Dine-In Charges

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We have a dine-in area with 40 seats. Currently we charge different prices for dine-in and carry-out. A few customers have complained at the charges. We have to charge to pay for the dishwashing which for example can be 10 dishes with just two people eating.

On some meals we have a 10% dine-in charge, while on other items we have upto 70% dine-in charge.

Also, we have many customers who want to dine-in with some special carry-out offers. Some say that we can leave the food in the pizza box, etc.

Due to ths our dine-in is only 10%, while carry-out is at 60% and delivery 30%. What do you guys do with dine-in?

Should we lower prices to increase dine-in (what would the advantage of this be)?

Or get rid of the tables and add another section, maybe chicken or subs?
 
We charge the same for dine in or take out. I think we gain more business this way as then they may order more food pop etc if they eat in. Once they leave with a take out order you cant get them to buy anymore!
 
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Well, I never heard of a dine-in charge but I live in the sticks! :lol: Just drop the dine in charges and maybe think and just think about styrofoam or nice paper plates (I use a sturdy brand name…am I allowed to mention it here? that matches my paper food baskets). I hated to do it with my place, we never had a dine in charge…but it sure saves a lot on water, detergent and labor…not to mention nobody wanting to do the dishes! 🙂 also helped in those late comers when we had most everything cleaned up. Good luck. These kind of desicions drive me nuts! lol
 
i’ve never heard of a dine-in charge before. i would think that you would want more of a welcoming atmosphere for your place. i know if i ate at a place that charged me to dine in i’d feel like you didn’t reaaallly want me to eat there.
i would create a universal pricing system that makes both dine-in and carryout patrons feel equally welcome.
 
I agree, I’ve never heard of a dine in charge. But until recently, I’ve never heard of a pizza delivery place charging extra for delivery. I’ve many times compared the added cost of doing delivery to the added cost of having a dining room, but it doesn’t go over well on this board. My suggestion is that since you are already paying the rent for the dining room, you may as well maximize sales. Charge the same price and see if it adds or subtracts from your total bottom line. If it subtracts, maybe you need to consider moving to a smaller space and dropping the dining room altogether.
 
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I suspect that your trying to allocate cost may be costing you sales. Think about it…if you make no sales for 1 hour, you still have to pay for the gas for the ovens, you still have to pay the salaries of all on staff, you still have to pay the rent…all of these costs are fixed for that particular hour. The only totally variable cost would be food cost (plus the box). So, every sale you lose (for whatever reason) is costing you SELLING PRICE minus the FOOD COST (Gross Profit)… The gross profit is what pays your fixed costs. The key to making money is making enough gross profit to pay for expenses and earn a profit.

John
 
Carry out customers don’t buy Cokes typically either. I’d be SO ticked if someone tried to charge me for eating there. Heck, there’s a restauarant I used to go to (I’ve moved away) that had great, large apps. They wouldn’t make them for carry-out. I was floored! It was a restaurant/bar, so drinks may have been where they hoped to make their money back.

I’m NOT a pizza operator, but I danged sure want to be. While the del-co places talk about tight margins, I refuse to operate a del-co only. Again, charging customers to eat in just sounds absurd. I’d stop that practice immediately.
 
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Hi I am in Australia and every restaurant that does takeout and dine in has 2 different prices. We either have one menu for both and takeout orders receive a 10- 20% discount off their order . Or they have 2 separate menus, 1 dine in and 1 takeout .If you do this make sure the dine in menu has extra items, fancy dishes like steak ,veal ,seafood and advise that these are dine in dishes ONLY. 3 years ago we moved location to a bigger shop we were takeout only and are now dine in aswell,all of our takeout customers have never been to our dine in area{ 90%} they just stick to takeout, but new customers will try both because they dont know us just as takeout.
good luck…
 
thats is ridiculous in todays times…i would seriously reconsider that policy…as far as coupons just state not valid for dine-in and as far as the dishwasher goes unless you pay him/her by the dish that does not make any sense.
i could definitely see you losing customers b/c of this
 
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Thanks for you suggestions guys. We’re going to try a AYCE buffet or a special set meal deal for the dine-in and see how it goes.
 
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