I was in a restaurant the other day with a friend. He said that when he came in he saw that "Grandpa's Breakfast" was the special of the day and he might get it. I looked over to the sign that greeted everyone as they came in and sure enough, Grandpa's Breakfast was listed as the special of the day for $6.50. Being the curious, financially savvy person that I am, I opened up the menu to see what the regular price was for Grandpa's Breakfast. I expected it to be higher than the "special" price or, at worst, the same.
Guess what -- the "special" price was higher!!!! The regular price was only $5.29!!! Yikes!!!! I didn't know "special" meant "expensive"!!!!
I didn't ask the waitress about the difference in price because my friend ordered something else, but this brief episode served to remind me to always compare prices when eating out and not to assume that the special is always a better-priced alternative to what's already in the menu.
That is rather odd... are you sure it wasn't like the super sized special, or something else like that?
Very odd.
Posted by: No Debt Plan | March 24, 2008 at 03:45 PM
Assuming that they're not maliciously trying to screw over outsiders, what's the explanation here?
Posted by: Trent D. | March 24, 2008 at 04:29 PM
Similarly, buying in bulk is sometimes more expensive than buying multiple smaller packages. An example that most people are familiar with is Wendy's Chicken Nuggets. The order of 5 is $0.99, but the order of 10 is $1.99, $0.01 more than buying two orders of 5!
Posted by: cmadler | March 24, 2008 at 07:06 PM
I'm very surprised they would do something like that...surely it was a mistake?
Posted by: Harrington Brooks | March 25, 2008 at 03:20 AM
Why wouldn't you ask for clarification to satisfy your curiosity?
Guess we'll never know if the "special" pricing included something (coffee maybe?) that was accidentally wiped from the bottom of their whiteboard.
Posted by: MelMoitzen | March 25, 2008 at 05:33 AM
At nice places, the special is usually more expensive and more special. It's a special, just-caught fish or fancy beef cut or such. At sushi places, an elaborate roll. Common practice.
Posted by: dogatemyfinances | March 25, 2008 at 09:37 AM
This was one of the most interesting/frustrating things we found out when we started to keep a price book for our grocery shopping.
I was especially put off by "2 for 1 sales" where the 2 for 1 price was increased to nearly twice what the normal price for a "single" was. And, of course, the price for single wasn't that great to begin with.
Posted by: BigBroodGander | March 25, 2008 at 11:42 AM