13 tricks of restaurants that make us fork out
We go to a restaurant not to eat, but to arrange a little celebration for ourselves. We taste original dishes, enjoy the atmosphere and pleasant company, think about pleasant things. At the same time, before leaving, we do not forget to vigilantly inspect the bill presented by the institution, but they still profit from us — imperceptibly, but confidently.
The days when extra dishes were included in the bill in restaurants or "chemical" with prices have long passed. Modern restaurant owners like Ostap Bender honor the criminal code and know 400 relatively honest ways of taking money from citizens. Not only will you not be outraged after a competent "divorce", but you will also be grateful for the additional comfort and pleasant service.
We will reveal to you some of the most popular ways to breed customers for additional expenses, which are popular both in our country and abroad.
If you ordered natural freshly squeezed juice, then it is not necessary that the whole juice will be freshly squeezed. Bartenders, in order not to overwork, will pour juice from a bag into your glass without the slightest remorse. Of course, only if the juice of three normalized oranges is not enough to fill a glass.
Tables in restaurants are trying to arrange so as to create as many secluded "intimate" zones as possible. Studies conducted by psychologists have shown that a person hidden from prying eyes orders more food and does not hesitate to choose harmful dishes. In the corner, you can eat dessert after dessert without fear of condemnation. And you will probably sit in such a place for longer, which means you will order more.
Scientists from Bournemouth University, having studied many cafes and restaurants, came to the conclusion that due to the competent arrangement of dishes on the menu, restaurants receive a good additional income every month. Leading expert Aaron Allen argues that the institution's use of marketing tricks helps to get customers to spend more.
Visitors most often choose dishes from the center of the list and it is enough to place more expensive dishes there to get additional profit. In addition, often the price of all desserts on the menu is the same, regardless of the price of the components and the weight of the dish. This helps to effectively sell both cheap and expensive products.
David Kinchlow, who heads the Association of Restaurant Consultants, claims that dishes do not always have the ingredients listed on the menu. Usually they try to put less expensive products in food or, if possible, replace them with cheaper ones. Nuts, berries, truffles and seeds are the components with which customers are most often fooled. You can always put one berry on top so that the client does not make a claim by comparing the description of the dish with the original.
Restaurant owners are well aware of how the names of dishes affect customers. That is why they hire experienced marketers who come up with tempting and exotic names for food. Eating Chilean sea bass bought for fabulous money, you will not even suspect that you are being fed ordinary sea bass. It is enough to make a "Cake with chocolate" from a "Cake with Belgian chocolate" so that special interest begins to be shown in the dessert.
In restaurants in recent years, it has become fashionable to reduce the portion of a dish, but at the same time leave the price unchanged. Restaurateurs claim that this idea came to their environment from retail. Everyone knows that in stores it is more common to find packaging of 900 grams than 1 kg and a capacity of 900 ml, not 1 liter. If, after reducing the portion, reduce the plate, then most likely no one will notice anything.
Menu specialist Gregg Rapp admitted that using high-quality photos of dishes, restaurateurs motivate us to order more. The only photo of the dish on the page allows you to increase its attractiveness to visitors by a third. Therefore, the question of what exactly to place is very important.
Researchers from Cornell University also found that currency designations in the menu are often absent not because of forgetfulness, but on purpose. The experiment proved that the guests who received the menu without currency signs were more generous when ordering food.
In restaurants, fish is traditionally ordered on Tuesday and Thursday. Few people know, but it is for this reason that in many establishments on Monday the menu is replete with fish dishes. It just needs to be implemented before the expiration date, so as not to throw it away. Promotions and super propositions of the day are also arranged because of this. Leftovers from last week's purchases may fall into the dishes, which are about to begin to deteriorate.
Absolutely free snacks, which in many establishments the waiter brings before ordering the main dishes — this is not altruism at all. Pay attention to the fact that they usually bring crackers, chips, olives or something with spices. Salty and spicy is served in order to make visitors thirsty and make them include as many drinks as possible in the order.
Whatever you say, art can effectively influence a person. Professor Charles Spence has published data that listening to music and eating in a restaurant are closely interrelated. Classical music is often played in restaurants — it helps customers feel elite and makes them order more and more expensive dishes. By the way, in a cafe where fast pop music was played, the average customer's check was 10% less than where they ate to Rachmaninoff or Schubert.
The menu of modern restaurants often presents two types of portions — large and small. In marketing, this technique is called "bracketing". The client does not have a clear idea of the difference between large and small portions and is almost always sure that a mini portion is the most profitable. For many, it will be a revelation that the price for a small portion is usually overstated and in terms of grams, it is a large dish that is most profitable for the visitor.
It may seem strange, but lighting has a strong influence on how fast a person eats. With dimmed lights, visitors tend to stay at the table longer and, as a result, eat more. The perfect combination is soft, relaxing lighting and calm classical music.
In the understanding of restaurant owners, a good waiter should be an excellent salesman and a bit of a psychologist. Employees of a restaurant or cafe joke, make compliments, confidentially advise special dishes and do many other things to win over customers. How not to trust such a friendly nice guy? Of course, under such communication, visitors are "sold" various promotional offers that no one was going to order. More money is spent, and the waiter himself gets more tips — everyone is in the black except you.