The restaurant is, above all, a business, and the enterprise thrives only when it makes money. From the moment you enter the hall, and by the time you sign the check, the restaurant will try to force you to part with as much of the money as possible. But the tactic your waiter uses for this can be really insidious. We do not say that every restaurant goes for everything, trying to clean up its customers, or that each individual waiter is obsessed with getting you to order expensive wine and extra side dishes. But this really happens, and the ability to manipulate the guests of the establishment is really art. If you understand it, you will be less likely to become a victim of this approach. Here are six ways that waiters try to make you pay more than you planned.
With or without gas?
When you sit at the restaurant table, the first thing you will be asked is which water you prefer. You order bottled water (sometimes you do not even have the opportunity to choose the usual one), and they can be quite expensive. If you are not in a city where water quality is in doubt, you can safely order ordinary water.
Do you want to start with a cocktail?
Waiters usually ask this question within 10 seconds after greeting customers, when visitors are not yet ready to place an order and have not even had a chance to look at the cocktail list to get an idea of the prices. Ask to give you a little time: this will help slow down the pace of food and will provide an opportunity to understand how much one martini will cost you.
Today we have special offers
Very rarely waiters take the initiative to inform you about the prices of a special offer, which is more often more expensive than most items on the menu. Always ask the price of such offers before placing an order. This dish can be much more expensive than you expected.
I would recommend wine ...
Restaurants get a good profit from selling wine, and so waiters are stockpiled in some tricky ways to make you spend more money on wine than you planned. Many guests are too shy to order the cheapest bottle on the menu, so often choose the second most expensive wine. Restaurants know this, so they tend to draw attention to this bottle (which means that the wholesale price of such wine can be less than the cost of the least expensive bottle).
Strength of position
The fact that restaurants are developing their menus to earn as much as possible on their customers is not a secret. The National Restaurant Association on its official website even provides some cunning advice on how best to do this: "When designing the menu, it is worthwhile to look for inspiration among the layouts of newspapers where the most important articles are located in the upper right corner of the first page. Restaurants can place their most advantageous items in this place. The dishes that you want to sell first of all, must be on the first and last position on the page. These are, as a rule, the most ordered items, so it is worthwhile to carefully consider what dishes provide the greatest return. Another "strong position" is the inner right page above the center. "
Want to try some snacks or side dishes?
This is a subtle way to get you to spend more money under the guise of a useful order. And the power of suggestion really works: this question makes you look again at the snacks and side dishes, as well as browse the menu of desserts. There is always a good chance that by looking once more at the menu, you will notice something else attractive and spend money. Many people also subconsciously seek to please others, so it's easier for them to simply order a side dish instead of rejecting the waiter's offer. It may sound strange, but pay attention to your feelings when the waiter next time will try to recommend to you an expensive dish: you will find that subconsciously want to say "yes."