If you have to pay the money up front, you're less likely to buy; that's true for houses because they cost so much, and it's true for meals because there are lo

If you have to pay the money up front, you're less likely to buy; that's true for houses because they cost so much, and it's true for meals because there are lots of small individual charges in the course of a full meal. I guess restaurants find that the money lost via dine-and-dashing is not as bad as the money lost to misers.