6 restaurant tricks we're falling for

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Tricks used in restaurants and cafes to make you eat too much and overpay.

Everyone knows that food advertising is a complete lie. But in the restaurant everything seems to be in plain sight: the menu, the plate - there is simply no room for deception. Right?

Of course no. Restaurants try to cheat us on money just like food manufacturers. Here are just a few of the most well-known methods.

1. Restaurants are interested in you sitting in the corner

If, entering a restaurant, you first of all look for a cozy place away from the eyes of other visitors, then we have good news for you: almost all restaurants are interested in having as many such places in the hall as possible.

The reason is simple: according to research, Where the ‘fat’ tables are in restaurants., visitors order more if no one sees them. Moreover, in this case, visitors eat more junk food: the number of desserts ordered correlates with where exactly the table at which they are ordered is located.

There is another, more obvious explanation: you will sit longer in a comfortable place. For this reason, Starbucks has small round tables - so that lonely diners feel the Why Are Starbucks' Tables Round? yourself more comfortable.

But not all establishments are focused on this: those who benefit from the “come, eat, pay, leave” scheme are more likely to put hard small chairs than soft armchairs. Therefore, it is easy to determine the policy of the institution by furniture.

2. Specially put chocolate or gum in the bill so that you leave more tips

When all the dishes have already been eaten, it is nice to get an extra tasty treat along with the bill: candy, chocolate or gum. Do you think restaurants are doing this because they care about you?

Not at all. According to statistics, such little things directly affect Sweetening the Till: The Use of Candy to Increase

Restaurant Tipping. the size of the tip left. Even a smile drawn on the check or the signature "Thank you!" increase Effect on Restaurant Tipping of a Helpful Message Written on the Back of Customers' Checks. the amount of money left for tea. And a big tip means you can pay less to waiters …

3. Make up the menu in such a way that the most expensive dishes are in sight

Go to any restaurant and open the menu. If written by the professionals The Psychology of Menu Design: Reinvent Your 'Silent Salesperson' to Increase Check Averages and Guest Loyalty., then you will see that the dishes are sorted there as you like, but not by price.

It's not hard to guess why this is necessary: so that visitors do not look directly down the list in search of the cheapest dishes.

The most expensive items are always located in the most prominent places - at the top and in the center of the pages.

Images of expensive food are often surrounded by a frame or blank space to catch your eye.

Guess who's doing the exact same thing? That's right, newspapers! The rules for compiling menus and stripes in the media are the same, because they proceed from the same principle: the eye should immediately fall on the most important / expensive. Therefore, if before going to a new restaurant you decide to order the first thing that catches your eye, prepare your wallet.

4. Create artificial diversity

Have you ever wondered what is the practical use of decorating dishes? It is clear that in expensive restaurants the level and aesthetics are obligatory, but in the restaurants of cheap and average hands - why? After all, even in a provincial dining room, a sprig of parsley is sure to lie on mashed potatoes. What's the point of this? The short answer is that it creates artificial diversity.

Our brains are not only easy, but very easy to deceive.

Show him a lot of mixed colored candies and he will be confused. As a result, you will eat one and a half times more candies than if they were sorted by color - proven by Food Displays, Food Colors Affect How Much People Eat. in the experiment. Needless to say, why jelly beans are always made with Six Kinds of Jelly Beans: How the Perception of Variety Influences Consumption. multi-colored.

It's the same with other food. Once upon a time we lived in trees (and by evolutionary standards, very little time has passed since then), and our brain reacts so willingly to bright colors, because they are very similar to ripe fruit. And if there are a lot of them, then the brain is simply overexcited and makes you eat more.

This is why all buffet restaurants are always so colorful: the more colors are mixed, the more you eat.

5. Falsify smells to whet your appetite

One of the most ancient parts of the human brain is the olfactory center. Nothing works on our subconscious better than smells, and marketers using Scent as a Marketing Tool, Stores Hope It - and Shoppers - Will Linger know this very well. …

Here's a good example: the fast food bakery chain Cinnabon has patented a special oven with minimal ventilation to be installed in its cafes at airports and shopping centers. All so that the smell of fresh baked goods and cinnamon can be heard many meters from the establishment.

Starbucks once faced a funny difficulty: the company had been solving the problem of cheese sandwiches for six months. The fact is that the smell of cheese interrupted all the coffee aroma in the cafe. And until the company found a way out, cheese sandwiches were not on sale - smells are so important for restaurant marketing.

6. Hang TVs on the walls to distract you

Finally, let's talk about something that everyone already knows very well: restaurants hang TVs on the walls and turn on music to distract the attention of visitors. Less attention, more eaten - a time-tested principle!

And here's a little-known fact: Emotional films make Why Watching Sad Movies Could Make You Eat More. there are more people. There is also such statistics: melodramas help sell Watching action movies could make you overeat, study says. there is more popcorn in the movies than comedy. On the other hand, news or interviews do not particularly addictive to viewers, so you are unlikely to see a news channel in a restaurant.