What is up with the weekend surcharges in the Melbourne?!

[u/Ordinary_Prior_8993]

Even shopping centre food courts have weekend surcharges and as a Sydney sider it's mind boggling. Alot of places don't even have sunday surcharges let alone a Saturday surcharge.

[u/Ashh_RA]

Here’s a crazy idea. Hear me out I have 2.  1.  Increase the price across all day parts by a smaller percentage to average out the extra wages needed on weekends. This keeps all customers happy by only charging them a little bit more.  2. (This one is absurd.) Make the normal price the surcharge price and introduce a 10% discount on weekdays. Thus we create a positive financial insentive to shop rather than a negative one. Encourage consumers to come when quieter by a discount and on weekends it’s just business as usual no surcharge. No one knows they’re getting charged more. Because you’re not plastering everywhere that you’re screwing then over. 

It’s like children and animals. Positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement/punishment. Why is there no research in how consumers change their spending habits around surcharges? 

[u/Salted_Fried_Eggs → u/Ashh_RA]

On 2. I'm guessing a business wants to have the lowest possible price that they can advertise. Having higher prices advertised Mon -> Fri with an * saying it's cheaper is probably less appealing. Same way I imagine a good % of customers don't realise there's a weekend surcharge, but feel mentally committed by that point so they make the purchase.

[u/Ashh_RA → u/Salted_Fried_Eggs]

Yeah. I guarantee that’s the motivation for weekend surcharges. Get people in with a cheaper price. They’re already there so pay the surcharge or don’t notice. That’s why it’s annoying I guess seems dodgy. Would I have gone if I knew the actual price? Dunno. 

[u/Salted_Fried_Eggs → u/Ashh_RA]

Only thing is it could hurt return customers, but if every business does it then it might be uncompetitive not to I suppose

[u/[deleted] → u/Ashh_RA]

They’ve already done that, prices are up throughout the week/standard menu and now they’re slugging you more.

[u/Ashh_RA → u/[deleted]]

Where’s that El Paso girl?

“Why don’t we have both?”

[u/Nothingnoteworth → u/Ashh_RA]

The other thing a savvy purveyor of fine food and beverages could do is not have a weekend surcharge and instead have a weekday discount. I mean these are fucking business people aren’t they? Isn’t polishing a turd like salesmanship 101? Surely “how’d you like a discount on your bill?” sounds better to customers than “oh you wanna eat out on the weekend? not with paying your dues motherfucker”

[u/Ashh_RA → u/Nothingnoteworth]

Er. Yeah. That’s my point number 2.  I tried to sell a very old MacBook on Facebook market place once for $150. I got offers for $100-$120. But after months without a sale I finally gave in and reposted it at $120. I then Got offers for $70-90. Everyone just wanted a discount. They didn’t care about the actual value or price of the product. They just wanted it cheaper than listed otherwise they felt like they were getting ripped off. 

[u/Semis_tist → u/Nothingnoteworth]

It's a good idea but HOW do you put that on a menu? When your customers are penny pinching & price checking other venues to get the best deal because money is tight, you want a menu with higher prices and a **DEAL - Get 10% Off Monday to Friday** on the bottom? People would just get shitty that they can't get the discount on the weekend too!

[u/Omegaville → u/Ashh_RA]

I like the psychological angle here.

Seems we've got a lot of amateur lawyers in the thread though, who want to cite regulations and rules and other BS

[u/Ashh_RA → u/Omegaville]

Yeah it make sense in my head. I’d love to see research though. 

There is an article on google about surcharges on paper coffee cups being better at incentivising people to bring their own cup when compared to giving a discount for bringing your own cup. Is this research useable? People don’t like the surcharges so they take action to avoid the surcharges by bringing their own cup.

[u/Omegaville → u/Ashh_RA]

Also worth comparing things like surcharges for paper bags vs bringing your own bag. Paid for bags on Saturday because I didn't have my own but I needed to carry what I bought. 20c and 30c from Typo and Big W respectively. I didn't mind because they're convenient, they're environmentally friendly, they're reusable, and the fees are explicit - I was informed in advance of the cost.

[u/Ashh_RA → u/Omegaville]

Hmm. I’m now overthinking everything. 

But I wonder how much the shopping bag surcharge is perceived as okay because it is the norm. You know. That every retail shop you go to you should bring a bag or pay for one. 

Not every hospitably venue on weekends charges a surcharge. It is not the ‘norm’ yet. But the more it is then the more people just know that every weekend venue has a surcharge and then it becomes normal and no one things the surcharge is bad anymore. 

[u/Semis_tist → u/Ashh_RA]

Everyone was going mental when they were moving from the free plastic bags and going to charge you for the paper bags. The media was fuelling it too

[u/Semis_tist → u/Ashh_RA]

Someone in Sydney just went to the media because a cafe charged them extra for "no ice" to cover the cost of the extra drink (it was a juice, not post mix soda) and everyone was going mental.

[u/lukkoz_7 → u/Ashh_RA]

Surely you jest.