In the hotel and restaurant business, there's a thing called menu engineering. It's about the analysis of items and pricing on a menu to obtain the most profitable mix and creating a better selling document. It's a combination of art and science. One of my former mentors Andrew G. Bayliss was particularly good at it.
The New York Times had a fascinating (fascinating to me that means) article this week Entrees Reach $40, and, Sorry, the Sides Are Extra by Jodi Kantor.
[For Australian readers, note that in an American restaurant and entree is a main course dish. American appetizer dish = Australian entree.]
Apparently the bracket creep of menu pricing is based upon the principle that when you get over the shock of the price of the most expensive item on the menu, you'll more easily order the 2nd most expensive item on the menu.
My favourite quote:
“Just putting one high price on the menu will take your average check up,” said Gregg Rapp, one such consultant. “My mom taught me to never order the most expensive thing on the menu, but you’ll order the second.”
Read the article here.
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