Sneaky ways restaurants use menus to entice you to spend more
Filed under: Food, Saving Money
While you may not know what you're going to order before you sit down at a restaurant, chances are the items you end up choosing aren't entirely up to your inner cravings. Whether it's a fast-food joint or high-end steakhouse, restaurants of all ilks employ various tricks of the trade to get you to buy more and spend more. But savvy diners don't have to blindly fall victim to these tactics. They just need to know what to watch out for before opening the menu.
"There is very much an art to the whole practice," said Gordon Drysdale, who is part of an ownership group that operates Pizza Antica restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Not surprisingly, restaurants design their menus with up-selling in mind. They'll put the highest profit items in the upper right corner, which is the first place that people tend to look, or they'll put pricey signature items in boxes or use buzzwords to grab a person's attention.
Chain restaurants have long employed such tactics, says Blair Chancey, editor of QSR Magazine, which publishes information on the quick-service and fast casual restaurant business. Chains know that filling menu boards with too much information confuses customers and slows down the line. That's why they create prearranged "value" meals that include en entree, a side and a drink. Basically, customers don't have to make many decisions at all. To simplify the process even further, the meals are pictured and given numbers (Value Meal #2, for instance). Not only does this help the line move faster, but it also encourages customers to order more than they would have had they ordered the items individually.
At higher-end restaurants, the tricks get a little more sophisticated. In fact, restaurants even hire "menu engineers" to create menus designed to bring in bigger profits. Gregg Rapp, a menu engineer for 27 years (pictured left), as well as some other industry experts spoke with WalletPop about what diners should look for the next time they go out to dinner.
Watch the placement
Just as grocery stores put pricier items on the center shelves where they are directly in your line of sight, menu writers often put the highest profit meals in the upper right corner of a menu where the eye naturally goes, says Rapp. The goal isn't to rip anyone off, he says, but to lead them to more expensive meals that they'll enjoy. "The restaurant's goal is to not only get you to come in today, but to come back over and over and over," he says.
Is there a dollar sign?
The way a menu item's price is listed can also impact a diner's choices -- and restaurants are well aware of it. People tend to spend more if the price on a menu is portrayed without a dollar sign or the word "dollars," according to a study by a researcher at Cornell University and the Culinary Institute of America that WalletPop wrote about in May. The study found that eliminating references to the dollar on a menu reduced the "pain of paying" in a diner's mind. So seeing 20 next to an item on the menu is perceived as less expensive than $20.
Restaurants have also learned to steer clear of "market price" items. Since most customers don't bother to ask what that price is, they often don't order it, says Rapp. The same goes for liquor prices. "[Diners will] order more of something they know the price on," he says. "And they won't ask the price of something because it's a little embarrassing."
Don't fall for trendy buzzwords
Try not to be seduced by "sexy" descriptors or ingredients, such as "heirloom tomatoes" or "truffles." Restaurants use these buzzwords to gain diners' attentions and boost their bills, says Drysdale. On the menu at Drysdale's restaurant, for example, is truffle mashed potatoes. The dish costs 15 cents more to make than the non-truffle variety of mashed potatoes, but the restaurant tacks $1 more onto the price of the dish.
"You can sure get that bill going up quick," says Marlene Parrish, a restaurant consultant and critic in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Prix fixe menus aren't always a good deal
Much like the so-called "value" meals offered at fast food chains, diners falsely perceive the prix fixe as a way to save, says Rafi Mohammed, a pricing expert who helps restaurants and other businesses determine prices. Diners should be careful not to spend more on the set meal than they would have had they ordered a la carte, he says.
Aaron Crowe is a freelance journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Reach him at www.AaronCrowe.net
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
10-14-2009 @ 7:20AM
roger said...
sometimes you can live near a diner where they are cheaper with good portions there is a buffet also in some places,one diner offers 2 for 22 weekdays with a cake and coffee or free dessert on certaIN DAYS and breakfast coofee juice inclued 6 dollars or less with meat/of course lesser prices found in other places
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10-14-2009 @ 7:45AM
ODELL said...
Never order any soda, a glass of soda at a restaurant cost at least $3.00. I only order if i'm in a buffet setting where it is free refills, etc.
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10-14-2009 @ 7:59AM
gr8bsn said...
Your waiter must love you.
10-14-2009 @ 9:27AM
Beladona said...
Especially when the glass is 3/4 full of ice.
10-14-2009 @ 12:29PM
j said...
wow you must live in a very high priced town. Where i live soda is like 1- 1.50 with refills at most places. of course i am in the midwest and it seems if you are on either the east or west coast you pay a arm and leg for everything. have a good day
10-14-2009 @ 8:15AM
Richard Schmidt said...
Three things really turn me off in restaurants, and two of them easily add to my cost.
1. Rattling off the specials orally. It is supposed to impress me that the waiter can remember them, including how they are prepared, although as often as not s(he) reads from notes. But I cannot follow and remember it all. I want to read them.
2. Is related to #1. When given orally the waiter almost never states the prices. If I ask (and most people are embarrased to do so), remembering everything is not easy. Again, a printed list with prices solves both and cannot cost more than a couple of dollars a night to create, ignoring that we might reject something that is too expensive or not appetizing, of course.
3. Is just annoying. When I use utensils for one course, they should be replaced for the next. Almost nothing annoys me more than a waiter taking my knife off my salad plate and putting it on the table for me to use with my entree. Even "family" restaurants could provide clean "silver", although I know not to expect that. When pricy restaurants do the same, it really upsets me.
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10-14-2009 @ 8:23AM
Straight Talker said...
Poor Richard. You must live a very lonely existence. You act prissy and bitchy. Very sad.
10-14-2009 @ 9:23AM
pizzacat said...
wow...You know, Richard, that the food pretty much gets digested together, right?
