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During a recent shopping trip with a friend, we ducked into Macaroni Grill for lunch. It wasn’t our first choice, but after trying four other restaurants and being told it would be an hour wait due to short staffing…. we figured any port in the storm would do.
After a mediocre lukewarm meal that arrived late and with the wrong vegetables, the bill was presented. Now I don’t know about your part of the world, but here in Maine restaurants are having a hard time staying afloat since no one wants to work. There are no waitresses, no hostesses, no busboys, no cooks. Every where you go has the same issues. They apologize for it when you enter and we’ve come to expect the worst. What I didn’t expect was this:
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A little inflation surcharge they sneak in without telling you.
And hey, don’t get me wrong…. I understand prices are up everywhere, and naturally the increase in the cost of food has to be passed along to the consumer. But this sure seems like a strange way to do it.
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River's world..... 
I hear ya sista, it’s the same here. I remember that entree at Macaroni Grill being about $11 or so. It’s getting crazy with the inflation right now.
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It was a lame plate of pasta with a couple of chunks of overdone chicken. I ordered broccolini and got broccoli. Ordered roasted mushrooms got canned. $20+ for a lunch portion. Crazy.
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They would get that $2 as a tip then.
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Not fair to take restaurant policy out on the waitstaff. I very rarely stiff on a tip.
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Three bucks is a lot for a glass of tea, hope you got unlimited timely refills. I think the real inflation problem is in the price of unskilled/low skilled labor. This extortion is unsustainable. Whenever customers finally get tired of the prices and restaurants start sinking, what happens then? Maybe these low skilled workers will see the difference between what they are paid and what their work is actually worth. If you can’t make a living in the food industry, GET A BETTER JOB there are plenty of them out there. I’ve started at the bottom at every job I’ve ever had and the only thing that ever raised me up was hard work and ambition
As for the inflation fee, if you are going to charge one, your customers should see it on the menu, clearly. Good post, sorry about your crappy lunch.
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The waitress was young and clueless, probably a new hire so nothing was timely. But I agree the surcharge should have been on the menu.
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I would call that being transparent. They could have just raised their prices and said nothing. Of course ignorance is bliss. Not sure which I would prefer.
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Transparency would have been printing the extra charge on the menu before you ordered.
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I just hope “Create Your Own Pasta” doesn’t mean you were back there in the kitchen rolling dough through a machine.
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And I had to pay for the privilege. Inflation really is out of control…
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So, they are charging you a fee because inflation is out of control. The “temporary inflation fee” just jacked the price of your meal up an extra 8.5%, probably higher than the inflation rate in your area. Sounds illegal to me, The correct name shoild have been “Tempoary Inflation Price,” or TIP for short. Forced TIP, for that matter.
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Prices are up everywhere, it’s understandable. It was just the sneaky way they slipped it in that seemed wrong.
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It was wrong! But I bet you paid it anyway. And this us why We the People lose, and the They win. We don’t fight for ourselves anymore. We just shut up and keep going.
And that surprises me about you, because I see you as a fighter, not a sheeple.
Question: Is it really understandable that prices are up everywhere? The “real thing” that is up is profits, because we are paying those falsely-raised prices! The goods still cost the same to make, or produce. The workers for the most part have not had raises in years. The price of gas DOES NOT HAVE TO BE HIGHER! And in the end, the wealthy are making more because we believe their lies! They are bleeding us dry, and we are letting them do it.
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I did pay it, but I let my displeasure be known to the manager on the way out with a vow that I would spread the word and not return.
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He already had your $2. He didn’t care…
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We are also short-handed here. It’s weird how they added that in; why not just up your menu prices?
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Probably because they didn’t want to pay for new menus.
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If the owner had a hard time deciding on a name for his grill, I wonder if he went to town, stuck a feather in his hat, and called it Macaroni.
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Ha! Could be…
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WTH??
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I know, it was odd.
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My initial reaction would have been to simply refuse to pay it as it was not disclosed, but then I figured they WERE open, and with so many closing down, $2 is a small price to pay for keeping them open. As for the problem with staff, we (Cupcake and I) have yet to experience that here in Tampa. They may be short staffed, but it has yet to affect our service.
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Our restaurants are short staffed to the point half the place is roped off because they only have one waitress. A few months ago we went to a steakhouse and the manager bussed our table. That’s bad.
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Just a sign at the door, or a mention by the waitress, maybe? Being upfront gets more understanding. We’re all getting ripped off. I do think we need to source food locally and particularly start growing our own food – whether we have minimal space or not. If there’s no space we need local Councils to start putting in more food gardens. Seriously.
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It’s not so much the charge that bothered me, but the sneaky insertion. And yes, in times like these we realize how reliant we are on others for sustenance. We have an 85 acre organic vegetable farm across the street so I don’t even have to grow my own.
😉
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Makes you wonder what’s really legal – can they just add any charge they want?
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Apparently they can.
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I guess but probably no one ever questions it with the state. It prob needs to be posted either in menu or somewhere in business as a notice. Not a very good business practice as word of mouth gets around snd they lose customers. I would avoid them for that reason.
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I haven’t been back. And I did let my displeasure be known when I left. If it had been posted on the menu up front I wouldn’t have felt blindsided.
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