I think the usual answer why that can't happen is that you're not paying just for the food, but for the ongoing expenses of the business: rent, labor, etc. Whic

I think the usual answer why that can't happen is that you're not paying just for the food, but for the ongoing expenses of the business: rent, labor, etc. Which means that you could order just a glass of tap water as your entire meal, but they'd have to charge you probably $50 for it, or else they'd go out of business. This leads to a weird business idea: what if there were a restaurant that priced food and fixed costs separately? You rent the table by the hour, and the food is priced close to its materials cost plus the time to prepare it (basically rental of kitchen + staff). So if you sit for an hour enjoying your pizza, the bill still comes to about $30, but it's $25/hour for the table and $5 for the pizza. There are many reasons this wouldn't work, besides the weirdness I already mentioned. People would sit for an hour, order 100 pizzas, and contract out DoorDash drivers to sell 98 of them at normal pizza prices. It's unclear how take-out would work if there isn't any space rental. And while I don't think many restaurants make a lot of money, I do think they like making more money when people eat more food.