I got this fun fee after trying to order takeout from Buffalo Wild Wings (yes I’m naming and shaming). How exactly does adding a dollar help you operate takeout? It’s literally less work than waiting on a table. This is nothing more than a shameful cash grab to pad profits.
I cancelled my order and got local street tacos instead.
EDIT: Look what I found this morning, lol https://www.today.com/food/restaurants/buffalo-wild-wings-takeout-fee-backlash-complaint-rcna90228
It’s a charge for the container your takeout food went into. They’re a significant expense, especially if it’s any type of sustainable packaging. This is not new. It has been a thing since at least the early 2000s.
I’d disagree with that there, these things are bought in bulk for literal pennies from wholesalers
I have never seen that style of container for takeout in my life and I spent two decades in the service industry. That’s not common in America.
Still, for arguments sake that works out to about £.05 per box. Of course, that’s if you go to the wholesaler to pick it up. If you’re running a restaurant, you probably get it delivered with the rest of your dried goods. You pay for that, just like you pay for the cutlery and the napkins and the sauce packets and the bag it all goes in.
A buck really isn’t unreasonable here. I’ve worked at spots where the takeout container was $0.30 each, and that’s without figuring in the delivery/fuel surcharge.
If they have a $4.40 table area credit to compensate me for the lack of physical rental space I’m not taking up, and a $0.35 silverware wash&roll power, water, and labor credit, plus a $1.25 parking space credit for the hour I’m not using the lot, and a $0.45 reception/waiting area credit for not standing around paying someone to call me when my table is ready, then I’d accept the $1.00 boxing fee. But if I’m paying the cost of waiting to be seated, taking up a table for an hour, and parking - which is bundled into the entree price - I think they can spot me a take out container.
(Interesting that places like Gregg’s, Costa, and Pret sometimes actually do charge more if you eat in)
These containers are really common with independent curry/chinese places.
Even on this wholesaler website had loads of different containers, they aren’t that expensive at all. There are places here that do charge for cutlary and only provide it if you ask.
Also I’m not disagreeing with the price, just that the containers are expensive. They really aren’t, good businesses will buy them in bulk from a wholesaler. A place like that you get discounts anyway it just makes sense to do so.
