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There are a lot of businesses on the brink. My regular Italian spot went out of business in the depths of the pandemic. They re-capitalized and opened again but
by jdavis703 5y ago
There are a lot of businesses on the brink. My regular Italian spot went out of business in the depths of the pandemic. They re-capitalized and opened again but with higher prices. Their clientele is upper middle class (i.e. relatively price insensitive). But they still wrote a long letter explaining why prices increased (more benefits, more salary) and asking that people support their increased overhead by becoming regular patrons. I think operators are really scared people will judge them on value if the price goes up.
- lordnacho 5y agoIs it working for them? I get the feeling that it might, depending on the price level they were at previously. Perhaps the thing to do would have been to rebrand completely, make the place look a bit more fancy.
- jdavis703 5y agoThe place doesn’t seem quite as busy as before. But I’m not sure if that’s because of price changes or some general post-pandemic change (e.g. they also added outdoor dining, which might make the place feel less busy.)
- 88913527 5y agoIt's one approach. A bit carrot-and-stick, but what I have seen in restaurants in upper class neighborhoods is chastising changes to public policy. Each menu page has a footnote mentioning there's a X% charge (that isn't the tip) applied to each menu item due to a rise in minimum wage. Since they re-printed the menus anyways to add the footnote, they could have simply been more transparent and increased each menu item's cost. Most people regularly dining at fancy ocean-view restaurants (which I rarely frequent) can afford the higher cost.