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Re:I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It by hinkley on Friday November 16, 2018 @01:52PM (#18470987)
Years ago I worked at a place downtown that was blocks away from a Thai restaurant that had a line out the door every day. The place was frenetic, like a zoo. The staff in the kitchen were running around like maniacs, making food as fast as they possibly could. The pictures on the menu above the register were all faded with age.

The food was merely okay. The story was that it was cheap and decent, not good. But as I stood looking at the staff I couldn't help thinking that it would be better for everyone if they raised their prices $2 a plate and just slowed down.

Re:I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It by nightfly on Friday November 16, 2018 @02:37PM (#18471367)
$2 a plate can be enough to price it out of being a reasonable regular option for people. A food cart in a pod near my work moved into a just-as-close physical restaurant and raised their prices by about $2 plate and I went from eating there once every week or two, to maybe once a year.
Re:I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It by MRD85 on Friday November 16, 2018 @04:52PM (#18472270)
In a similar vein we have a lot of bakeries here run by a local Vietnamese population. They do these amazing pork rolls for $5, which is very cheap for food in Australia (A big Mac meal is around $12 for perspective). They are popular because of the price and if they were $7 they would sell far far less.
Re:I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It by ryanwaggoner on Friday November 16, 2018 @04:22PM (#18472073)
You're making the point for them...adding even $1 to the price will ratchet the demand down to reasonable levels, and you'll end up making a little more money with lower stress levels.
Re:I Found the Best Burger Place in America, Then I Killed It by cf498 on Friday November 16, 2018 @02:59PM (#18471518)
Especially if it is at a threshold amount, there even a small hike will scare away customers. While not reasonable, it is a psychological effect. Take the jump from 5€ to 6€. I witnessed the same on myself with a normal dish of fried rice from a take away place. 4,5€ is cheap, 5€ expected, 5,5€ makes no difference, but 6€??

No matter how stupid, the jump by 50cent to 6€ gets me every time. It makes no sense, but I start to calculate what I could get instead on the cheap end. Breakfast to go is the same with 3€ to 3,5€ to 4€. I mean could get a portion of fried rice for 4€! Same goes for pizza or any number of take away items.

It doesnt help that most shop owners arent stupid and optimized for those thresholds.