this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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Not to make excuses for this, because it's not fair to customer, and it's bait and switch pricing IMO... but I understand how you could get there. Sorry this is long winded.
Based on the "thank you for your support", and their clearly not having a legal department, my guess is this is a small business. Prices have swung so wildly in the US in 2025 it's basically unmanageable without a dedicated team.
For example in August of 2024 the price for a lb of coffee according the US Bureau of Labor Statistics was $6.31. In August of 2025 it was $8.87. That's a 40% increase in one calendar year. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000717311
Eggs were $3.20 a dozen in Aug. of '24, but by March of '25 they were $6.22 that's a 94% increase in 7 months. Then they crashed back down to 3.58 (a 42.44% decrease) by August. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111
Now for the sake of a practical example, here's a pretty typical menu for a family diner in New Jersey. It's 11 pages. Maybe 20 items per page. Each item may have 5 to 10 ingredients.
https://www.pomptonqueendiner.com/menu_main/
It's a shit sandwich. I don't think this was a good solution, but I don't think a lot of small businesses (or consumers) have good solutions these days. McDonalds has a procurement team, and can lock in terms with their vendors a year in advance. They can update prices on digital menu boards on the fly. They can handle these things pretty easily. Your local greasy spoon may not.
I'd personally weigh whether I think this place and the people who run it are maliciously trying to exploit me or just find a way to get by selling cheese burgers and eggs in this economy.
As a restaurant owner, I disagree. It's shitty of them to charge a hidden fee like this
It's really easy to update prices. Sysco, the bulk supplier of >70% of US restaurants, provides a very easy tool that can update your prices automatically based on increased wholesale price. US Foods has a similar tool
The biggest pain in the ass there is printing new menus. If you're doing 1 page, the whole thing really isn't any worse. Dealing with shitty printers is the real nuisance. Maybe if it were a sticky note on the menu or something, I could understand it. If they're re-printing the menu, it's bullshit
It's shitty to those of us that are honest. Customers will see another pizza place selling larges for $15.49, and my prices at $16 and go with the other one because it's cheaper, despite the fact that after the 5% mine is cheaper. Seriously, I've had customers tell me that type of thing
I don't want to do the hidden fees, because I hate them personally, but I know I'm giving up some sales not tacking on some bullshit charge
Related rant: For DSP delivery, like Doordash, I charge regular menu price, but charge $3.50 for delivery. I know I'd get more marking up the menu 20-30% and offering "free" delivery. I can see the cart abandonment rate. I hate the dishonest business model though
Just so you're aware, doordash/Uber are known for increasing the single item price after you've set them. Say you set a pizza for 12$, they'll charge 15$ just for the item, PLUS all their other fees.
They also calculate tips by including taxes and all their fees. Actual cost ends up about 200% the original menu price. Gah.
I didnt have an actual point, just complaining.
Yeah, I feel ya. I absolutely loathe having to use them, an miss when pizza places had their own delivery crew
I don't believe they're able to under my DSP contract, but that's a good reminder to keep checking it. Contracts only mean as much as your ability to enforce them, and for a small business is basically zero
I bet I could write a quick web scraper on a cron job to pull the prices each week. Thanks!