Is it to expensive to eat out?

[Alexander]

With the cost of living sky rocketing worldwide, is it now too expensive to eat out as wages are not rising with the line of inflation? Most restaurants and takeaways near me have increased prices by over 25%, which causes issues and financial hardship on customers. What do you think?

 

[Lamb]

It's incredibly expensive to eat out. We just went out the other day because we had a gift certificate to finish off, otherwise there is no way we would have gone to that place. The food was good, but I can cook just as well, so I can't see paying $22 for a bowl of pasta. I make my own homemade with homemade sauce and it's time consuming, but oh, so good.

 

[tango]

With the cost of living sky rocketing worldwide, is it now too expensive to eat out as wages are not rising with the line of inflation? Most restaurants and takeaways near me have increased prices by over 25%, which causes issues and financial hardship on customers. What do you think?

If it causes financial hardship to eat out then don't eat out - I don't see that as a valid gripe. High energy bills cause hardship because you can only turn down the heat so far. Nobody has to eat out if their budget doesn't cover it.

In my area eating out has got more expensive. My wife and I eat out less as a result and tend to choose the slightly cheaper places when we do eat out. We still visit our preferred places, just less often because the prices have gone higher than we can justify spending.

It does raise serious questions of whether restaurants will survive - if you have to raise your prices and people stop paying it then you don't have a b business any more. In the US where it's assumed the customers will pay your staff in the form of tips the system is even more broken - fewer customers means fewer tips and I can't imagine very many workers would be thrilled about earning $2.13/hr for a shift if they didn't get any decent tips to top it up. Without staff you don't have a business.