On 2017-09-25 2:48 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

>> So why not ask for a spare plate, divvy it up?
>
> A few times I've seen where they charge for sharing.Â* Usually a small
> charge, like $3 or so, but I guess they figure they have to turn $XX
> from each table each hour to make a profit.
>
> https://www.thestar.com/life/2016/04...-speaking.html

For some reason I still subscribe to that newspaper, but I have been
tempted to cancel for some time. It certainly isn't the first time that
I have disagreed with that ethics columnists. They can spare us the sob
story about paying for the restaurant experience when they have ruined
that by gouging customers for an extra plate. There is minimal extra
cost to providing a second plate. The extra work of carrying a second
plate, putting it in the dishwasher and stacking it...... pennies... to
small to charge for, smaller than the cost of providing a glass of water.

They like to point out the dollars and cents and percentages of various
aspects of the goods and services provided, but their menu prices are
all over the place. They may not make as much as they want one entree
as they would on two, but they probably make up for it on the high mark
up extras like soft drinks and coffee.

On a related note, a few years ago they made changes to the liquor laws
and there are some restaurants where you can BYOB and take home left
overs from the BYOB wine. Some places charge a small corkage fee, $3-5.
One place in Toronto was charging $35 corkage. The owner tried to
justify it by saying that he was losing out on the opportunity to sell
them wine for a profit. I don't think there are that many wines with a
$35 markup and that most wine sales are less than that. I am not
interesting in explanations that are attempts to justify gouging the
clientele.