...mmm.....just imagine all those different fluids and juices and soggy chunks of half-eaten food that you'd NEVER want on a plate next to one another simply churning and bubbling away with your pungent stomach bile......
...doesn't that sound good, Richard?
10-14-2009 @ 9:50AM
themeeker said...
You know what Richard? You're going to die just like the rest of us. What difference does it make if you got clean silver with every course? NONE! Get over yourself.
10-14-2009 @ 10:04AM
unmarvelous said...
hey dick...stop being a lil bitch so much when you go out to eat your not that special to reuse a knife or a fork. besides i dont think i can ever recall using a knife for an appetizer salad
10-14-2009 @ 11:37AM
antcmanche said...
Actually, Richard's #3 used to be considered good etiquette for any, non-buffet, good restaurant to follow. It is part of the same etiquette as the diner placing his/her napkin on the lap and not tucking it into the top of the shirt. It seems now days no one bothers to teach their children etiquette, or manners for that matter.
10-14-2009 @ 12:25PM
Oscar Carreira said...
I think you should just keep eating those buffets you silly whiner,and if you want clean cutlery then just ask for some more rather than acting like a spoiled princess.Tim hortons is calling your name.
10-14-2009 @ 2:25PM
mae said...
Speaking of silverware, where are the spoons?!! It seems no one except small town diners thinks that spoons are needed anymore. And yes, I like printed specials and prices.
10-14-2009 @ 1:19PM
karen mcbride said...
Wow, Richard, you evoked a nasty response from some! I kind of agree with you - MY pet peeve is when you eat in a restaurant where they wipe all the tables down with a wet cloth, and use no paper placemats...once you open the silverware - where do you lay it? With one napkin, I usually ask for more right away, so I can place my silverware on it rather than on the germy tabletop! If I've used my knife to cut anything in my salad I'd rather put it on a napkin(so I can wipe it off) than on the tabletop. With everyone freaking out about flu season...I'd think that more restaurants would be more accomodating to those of us who are concerned about germs/cleanliness!
10-14-2009 @ 1:19PM
JBaily said...
Richard, as a restaurant owner I have a problem with some of your statements.
Even though it might only cost a few dollars (lets say $5) a day to print out a specials menu, it can add up. I think it would be much more than this, since restaurants usually have lunch and dinner specials. So, $5-10/day for 30 days is $150-$300, which for a business to pay in this time of recession is rediculous when your waiter or waitress can verbally tell you what the daily specials are. If you were in the restaurant business you will know that even finding a way to save penny's on an item can make a world of difference at the end of the month. Oh, by the way, our waitresses tell the customers the prices of our daily specials.
Just like with the extra silverware, over time a restaurant will have to spend extra money for the water, soap and labor it takes to wash the extra utensils. Sounds small, but it adds up. Also, the restaurant will need to purchase more silverware to make sure they will have enough to give out until they can get washed, sanitized, dried and wrapped again.
10-15-2009 @ 5:22PM
Dara said...
Richard, I agree with you. Though more for sanitary reasons. I have been part of testing on restaurant tables that are "cleaned" between diners. Silver, food, hands, anything that touches that top is in for a lot of different and nasty bugs that do nasty things to the compromised immune system. In the good 'ole US of A not many people are walking around with strong immune systems. So if you get a tummy ache from eating at a restaurant, don't always blame the food.
Happy eating.
10-14-2009 @ 1:46PM
bluskiess said...
so you use new utensils at home for the same meal but different courses?? what does it matter ... unless washing more dishes and wasting water is on the agenda!
10-14-2009 @ 1:56PM
tammy said...
if you can not afford the restaurants you go to try a cheaper choice. and if you have ever noticed not getting much ice in your water it is because the server you are running around refilling your free water actually has guest in their restaurant that are willing to pay for things and probably tip better! restaurants have to pay for things like ice, water, lemons for your water, extra ranch, etc. things that are not calculated into the price of your meal. so why shouldn't you have to pay your part of that? do you go to the grocery and want free produce, meat, whatever? it is the same thing, but you don't have to cook your meal, or clean up after ! keep in mind the restaurant is a business, not a food bank for you to much off of!
10-14-2009 @ 2:36PM
Kyle said...
I agree with Richards and one of the other comments left. Fresh flatware is appropriate with each course at a nice sit down restaurant. The expectation I lick a fork or spoon of mashed potatoes so that I can enjoy my dessert is not right. This is proper etiquette practice to provide new flatware (just as you provide a new plate or bowl and new cups) with each course. When I serve Dinner for formal occasions (Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas, or Sunday meals) I do the same thing, and yes that does mean I own hundreds of crystal glasses, flatware and plates so that I can serve each one fresh. When I do bar-b-que's it's cafteria style and people can grab as many forks as they want if that's there desire (even though they are plastic at my larger annual BBQ's.
If Richard was being a priss about this he would have asked them to have all the correct flatware, dinnerware and glassware set at the beginning of the meal (which is the proper etiquette) but it's impractical because it takes up so much room on the table so they generally serve the dessert on the dessert plate and bring you a fresh fork (as they should.)
All the other comments make me think most of you probably don't use any flatware you probably just stick your head in the trough like a cow or a pig. Just so you farm animals know, your suppose to dress up to a nice meal too, not show up in your hole filled wife beater t-shirts with grease stains on them. And just so you know I am a hobby farmer who cleans the chicken coop and does dirty work most of my spare time (doesn't mean that is how I show up to a nice restaurant.)
10-14-2009 @ 12:09PM
jpsaleeby said...
Just can't stand a crappy meal that is overpriced. Don't mind paying for a meal as long as it is a quality meal with good service and good atmosphere.
JP
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