Mega Markup

You're not paying for the materials - you're paying for the labor. If I want to eat cheaply, I cook at home. If I go to a restaurant, I realize I'm paying the salaries of the people who cook the food, bring it to me, and wash the dishes - all things I don't want to do, and the reason I go out. There's a great quote about this in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

I'm also paying for electricity, rent and so forth. Same principle at Starbucks - people pay $5 for a cup of hot water with some milk.

$4 for oatmeal does seem a bit expensive, though.

Subject: Re: Mega Markup

BigGuy wrote: I suddenly realized that I've been paying $4 for oatmeal at Tom's. I go there for a bowl every once in a while, and I suddenly realized I'm actually paying $4 for oats & water! I like Tom's and all that but c'mon...what kind of markup is that?

You think that's bad, I had brunch at Chez Oscar once and paid $12 for 3 pancakes, jesus in a sidecar, $4 bucks each??? WTF is that?

jml wrote: YThere's a great quote about this in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Awesome book!

i wrote a rather long piece on The Usual recently, and i wondered, as i was working on it, how much more cheaply i could eat the same food at home. this is a bit long, but, if anyone's interested, here's what i figured (NB i figured their price versus my cost -- obviously, they buy wholesale, but i don't):

My “usual” at breakfast time is two eggs, grits, sausage, and whole-wheat toast. Because I eat before eleven, I qualify for the breakfast special, which is all that plus coffee and a small orange juice. My breakfast costs $3.60, including tax. I have investigated the prices at Met Foods, the grocery store across the street from the restaurant, to see what the same meal would cost at home. The cheapest eggs are $1.29 for a dozen, or about eleven cents each. Grits are $1.39 for a 24-ounce package. The nutritional information claims eighteen servings per container, but the amount Tino spoons onto each plate is about twice as much as the package directions yield. At an estimated nine servings per package, a serving of grits comes to about fifteen cents. Wide sausage links are selling at $3.49 for a package of seven, about fifty cents each. Whole-wheat bag bread is on sale: two loaves of eighteen slices each for five dollars, or about fourteen cents per slice. Tropicana – which, despite its price is what they serve at the restaurant, another reason for my loyalty – is on sale, too: two half-gallon containers for five dollars, or about four cents per ounce. According to the label, a thirty-nine ounce can of coffee makes 194 servings. At $9.99, that’s five cents per cup. I figure the cost of breakfast as follows:
Two eggs:$0.22
One (generous) serving of grits:$0.15
Two sausage links:$1.00
Two slices toast:$0.28
Four-ounces orange juice:$0.16
Two cups coffee:$0.10

$1.96

The extra dollar and sixty-four cents I pay at The Usual goes towards milk and sugar for the coffee; salt and pepper for the eggs; margarine and sometimes jelly on the toast; tiny white paper napkins from a chrome dispenser; an oval plate for the eggs and the sausage and the grits; a round plate for the toast, a mug for the coffee, a clear plastic cup for the juice; a fork, a knife, a spoon; hot water and soap to wash the dishes and flatware; gas to heat the griddle; oil to grease it; electricity for the lights and the dishwasher; and paying, that morning, Tino and Zorica and Mike, who is toasting everything that needs toasting, slicing everything that needs slicing, assembling sandwiches, taking phone orders, wiping down the counter, and greeting everyone who comes and goes.

Carnivore wrote: [quote=jml]There's a great quote about this in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Awesome book! I've been looking for a good book to get lost in, but I don't like being left hanging - this is the first in a series, no?

WhyFi wrote: [quote=Carnivore][quote=jml]There's a great quote about this in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Awesome book! I've been looking for a good book to get lost in, but I don't like being left hanging - this is the first in a series, no?

I hate that book. the guy hasn't managed anything decent since snow crash.

Carnivore wrote: [quote=alafairnadia][quote=WhyFi][quote=Carnivore][quote=jml]There's a great quote about this in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Awesome book! I've been looking for a good book to get lost in, but I don't like being left hanging - this is the first in a series, no?

I hate that book. the guy hasn't managed anything decent since snow crash.
Snow Crash was even better, but I thought Cryptonomicon was fantastic. I know it's not sci-fi, so if that's what you're expecting it could be a disappointment, but it's a great story.

he needs an editor. big time. way too many tangents, way too much pseudo-intellectual blather. my favorite, of course, is the big u. but I'm weird that way.

WhyFi wrote: The big u? Do I wanna know?!

it is SO good. mutant rats, crazy frat-boys, non-white main character, kitten smuggling. awesome.

WhyFi wrote: Is this the title of a book?~

yep:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=0380816032&itm=1

[quote="sweet tea"]i wrote a rather long piece on The Usual recently

Whoa. Did you post this somewhere??

no, it's from something i wrote for school. i'm going to start a food blog yesterday-ish.... i'll let ya'll know.

Smokin' Joe wrote: you've omitted another factor that would swing the balance in favor of the usual: the value of your time spent in preparation and cleanup of the same meal at home.

(fyi: the 2/$5 oj at the met seems to be a permanent special.)

true. but i've also left out their mortgage. (and i'm a student; granted, i do some reasonably well-paid freelance work too, but it's a little presumptuous of me to declare my time to be of terribly high value. especially when i spend so very much of it on this board....)

thanks for the oj note.