Why Is It So Expensive?
“I can buy this for a third of the price, why is it so expensive?” said every person ever who hasn’t worked in hospitality. Yes, you could buy that wine or spirit for a third of the price (or less) at the bottle store, and you should. Why not enjoy it at home as well? Doesn’t compare to sitting in a restaurant, where all your needs are being waited on, but it’s still nice to Netflix and sip.
So why are beverages, particularly alcoholic beverages, sold at significantly higher prices than retail? It’s not because a restaurant is trying to rip you off or the operator is greedily trying to squeeze every penny out of you. It’s because that is simply what it costs to serve it to you.
There are countless factors that play a role in the costing of a menu item, most of which are non-negotiable:
Rent - Most restaurants do not own the space they operate in and have to pay a monthly rent. Depending on where the restaurant is located, rent can go into the hundreds of thousands a month.
Turnover Clause - Many landlords want a cut of turnover on top of the rent every month. A percentage of what the restaurant operator earns must be paid over the landlord, anywhere from 5 to 20% needs to be given up. Now this can be complete robbery for a business, but it can also work in the restaurants favour, especially in quieter months if they have cleverly negotiated their rental with the landlord.
Liquor Licence - The liquor licence is an expensive additional cost that is not once off, it has to be painfully renewed every single year. Without it, absolutely no alcohol can be served.
Music Licence - This licence is also an annual payment, simply to be allowed to play music in the restaurant. Imagine a restaurant without music.
Labour - The labour cost in a healthy restaurant is around 20 to 25% of monthly turnover. Not profit, turnover. Some restaurants struggle with significantly higher labour costs, either due to mismanagement or simply the product they offer requires more staff.
Water and Lights - Restaurants use a lot of water in food preparation and cooking, but most of the water usage in a restaurant comes from cleaning up after guests. A busy restaurant washes thousands of crockery, cutlery and cookware items a day. Not mention cleaning of the kitchen and restaurant itself. Electricity consumption is an restaurant can be alarming for someone who only has to worry about their home bill. Most kitchen equipment runs on electricity, including massive ovens, heat lamps, extractors and coffee machines in the bar. Then we look at the lights, aircon, fridges and point of sales systems which add even further to the load. These two together can go into the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands a month, but this doesn’t include gas consumption in the kitchen and in many cases charcoal and wood as well.
Operating Equipment - From the plates and glasses you use, that break all the time by the hands of either guests or staff, to the large equipment needed to run a restaurant which inevitably fails and needs repair or replacement after constant use. If you didn’t know, industrial kitchen equipment is far more expensive than home use items. Oh, and, a lot of equipment in a restaurant needs to be regularly serviced for longevity and Health & Safety. This all costs money.
Consumables - From sugar sachets to menu printing, there are countless items that are provided to guests at no charge. Somehow these need to be paid for.
I could keep going and going, but you get the idea. A successful restaurant that is well managed and well costed makes a clean profit of only a few percent every month, much less than you expect. Everything adds up and not overcharging is a serious concern in restaurants, it is a very tricky balancing act between making money and actually having guests in the restaurant.
That is why the wine you order with your meal is much more expensive than on the shelf in Checkers. It is just simply what it costs to run a restaurant, to give you (a paying guest) an enjoyable experience that you cannot have at home with your odd bins. Cheers.
How To Be a Restaurant Guest
Seems obvious, right? One would assume so. Then why the need to write this at all? Well …
Fortunately, many of us have been raised by or surrounded by respectful, mature human beings that know the difference between being a guest in someone else’s establishment and thinking that paying a bill buys you shares in the business. (It doesn’t, just to be clear).
However, there are also many other people who believe paying for a service means you have acquired the rights to someone’s dignity and soul. Despite a lot of the world looking down on restaurant staff, especially waiters, they are still working professionals who deserve (at the very least) the most basic of human respect.
Before we go any further, let’s just lower some of those raised eyebrows. Professionalism is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “the competence or skill expected of a professional”, while the same dictionary defines professional as “engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as a pastime”. Anyone have any further questions about how a waiter can be a professional? Great, let’s move on.
Let’s start by defining what a restaurant is: it is a business (owned by someone else, not you) that provides an on premises food and beverage experience. The concept of a restaurant has been around since the 1760s, pioneered by the French of course, but at no point in the last 250 years was it designed to be an extension of your mother’s house. It can be confusing, restaurants do straddle the line between privately owned, yet open to the public, so I can sort of see why you think you can behave like you do at home. You can’t, but I get it.
