I liked buffets a lot but in the last 15 years all but one buffet I liked to go to went dramatically downhill in quality. It is likely this was due to cost cutt

I liked buffets a lot but in the last 15 years all but one buffet I liked to go to went dramatically downhill in quality. It is likely this was due to cost cutting measures to stay competitive. Eventually it got to where dishes and cutlery weren't even cleaned properly and I'd have to dig through a stack to find one without residue, and I was getting food poisoning about a quarter of the time. I simply had to stop going, they were bad, and unsafe. This is likely why there has been a mass purging of buffet chains nationally during this time period. It's not that the public has lost their interest in buffets, it's that people have noticed the quality is too low to be acceptable despite the price, which isn't a bargain anyway for any but those that game the system as is mentioned in the article, or for the ultimate in low cost places like all you can eat combination sushi-thai-vietnamese-mongolianBBQ-Chinese-italian-jello-mac'n'cheese lunch places only $4.99, or $3.99 if you use the pennysaver coupon. Like the top comment mentions, some of us don't want to gorge ourselves, it's nice to have a variety of things to sample, but also buffets are useful for weekday lunch since you can be in and out with a full meal much faster than you can in a restaurant where you have to wait for your order. One remaining buffet that's still good quality in my area is a certain classy Indian restaurant. They only do the buffet for lunch from 11-2, so it's impossible for people to come in and eat for 4 hours straight. Also there's almost no meat at all, so the restaurant doesn't appeal to those who come in to eat a pile of steaks. I've never seen anyone come and just eat plate after plate. People come because they can get good vegetarian food quickly for lunch. High quality buffets will likely survive, but there's less of a market for them. A successful hybrid model might be that of Olive Garden, which mixes reheated frozen food with unlimited breadsticks and salad, both which are extremely cheap to provide unlimited quantities of.