To think chain restaurants have become extortionate

[strawberryjeans]

DH and I went for pizza last night at a local independent place. £12 ish each pizza, £4 for a drink, all in all cost little over £30. This makes me want to leave them a huge tip. The food was fresh and authentic, too, and the people seemed lovely and like they really really cared.

To contrast (won’t name any names) but we were looking at meeting some friends at a large restaurant chain a couple of weeks ago and pizzas, pastas and other dishes were in some cases more than £20. I resent this because they are a huge corporation who probably don’t need to profit in the way they are, versus the unassuming small business who we felt were probably undercharging all things considered.

I would rather pay over the odds for a small business as it’s people’s livelihoods and whole world. I just think it is crazy how larger chains can charge nearly double for a very similar thing.

Imo £12 for one pizza and £4 for a drink is waaaay too much as well!

I resent this because they are a huge corporation who probably don’t need to profit in the way they are

I'm sorry, OP, but I am laughing my ass off at this. You clearly have no idea the state of the hospitality industry right now! No, they are not making big profits, loads are going bust or shutting venues, and the entire industry is on its knees.

I agree it's great to support local and independent businesses - for a start, more of the income gets circulated within the community. But no, pizza chains and other national restaurant brands are not raking the money in. The energy and food costs had all but destroyed any profit margin (they don't hve a cap on energy prices unlike homes) and Brexit has made getting staff a constant issue.

One restaurant near me had its monthly fuel bill go from £4k to £18k per month since the fuel increases started. That's a hell of a lot of spaghetti carbonaras to shift.

I’m happy to pay that. One person’s hourly wage is around £12 now, and usually there’s several (at least) working in the restaurant plus the cost of ingredients, electricity etc.

The sad reality is that eating out is a great deal more expensive and is unlikely to get any cheaper in the foreseeable future. It will become a rare treat for most of us.

Well, I didn’t know quite how bad it was for them, so thank you for educating me. I just think small businesses are a lot more realistic about quality and pricing which rightfully should win them more custom.

Don't worry OP, the markup on the independent pizza will be pretty big - it's basically glorified cheese on toast

In all seriousness I know what you mean. Brands might have bigger overheads, but they also bank on the brand itself. For families, or people who don't eat out much, sometimes it's easier to go with the 'safe' and familiar option of a chain as you know what you're going to get. Then they can whack up their prices and shrug it off as the price of everything has gone up.

Generally speaking, I'm disappointed when I eat at a chain place, and the independents seem to really try to keep you coming back with great customer service and food, in a way the staff at chains don't bother, because they're not invested like the independents are.

This sounds very reasonable for a meal nowadays, especially if fresh and good quality. But, yes the price of eating out, including chains has gone up loads but I think these restaurants all have huge overheads.

100% agree. I think the personal service goes such a long way and the brands can be a bit cheeky thinking they already have a reputation and it’s safe

I think most of the big chains expect people to use offers and deals.
We were at Pizza Express last week as I had Tesco vouchers to use up and the prices were extortionate, but as I say most of it was paid by vouchers.

We live in east mids and had a weekend in London recently. Ate at a lovely Covent Garden restaurant for Italian. Beautiful handmade pasta. And bread, so squashy like a pillow. Dinner for three of us (couple of starters to share then pasta, carafe of wine for DH and I after a cocktail, fancy fruit juice for DD) and it didn't cost much more than bloody Bella Italia would have.

Chains take the piss more with the fact they charge so much and actually make/cook anything. I was happy to pay London prices as it was just beautiful food. And a lovely orange blossom negroni!

And yet these places are always rammed full. Round here anyway, Midlands town. Also a new coffee shop seems to open every week, and they are busy too.

We went to TGIs on Monday...it was so good, food was fab, service really great and we enjoyed it a lot.
BUT £105!!!! For 2 adults, DS6 and DD3 and that was with kids eat free offer.

The food in chains is also pre made, frozen or chilled and bought in, as it has to be identical in each branch. It's poorer quality than most independents, and overpriced.

The only chain i like is Zizzi which isn't cheap but the food there is very good whenever I have been.

We took DD2 to Pizza Express for dinner after an event a couple of weeks ago. One pizza and a drink each for DH and I and DD had the kids menu with a separate drink. £70 - I nearly fell off my chair.

The other thing about chains is that they are usually in city centre or shopping centre areas where the rents are extortionate. They are usually owned by a company who has massive debts acquired when fitting out the restaurants so their interest payments are huge.

As a PP said the costs of running any hospitality business are way more than just the ingredients, power and staff - there's water, insurance, rent, NI, VAT, pension contributions, maintenance of equipment, new equipment, marketing, booking software, website, and loads more besides. It's a hard business to profits in and business can change in an instant (covid and cost of living came almost back to back with not much time for recovery in-between.)

I avoid chains, awful food and they arent even cheaper than small independents.

Yes no more offers. You’re looking at least £80 for a family of 4. That exact same meal used to be about £65.

So how does the small independent manage it then?

If the chains aren’t making loads of profit then it reeks of them wasting money instead.

@Pottedpalm - they often run offers (Groupon, wowcher, meerkat meals etc) which helps fill the quiet times and cover the cost of being open (there's no profit in these schemes for the restaurant).

I have to disagree with a lot of the comments on this thread. I like Pizza Express.

I think our local independents are a bit rubbish. The service is good but it's style over substance and the food is not good - definitely reheated in most cases.

ASK on the other hand is completely rubbish and I am not surprised that they have largely disappeared.

And in terms of supporting local businesses, I support local workers when I eat out. I don't really care who pays them.

Where are you that is way cheaper than that? I’m SE (not London) and it would be slightly higher than that in a local place here.

Eating out is massively expensive nowadays. However, we have been protected from the actual cost of eating out for far too long. A few years ago wages were cheaper due to the use of overseas staff and zero hours revolving contracts. Now hospitality staff are hard to find and not willing to take zero hours contracts where they have to commit to availability 7 days a week but only offered 4 and then sent home after 2 because the cafe isn't busy and are asking for a proper wage (which they should have been getting in the first place).

Energy bills have climbed.

However, the cost of eating out is difficult to justify with chains, mainly due to average or sub par meals that are microwaved or heated up in restaurant. I'm seeing more and more chains half empty, whilst independents that cook fresh and to order are thriving. I can see why, if a meal is going to cost me and DH over £35 we might as well go somewhere where it is cooked fresh rather than pay over £35 for essentially a microwaved or heated up meal.

@Brendabigbaps - often the owners of independent restaurants work in them for free or take less than MW. The business will be scraping by, not making a profit and they will be hoping to cling on until the current COL crisis is over.

Locally many independent restaurants have closed leaving the takeaways which are surviving because their overheads are lower.

Meant to type, only offered 4hours.

With chains, there's a couple of things going on - for one, their overheads will be higher, they'll have potentially hundreds of outlets with rent/utilities/staff costs. Plus they'll have administrative costs that a small independent won't have - e.g. HR and recruitment, marketing, legal. That's an understandable and legitimate part of running a chain of businesses IMO.

The other aspect is that many chains are owned or part-financed by private equity firms, whose business model involves using the company as an asset to secure investment, and paying that out as dividends. They look to squeeze the amount the business actually costs to run, buying in frozen/cheaper food, cutting staffing etc, to maximise the profits and pay bigger dividends, until the business goes bust (e.g. Prezzo or Pizza Express).