Personal Finance Advice

I think that the restaurants cut their overhead, namely employees, to be able to offer the reduced prices. The few (very few) times I’ve been out to eat I’ve noticed that there weren’t very many people working when it was rather busy. When people stopped going out to eat, they laid off waitstaff, and to entice people to go back out to eat, they lowered prices. That’s my theory anyway.

I do know that the business rule of thumb is that payroll expenses should be about 30% of your income, and it’s something that companies watch very closely.

I think with those three-course meal specials and the dinner-for-two specials the menu is quite limited. The idea gets patrons in the door, but with only a few options offered, they’ll often eschew the special and order something more expensive. I think restaurants are counting on that.

There are also huge markups on drinks, both alcoholic and soft drinks, which are often not included in the special.

While some restaurants have almost certainly compromised the quality of ingredients, cost-cutting does not necessarily mean the end product’s quality is reduced. There are other tactics, such as using different ingredients, such as fish species that cost less or lower grades of meat that, when cooked for longer periods or braised become just as tasty as an expensive product. (Notice all the short ribs on menus these days?) But ultimately — call it the bottom line on the bottom line — profit margins are undoubtedly slimmer all around.

I think both Annie and Carol are correct.

Personally, I had really gotten out of shape and am now working to become much less of a person physically. LOL I’m not in the least attracted to gorge fests and have found that I enjoy smaller servings (of everything except veggies) which give you a taste to savor without loadng you up with needless calories. As a matter of fact, I’ve become so accustomed to more reasonable eating that large portions, if I indulge, leave me feeling unwell.

I’m definitely in favor of smaller quantities and higher quality!

Where we live, lower food prices cames from desparation. The end result? Most eateries are going out of business anyway. The last year we had been eating out a ton more than usual – the coupons and deals have been phenomenal.

BUT we have not been eating out much at all lately. I was pondering why just the other day, and I Realized all our favorite eateries have gone out of business.

That sums it up pretty good. I Was just posting in the forums how bad our local economy has been hit though.

I think they’ve reduced staff to trim expenses. I also think they shrink portion sizes compared to what they may have been a year or two ago.

Selling you the 3-course meal avoids having customers come in and skip the appetizer and dessert in order to save money. They’ve rather get $30 for 3 course than $18 just for the entree.

And I think restaurant owners are willing to forgo some profits at this point in time in order to stay in business and ride out the economic downturn.

I think most restaurants use deals on multi-course meals/all you can eat specials in the hope of increasing beverage costs. If the food tastes good and you skip the high cost of beverages, don’t worry about the “how can they do this” factor and just enjoy your meal.

In the food and beverage business labour costs are generally a big part of your expenses. So cutting some staff can substantially bring down costs (and service). Changing the selection of ingredients instead of foie grass using pate, instead of lobster using river shrimp, slow cooting less meat cuts to achieve great texture and flavour, decreasing the meat/fish part from say 150g per portion to 130g and adding more veggies reduces the cost price per plate. Adding mor things like chicken and spare ribs to the menu lower costs without damaging the direct quality of the meal.
Furthermore its better to sell your stock cheap with a small profit than thow it away because its off.
Finally there is a healthy mark up on beverages especially soft drinks were soda water and syrup is mixed such as coke, lemonade etc costs restaurants a few cents per glass. But most importantly keeping your business ticking over and breaking even always beats going bust and in tough times any owner would prefer that to going out of business so enjoy all the bargains you can find.

I still try to avoid restaurants. Lesser cuts of meat tend to be fattier cuts of meat. No matter what I am paying, I would rather eat healthily at home than get a great deal in a restaurant.

The restaurants are just trying to stay afloat. With less and less people able to afford to eat out they have to run specials to get customers. Even with all the specials, the overhead costs are still driving many restaurants into bankruptcy. Prices wars are waging in almost every town and all any owner can hope for is that they will be the last one standing.

Years ago I worked at a grocery as a cashier. There was a lady in town that was well known for being a caterer and everyone praised her food. I didn’t know why as I had had to eat several of her meals and I thought they were awful. Then I started seeing her picking up stuff at the grocery store, everything was the plain label generic (from back in the days that most generic food was nasty), the cheapest fattest hamburg, etc. So yes, she was running her catering business on a shoestring and I really think that most of her customers just were a bit like the emperor and his clothes. No one wanted to admit that her food was lousy because everyone else said it was great! We are just like a bunch of lemmings!

You can run your business into the ground by being too frugal just as much as you can run it into the ground by spending too much on non-essentials.