If you've ever gorged yourself at an all you can eat buffet, you've probably wondered how
they manage to make any money.
Letting people just eat anything they want all willy-nilly couldn't possibly be profitable,
right?
Well, grab a plate, because we're about to reveal how all-you-can-eat buffets really
make their money.
Cutting back on overhead
One of the things buffets have going for them is an overhead different than traditional
restaurants.
That's because you're doing most of the work for them - and paying for the privilege.
You serve yourself, and in some places, you might even get your own drinks.
This means there's next to no need for wait staff.
And since the menu relies heavily on a series of regular dishes which are prepared in advance,
they can hire fewer - and cheaper - chefs.
Heck, at some buffets — like Korean BBQ places — the customers are even doing the
cooking as well as the serving!
Minimizing waste
Ovation Brands, which runs the Country Buffet chain, owns and manages more than one hundred
buffets across America, and they have a ton of data on every aspect of their business.
They monitor everything, including weekly waste amounts, and plug it into a massive
computer model.
That allows them to track exactly how much customers are eating and how much is getting
thrown away, and allows them to adjust menus based on what's popular, allowing them to
plan ahead and put out what people are going to want, and in the right quantities.
And when they do put it out, they use small pans to minimize how much goes to waste.
"That is beautiful!"
"I told you, the buffet, man!"
"Boy, did we do the wrong thing!"
Cheap ingredients
Psychology Today took a look at what's going in the buffet line, and they call it the "fill
the customer's belly cheaply" metric.
For a lot of buffets, things like vegetables, potatoes, and rice are staple dishes.
That's because they are both super cheap and extremely filling.
The more rice and veggies you eat, the more money the restaurant makes.
"What did I teach you about buffet strategy."
"Always start with your high end meats, skip veggies, they'll only fill you up with nonsense."
Seasonal and regional specialties
Psychology Today also reported that there are two good reasons you're likely to find
a lot of seasonal and regional foods in the buffet line.
First, if something's in season or grown, the restaurant is going to be able to buy
it cheaply in bulk, as it's readily available.
And secondly, it makes the buffet look good.
When they can offer menus advertised with words like "locally-sourced" and "seasonal,"
it makes customers feel like they're getting something special — and it'll keep them
coming back.
Drink up!
Drinks usually aren't included in the price of the buffet, and there's a good reason for
that.
While the food being served often has a relatively modest 30 percent markup over cost, restaurants
can jack up the price of drinks by as much as 90 percent - and the more you eat, the
thirstier you're going to get.
As a result, they make a lot of bank off of your beverage.
"Drinks.
Cold.
Are you ready?
Here we go!"
Giving you smaller tools
One of the biggest factors impacting your eating habits at a buffet are the tools you're
given.
You'll almost never see full-sized dinner plates or actual soup bowls and instead, you'll
be given small plates and even tiny dessert bowls instead in order to limit the amount
of food you take.
Restaurant suppliers know this, and buffets can even purchase miniature tableware especially
designed for buffets.
That even includes silverware, which tends to be smaller — but not small enough you'd
really notice unless you already know their sneaky tricks.
You're welcome.
A strategic layout
Buffets spend a lot of time figuring out the right layout for the food.
Those cheap, filling foods like salads, veggies, rice, and noodles are likely to come right
at the start, so you can load up before you get to the expensive stuff like meat and fish.
Check out the way things are served, too.
You can grab a massive ladle-full of rice and veggies, but it's tongs when it comes
to those inevitably small portions of meat.
They'll take longer to get on your plate, and most people don't like the pressure of
holding up a line, so they tend to move quickly through.
Also, pans with more expensive foods are generally less full — a subtle encouragement to take
less — while cheap ingredients will be served in giant, overflowing pans.
There's plenty for all, and people like that.
Cheaper isn't always better
The Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University conducted an experiment to see how the price
of a buffet influenced customers.
They offered two groups of customers the same pizza buffet, and charged one group $4, while
the other group was charged $8.
The group who paid more was overwhelmingly more satisfied with the entire experience.
That kind of psychology has filtered down even to Las Vegas.
Just a few years ago, $1.99 all you can eat buffets were everywhere, as a lure to bring
hungry patrons into casinos.
By 2013, though, they had suddenly vanished, with the average buffet price hovering between
$20 and $25.
Why?
Because people now will pass on the cheaper buffets because they feel like they get better
food and a better experience if they are paying more.
You know what they say: one way or the other, the house always wins.
People absolutely get banned
Finally, you may not want to take the "all you can eat" part quite so literally.
People can and have been banned from buffets for eating too much food.
For instance, a Wisconsin man named Bill Wisth was not only banned, but had the cops called
on him for abusing his local buffet.
"But the sign said 'All-You-Can-Eat'!"
So before you go back for that fourth plate of rice and veggies, ask yourself how much
you might like the taste of jail food.
Because the buffets there aren't nearly as good.
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