The team in a restaurant that serves you your meal is there to do their best, they want you to be happy and they work hard on that. 9 to 15 hours on your feet is no joke. If you’re going to sit and be served while their feet and backs ache, at least be polite and considerate. Paying for a service, especially when we get into the high end arena, rightfully sets an expectation of good service and good food. Most of the time you’ll get what you pay for, other times the human beings that are waiters or chefs make mistakes. They didn’t do it on purpose and I can assure you they feel stupid about it already, without you throwing your toys out of the cot over the plate being cold, or them taking long to get to you on a busy night. If you simply ask nicely for the cold dish to be corrected, or for more attentive service, they will do their best to improve your experience. Simply being polite and respectful can get you so much further than screaming and threatening people’s livelihoods, this applies to life in general too (in case that wasn’t obvious).
Restaurant staff are not qualified trauma counsellors, your outbursts (that stem from your personal life) over a weak cappuccino, are not welcome. Show some class. They are also not MMA fighters, so there’s no need to huff and puff, flexing your steroid marinated biceps, threatening their safety because for some reason your own ideas of being some kind of royalty didn’t make it onto your ID. Restaurants have Right of Admission, they have every right to tell you to leave. You have no right to shout, belittle, demean and humiliate the people serving you in a restaurant. None. Do you really want to go home having left someone anxious and upset, over something that really wasn’t going to kill you? If you feel you have the right to do any of the above to strangers in public, I recommend urgent therapy.
Sadly there are many restaurant owners who think it is simply part of the industry and leave the staff to suffer the abuse, rather than empowering them to put their foot down. To you I say shame on you. Restaurants are an integral part of a culture, the birthplace of some of the greatest cultural movements in history. You have the power to teach people how to behave, or at the very least to let it be known they will not be welcome if they cannot, for the sake of your staff. The few hundred Rand you may lose by turning that person away will quickly be recovered by a loyal team.
Enough of the do nots, let’s talk about the dos. You are a guest, the same rules apply as being in someone else’s home. Start by saying “hello”, say “please”, say “thank you”. Every single time. Be aware of the other guests around you, they also want to enjoy their experience. Take note that if the restaurant is busy, there may be some delays. It’s not personal, but the people working themselves into a sweat to give you what you want, can only do so much. Did you know that chefs carry baby powder around to help with the chafing in unspeakable areas, chafing that comes from being on their feet, grafting all day every day? Now you know how hard they work to deliver something they are proud of. Don’t forget it.
Restaurants are allowed to change their offering, don’t be upset when that dish you’ve been coming for over and over again is removed. Chances are you were the only person ordering it, and the team sees/prepares those same dishes day in and day out, they deserve to be creative. I can assure you, you creature of habit you, that if you enjoyed one thing on the menu, you will enjoy something else. They’re allowed to say “no”, because you are not always right. If you want a kitchen to revolve around you, get a private chef to cook for you at home. (I know you can’t afford it, just try something else).
Restaurants are meant to be a place of good experiences, the restaurant team is ready to deliver that for you, but you need to be ready to enjoy it. Allow a restaurant to guide you on the journey they have created, it might not be the same as the other place you frequent, but they might surprise you and if it’s really not for you just don’t go again. It’s not automatically a shit restaurant if you don’t like it.
I have no doubt that restaurants are part of some your fondest memories, but if you can’t think of a time you’ve enjoyed a restaurant then I’m afraid to say it’s you. We as guests also have a part to play in whether we enjoy a restaurant or not. If you keep resisting the experience, because you had some other idea of what you wanted in your head, it’s not the restaurant’s fault you didn’t have a good time.
On the other hand, some restaurants simply aren’t getting it right. The food may be subpar or the service can be vastly improved. It could be the staff’s fault, but more often than not it comes from senior management or owners that fail to see why improvement is necessary. In cases like these, there are calm and polite ways to express your dissatisfaction. Ask for the manager, have a conversation. It doesn’t have to be an attack. Also, don’t say everything was “lovely” and then go home and write a stinking review online. Give the restaurant the opportunity to correct where they have gone wrong. If they simply dismiss your complaint, or show no interest in resolving it with you, well … have at it. But before chalking your finger tips for speed typing, ask yourself, was it really so bad that it is worth costing someone their livelihood? Because it just might.
Lastly, you. Yes, you. The one who works in restaurants and “knows what good food/service looks like”. Chill. You’re not at work, enjoy being on the other end rather than picking it apart and preventing it from being a good experience. You know exactly what I mean.
In conclusion, decide to have a good time and you probably will. The people working to make that happen don’t work for you, they have a boss who has already told them what to do. Treat people with respect and kindness, wherever you go. Always. Now finish your chips.