But how many restaurants have such long lines for a reservation? My hunch is that most restaurants don't have any long lines, some have long lines but you can easily get a reservation and there is a small fraction like The French Laundry where you have to wait in line so you can wait in line!
My hypothesis: Cheap eateries don't have lines, intermediate restaurants use lines to speed up eating and the fancy places employ the Becker/prestige mechanism. Any industry insiders who can settle this one? Fabio > Several weeks ago Fabio pointed out a novel reason why restaurants might choose > long lines intead of higher prices - the longer lines induce people in the > restaurant to eat faster. This is an interesting suggestion but it misses > quite a bit of the phenomena because it applies (presumably) only to physical, > on-premises waiting. Many fine restaurants, however, have long waiting times > to get a reservation. The French Laundry, for example, is perhaps the best > restaurant in America and the wait to get in is 2 months or more! (2 months for > a normal day - much longer if you want to book for Valentines or something like > that.) This sort of waiting seems much more amenable to a Becker type > explanation involving non-linearities and prestige factors. > > Alex Tabarrok > >
