It’s one thing for prices at restaurants to have gone up due to inflation, labor costs, and so on. We get that, everything costs more now. Heck, we’re pretty sure it costs more just to breathe nowadays!
But prices aren’t literally changing hour by hour, minute by minute…yet. Oh yes, you read that right! We’ve got the scoop on a trend that seems to be heading to your favorite local eatery!
Here are Five Fast Facts on surge pricing at restaurants:
- ⚡ Dynamic What? - Dynamic pricing – you may know it as “surge” pricing – is a method of raising prices during peak times and lowering them during slow times to help increase sales. Kind of a magic wand for instant pricing, you know?
- ✈️ Jumping Industries - Surge pricing has been used for a long time by airlines and hotels, and more recently adopted by ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. It is now potentially coming to food service. Taylor Swift apparently has her own built-in surge pricing and it’s always peak time (just shake it off, people!)
- 💰 Compensation - Costs have soared for restaurants - eating out costs 30% more today than in 2019! Many restaurants and chains are desperately looking for any way to maximize sales and revenue, and surge pricing has the potential to do both, from a few cents to a few dollars per meal.
- ⚖️ Balancing Act - There’s a risk, though. Sure, they may be able to charge a bit more for each meal purchased, but people are already struggling with the normal prices so if they see surge pricing on top of that they may just not bother to go out to eat at all.
- 🤔 Kinda Sorta - A number of restaurant chains have floated trial balloons to see how the idea goes over with their customers, and it isn’t always going well. For example, Wendy’s announced they would do it and instantly got major pushback from customers. As a result, they’ve now backed off a bit, saying they wouldn’t use it during peak times.
🔥Bottom line: Surge pricing could be a great thing for restaurants and the people who work there. Maximizing the money coming in does happy things to everyone’s Paychecks! On the other hand, it’s a potentially brutal shift for customers that might end up driving business away entirely. Plus, there are other questions involved: what would this do to tips? Does the surge price take effect at the beginning of the meal or the end? Would menus still be a thing, or does this become a fun guessing game every time you go out to eat?
It’s a tough call for restaurants and customers alike, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
What do you think of surge pricing at restaurants?
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