Any cu/ck/s with restaurant experience here? I wanted an insider to help me understand why portion sizes in restaurants are so out of control.
A theory I've been kicking around is that it's simply good business. Let me explain. In my mind, I see a few categories for expenses in a typical restaurant:
Staff
Cost of goods (food)
Rent
Equipment
Advertising
The source of revenue for a restaurant is the meals paid for by restaurant patrons. The more customers a restaurant has, the more revenue they can generate. Alternatively, a restaurant can increase revenue without acquiring more customers by increasing prices.
Anecdotally speaking, I think there must be some point at which a restaurant simply cannot pull in any more customers at any given time of the day, like a saturation point. After all, the building can only hold so many people, and people don't like being rushed out the door once they've been seated. Even if a restaurant expanded their premises, they'd have to spend more on rent, staff, equipment, and goods, so there's probably a happy equilibrium that they reach to maximize profits.
So their other option is to squeeze more money out of their patrons to increase revenue. In the case of an average restaurant, the easiest way to convince someone to pay more for a meal than they otherwise would is to increase portion sizes. My guess is that this has also been optimized in such a way that the restaurant makes a positive margin with respect to the sizes of their portions and the cost of the meal.
Can anyone weigh in on this? Is there something I'm missing? Are large portion sizes purely good business, or do customers enjoy gorging themselves?
>dubs get
Are American servings really that big?
>>7402433
Why does the European dish have toddler silverware?
>>7402433
Yes, it is purely good business. Think of paying 10 bucks a plate for Sysco ingredients at that paltry euro size, you'd feel jew'd out of a decent meal.
![income_by_county_large[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/00WTpek.jpg "income_by_county_large[1].jpg")
>>7402449
Depends on the area.
I'm in the south, they're huge and cheap. A plate like OPs would run you 6-10 USD.
![obesity_by_county_large[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/RTHud9N.png "obesity_by_county_large[1].png")
>>7402456
Whoops, wrong map.
>>7402449
Yeah, it's insane. I just got back from a Mexican restaurant, I ordered enchiladas and there were 2 enchiladas on the plate and about 3-4 cups of rice and beans on the plate. On top of that they always have corn chips and salsa on the table. I can't believe some people can eat like that every day of the week.
>>7402463
Oh my god..
>>7402433
I'd say the chart is bullshit.
It should be chicken tendies in the murrican plate, not fish sticks.
>>7402755
DUDE I FUCKING LOVE TENDIES. WHATS YOUR FAVORITE DIP? MINE IS HONEY MUSTARD!
>>7402433
Maybe it's just the restaurants I go to but a lot of them don't have huge serving sizes (Cheesecake Factory comes to mind for huge ones though). I've also been to Western Europe and didn't find their serving sizes to be particularly small either, and these weren't tourist restaurants. A lot of this stuff has to be exaggerated.
However, I think it's just cheap restaurants and serve up crap that's cheap enough for them to serve plenty that do this. People going there want huge servings to get their money's worth.
>>7402463
So... Colorado is the healthiest state? Huh, who would have thought.
Ask /biz/
Yes, it's a real board.
>>7402769
thin air makes all superhumans of fitness
Realistically there are only a few hours a day that would be considered "peak" hours. These time frames (breakfast, lunch, dinner) are when restaurants do the majority of their business.
You are correct in that a restaurant tries to maximize profits during peak hours.
However, gouging a customer on entree portion/cost is not usually the smartest way to go. Customers are very in tune with what product you are serving, and slapping more food on the plate and cranking up the cost is a bad way to do business.
For example, my restaurants are what would be considered affordable by most American standards ($5-$10 a plate) and that is what makes us popular. If all of a sudden I was to increase the prices and increase portion size my customers would notice and react unfavorably. That's one reason we succeed, affordable food.
So we are back to the main question, how to maximize profits once we have a customer in the door? Up selling drinks, sides, appetizers, anything to get the check average up is the only way to go. If we can sell you a beer and an appetizer, your check jumps from $10 to $20, doubling revenue.
Also, you would be surprised how small margins are for any successful restaurant. A customer that spends $20 at my places yields maybe $2 profit after all expenses.
Quality places rely on satisfying customers so they feel they are getting a great product and will return day after day. Volume is key.
I love my customers, they allow me to do want I do, so I treat them well.
