Condiment Charge

First time for me.

Tonight dining in restaurant and I asked, as usual, for some mustard, they brought tiny dish of Dijon.

Billed me $2 (=£1) NZ for the mustard...

[Jenise]

Astonishing; talk about penny-wise/pound foolish! So is this now a restaurant you'd not go back to?

[Robin Garr]

It does seem cheeky, but at the same time, rising prices of produce around the world is putting restaurants in a serious pinch. In a business that operates on slender margins, I'm not surprised to see 'creative' approaches to saving a few pence as an alternative to raising menu prices, which probably drives more money away than up-charging for mustard.

That type of fee smacks of the fee games played by airlines. At least with a restaurant it is far easier to walk away next time, which is exactly what I'd do.

It is also seems like a desperation move by someone in the midst of a financial crisis. I'll betcha they're out of business within a few months.

I wonder if BYOM* is legal in NZ. That might also be an option.

[Robin Garr]

Or maybe the Kiwis picked up on Peter's accent and came up with a special deal for the Pom?

Good question. I guess I would not mind IF I ordered the condiment and they told me that there would be a charge of x$ for the additional condiment and asked if I still wanted it. But to not inform me that there was a charge and try and just sneak it onto the bill hoping I would not notice would kind of irritate me.

I do not know what the economic environment is like right now for restaurants in NZ, but in the USA the very low end restaurants like TGI Fridays are doing great financially as well as the very high end restaurants like French Laundry. But most of the more mid range family owned restaurants in the USA are really struggling financially. But there are probably better ways to cut costs and/or increase revenue than nickle and dime their customers.

Another thing...I do not know if tipping is customary in NZ but it is in the USA. I can just see someone in the USA getting their bill, seeing the unexpected add-on charge for the mustard, getting hacked off and taking the charge out of the server's tip thereby punishing the server who probably had nothing to do with instituting the add-on charge policy for mustard.

Charging for condiments takes chutzpah. I'll give the restaurateur credit for that much. (But I'd hesitate before going back.)

[Jenise]

Robin, I was talking to the manager of a Seattle based Food & Bev industry company last week--actually, I called with a customer service issue--and he said he had a real hard time understanding that what happened actually happened since in training meetings he's always telling "the pickle story". He went on to tell it to me: a guy goes to the same deli for lunch several times a week for 30 years. And every time he asks for extra pickles. Eventually the restaurant decides that he's taking advantage of them and so the next time he's in and asks for extra pickles, he is told okay but now he'll be charged for them. He never went back. So what did they gain?

I get that rising costs are hard to deal with, but charging for condiments is punitive--the restaurant Peter went to would be far better off considering mustard part of the CODB.

I pretty much agree with the rest of you on this. Suddenly charging for something that's customarily considered as part of what you're already paying for is a bad idea. It's bad psychology. I think it's why so many of us hate the baggage fees and such that the airlines have turned to. For the airlines, it took a concerted and somewhat coordinated effort by almost all of the major carriers to get consumers to begrudgingly swallow the idea that we now have to cough up "extra" money for our luggage. They pretty much removed consumer choice from the picture. Of course, this restaurant is not part of any such organized effort and kinda looks obnoxious for charging extra for mustard. The fact that they didn't say anything until they gave Peter the bill is, as Dave mentions, even worse. I'd have to say, though, that if I asked for mustard at a restaurant and was informed that I'd be charged $2 for it, then I'd probably say something polite to the server regarding my thoughts on that policy, decline the mustard, and then vow to (after that meal) never return.

I agree charging for mustard is not the way to go but restaurants are being squeezed something terrible with the higher cost for food. Most restaurants have raised their prices but not usually enough to cover their additional costs. Our country is in a situation where costs are going up on many things but wages are staying the same. That's another ball of wax that people may want to discuss what is looming as a serious problem for our nation.

Well, I've now bought a jar of Colman's English Mustard ($1.99 in a supermarket) and all I have to do is remember to take it with me when dining out.

makes an unfortunate bulge in my trousers though...

makes an unfortunate bulge in my trousers though...

Just remember to charge for any services provided.