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Eat and Get OutThe manipulative techniques of casual-dining establishments |
“Eat and get out” is the motto of the Chicago ‘50s-diner-themed restaurant Ed Debevic’s. Most places aren’t quite so blunt about it, but at the most basic level, that’s what they want you to do.
Environmental psychology, also known as behavioral geography, which looks at how our surroundings affect our actions, has recently been applied to restaurants. This means people are studying (and manipulating) how we dine.
The ideal customer at a casual-dining restaurant (a place where the check total is typically between $10 and $30, and that sells booze) is one who spends a lot, then leaves quickly. That way, someone else can be seated. As it turns out, those two characteristics are inversely related. A party that feels comfortable and welcome will order more (and more-expensive) food but will tend to linger, while a rushed group will spend less time at the table but will also spend less money.
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| Uncomfortable chairs help with customer turnover | |
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| Tables that are close to the kitchen, or in the line of foot traffic, are typically a restaurant's most profitable. | |
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| Warm colors tend to make waitstaff and diners move more quickly. | |
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| Unanchored tables arranged in the middle of the room make diners eat faster. |
To reconcile this, one statistic that Robson looks at is spending per minute (SPM)—average check size divided by number of minutes spent at a restaurant. In a 2004 study, Robson and another Cornell professor analyzed the effects of different kinds of tables on SPM at a Phoenix-area Chevys Fresh Mex. She found that banquette tables, the ones against a wall with a bench on one side and chairs on the other, fared worst, with guests staying longer but spending the same amount of money. More surprisingly, she also concluded that “bad” tables (ones near the kitchen door or in high-traffic areas) produced higher SPMs, because people sitting there left more quickly but spent roughly the same amount.
In other studies, environmental psychologists found several subtle ways to turn over tables more rapidly. Fast-paced music tends to make both diners and waitstaff move more quickly, as do warm colors like red and orange. Overly comfortable furniture encourages longer stays, which is why casual-restaurant chairs and booths are rarely padded.
We feel more comfortable when there is something to “anchor” us in our surroundings, like a wall, a partition, or even a potted plant. Diners seated at unanchored tables, especially ones in the middle of the floor, will be less comfortable and will eat faster.
As social animals, we gravitate toward others, so a crowded-looking restaurant is more appealing than an empty one. For this reason, many restaurants are divided into separate sections that can be filled as necessary.
But that’s not to say high-end restaurants never engage in this sort of manipulation. The 42-foot-tall “wine tower” at Aureole in Las Vegas serves the same purpose as the fajitas at Chili’s. Flashy things like sizzling platters or dessert trays have been proven to entice people to spend. Adam Farmerie, whose design and architecture firm AvroKO has gained fame for its design of New York City’s Public, admits that after he heard the color red makes people want to eat and spend money, he “sorta snuck it in a little everywhere.”
One of the major US chains worked hard in the early 70s to get customers in and out quickly. The quicker to prepare foods had large(er) photos on the menu; seats were designed to be comfortable for 18 minutes and uncomfortable after; the floor plan provided seating that was not intimate...and so on.
I also read a fascinating article once on restaurant chairs-- they can be shockingly pricey, must be durable for nightly stacking, callous moving, and repeated use by heavy rears. They must also have the right ratio of comfort and discomfort, and be easy to clean when splashed with greasy sauces. Even in a casual establishment, each chair can suck $300 out of the restaurant's budget.
If restaurant psychology is getting to you, suggest your own table and plush up those seats with a well-placed jacket.
I worked at a 5-star restaurant in the late 90s and the restaurant staff all had a running joke about how uncomfortable the chairs were. Whenever an employee came to eat at the restaurant they would be seated in one of the few booth because they were only comforatble places to sit!
This stuff just makes me angry.
I'd really just like a restaurant to be a place where one can simply enjoy one's self, away from the marketing schmucks that are polluting our society.
Yet another reason to take the money you would waste on a restaurant and buy the ingredients. Learn to create the food you want to eat for a fraction of the price in the comfort of your own home.
My office catered from Big Buns and Pita, located 6649 N. Clark for about 20 people and the food was great. The serving was pleasing and that was the best mediterranean food I ever had. The prices was even unbelievable, very very reasonable.
I have often commented to my husband when we used to go out to eat that if I ever opened my own restaurant (an idea I've toyed with), I would first and foremost make the seating comfortable and with an air of privacy -none of those middle-of-the-room tables with the cafeteria feel about them. To help the guests flag the waiters, I'd incorporate a button on the table that sends a signal, lights a light, or something like that.
I know some people go out with the "look at me" attitude after they've gotten all dolled up, but they'd just have to find a different place to eat if that's what they're looking for. I've had too many meals in public with rude eyes watching me eat; this is the plan.
At least three of these pictures come from the OSHA Thai location on Valencia in San Francisco, which is one of the loveliest-designed little restaurants I've been to.
Back in the day there was a coffee shop chain (don't remember which one: Denny's?, IHOP? Bob's Big Boy? something else?) that alternated orange and pink panels on the seat and booth cushions. The idea was that those two colors clashed with each other and would get customers out the door faster.
Here's another strategy: how about a highly visible queue of hungry-looking patrons right outside the front window? That seems to be effective for my favorite Boston North End restaurant, Giacamo's.
As a counter-point though, one of the variables used when a restaurant is calculating their menu prices is what's the rate of table turnover. A 50-seat join that can turn over each table 2-3 times a night will be able to charge you less for your meal (or at least they should).
My husband and I started up our own coffee shop some years ago, and we kept it going for several years, then sold the store at a profit when we decided to retire. We designed the shop to be homey, cozy, comfortable, and welcoming. Through those years, we had customers who came to our coffee shop to get engaged, to celebrate special occasions, to meet with their bible study groups, to meet with their book clubs, and so forth. And, this is why we had those wonderful customers: over the coffee bar, we had a wooden sign custom-made for our shop that read: Sit long- Talk much.
"This means people are studying (and manipulating) how we dine"
This also means too many restaurant owners are listening to bean counters and marketing droids and not to their souls.
Yes, there are certain business realities: A restaurant has to turn tables multiple times to earn money. But when the focus is on treating as cash cows to be run through a chute rather than as people, that's a grotesque devaluation of people and to hell with it.
ETA:
1) "treating as cash cows" should read "treating people as cash cows"
2) cookingschool, I would have loved your place.