been a puzzle for many.ĭiners who oppose the fees bemoan a lack of price transparency and the spreadsheet channels a sentiment expressed in a May Tribune editorial sounding the alarm on service against restaurants trying to take advantage of diners. Offering better pay and benefits - sometimes funded by these fees - was seen as an approach to recruiting and retaining restaurant employees. The Great Resignation hit restaurants hard with much of the workforce shrinking and taking jobs outside of the hospitality industry. While service fees existed before 2020, many restaurants began deploying them regularly during the pandemic arguing, often with polite fine print on a menu, that they needed the fee to offset costs due to inflation or that they were passing the fees to workers in the forms of health care or higher wages. The backlash on service fees is creeping up in conversations across the country, reflecting that many customers are feeling the pinch of post-pandemic price inflation. As Illinois restored indoor dining, the 3 percent fee has remained. Lettuce has been a target for diners angry about service fees as Chicago’s largest restaurant company added the fee to offset costs associated with the pandemic. Independent restaurants and groups like Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises aren’t separated either. The sheet also doesn’t distinguish between fees assessed for credit card transactions or money that (allegedly) would go toward employee health insurance. The explanation is also written on their menus. Delicious, but shameful.”ĭespite the Redditor’s claim, Daisies is fairly upfront: it uses a pop-up window that greets customers as soon as they log onto its website and fills the screen while explaining the fee is issued for “equitable pay and benefits” and the tipping isn’t expected. If my father wasn’t a receipt analyzer, the rest of us, after having enjoyed lots of wine, may have very easily added standard gratuity. ![]() ![]() There’s a note about the 25 percent outlier, which is charged by Daisies in Logan Square: “Daisies does not make their 25 percent surcharge obvious. ![]() The Chicago spreadsheet itself is a growing mess of more than 100 restaurants with tallying fees between 2.5 percent and 25 percent. So, naturally, a group of angry restaurant customers has organized via Reddit to create a Google Sheet of Chicago restaurants that utilize service fees.ĭiners in LA have compiled a list of their own, in which contributors speculate about where the money is going and if it’s legal to tack these fees on at the end of receipts. Well, maybe not - but customers who fashion themselves armchair restaurant owners do enjoy debating the topic on the Internet. The economics of restaurants always makes for lively discussion at parties.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |