My father, who allegedly holds some sort of psycology degree, claims that many restaurants (likely retail chains and not ma and pa's) train their servers to drop subtile hints to get people out the door. Everything from asking if "everything is OK" to stopping to refill drink or clearing plates.
Perhaps the reason larger prestige places have longer lines is because they sell wine. The markup on the entree is large because of the portion size (probably). But these restaurants must rake it in hand over fist selling wine. And while places like Pizzeria Unos give free refills on soda, places like I Can't Afford To Eat Here always offer more, but are sure to put it on the bill. But then again, I'm just a customer. Dan Lewis <ad> www.whattheheck.com </ad> At 08:54 PM 2/10/02 -0600, you wrote: > >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 >> >> > >
