The whole menu is vegan by Humpty Dumpty’s definition.
impossible duck and beyond fish
3 Likes
For real? Same exact menu but more expensive on the weekend? Maybe Sergio is in the house on the weekend? Something has got to be different, besides the demand, no?
nothing new, alinea has been doing it for years.
Yup. Exactly my thoughts when I saw Manzke’s dynamic pricing.
david chang was talking about this on a recent podcast episode - but dynamic pricing by hour, e.g. cheaper at 5pm than 7pm.
2 Likes
It’s not a super popular take, but managing scarcity by forcing people to waste time standing in line (or trying to snipe tickets online, etc) is obviously much worse than just using price discrimination and charging more for more popular options, up to the point where nobody is wasting time trying to compete for a limited supply of goods.
In both worlds, the same number of people get to enjoy the thing, but in the “charge appropriate prices” world, you see multiple benefits:
- Consumers haven’t wasted a bunch of time
- Producer earns more money
- #2 encourages the entrance of competitors as they see the possibility of excess returns
- #3 puts downward pressure on prices in the long-term
Conflict of interest disclaimer: I’m definitely a person who prefers to trade money for time/headache, at these margins. But also this is the extremely standard econ take.
2 Likes
I do like a good theoretical debate. Lemme start by saying I think this kind of dynamic pricing is something that I like. However, once you step outside of the standard econ worldview the reality of human irrationality makes things more complicated, of course. Within the standard microeconomic view, price discrimination makes an assumption that greater willingness to pay means that the good/service has more value to that person. It’s not hard to imagine how that could be incorrect “in real life”. Consider someone on this board who would more deeply appreciate all the details of the experience at Manzke, but going there would be the difference between affording their (super high LA) rent and not vs. someone who has rich parents who is just going because it’s expensive. Or a professional somm who doesn’t make crazy money and buys a nice bottle vs someone who is just rich and buys the same bottle of wine without enough tasting experience to appreciate it as much. Not hard to imagine that the willingness to pay is not always directly related to perceived value. Increased access to capital affects willingness to pay in real humans, just like for trivially cheap items you are likely not very price conscious and so the price/value correlation is much looser.
In that example also lies the other side of the equation. If you’re the chef/owner of this restaurant you might actually enjoy serving people who give a crap about what you’re doing more than people who are just there because it’s expensive or high status. If you just raise prices to maximize dollar revenue, you may hate your job and would actually make the opportunity cost tradeoff to have lower dollar revenue, but a clientele you like better which increases your overall value. Even within the standard economic models there’s plenty of room for this.
Interestingly, restaurants that make people line up/take no reservations are making this tradeoff, whether they intend to or not. They’re selecting for people who are willing to wait and spend their time to dine there. The higher income you are, the more valuable you time, so it actually favors people who make less money and who’s time is worth proportionally less. Of course this is terribly inefficient as the restaurant doesn’t capture any of the time*value as revenue.
7 Likes
“The higher income you are, the more valuable you (sic) time.” “…people who make less money and who’s time is worth proportionally less.”
Seriously??? That s a disgusting attitude. I suggest you have some conversations with people who are working two low-paying jobs just to make the rent, plus raising children, plus maybe taking care of aging parents…or the student having to work a night job to be able to afford college and studying every spare minute to make a better life…and I could go on…and you ask them how valuable their time is.
2 Likes
I totally agree with both of you. (Except I agree with happycat’s criticism of boourns’ comment about higher income people’s time being more valuable, which I don’t think has much merit. A better proposition would have been that busy people’s time is more valuable. There is probably a positive correlation between busyness and income, so maybe boourns’ comment can be salvaged.)
I would add to T3t’s comments the opposite of boourns’ observation: When prices are too low, people who place little value on the scarce good/service nonetheless consume/use it, leaving less for people who value it highly. I’ve seen this happen with small-venue concerts (some artists aren’t into making money so they don’t price nearly as high as they could).
A related phenomenon is that setting prices too low can degrade the value of a service through overuse. A great example is free museum days (or the museums in DC that are always free). Often, these are overcrowded and unpleasant experiences that reduce everyone’s ability to appreciate the art. National Parks are another good example.
Luckily, most of the best things in life (playing Elden Ring, watching NFL football, listening to Bjork, spending time with Peony) are neither scarce nor expensive and are not degraded by overuse.
And you make my point for me that monetary value does not equate to true value. Let me be more specific about what I was trying to say. If you’re higher income (the money you get for labor, investment, sales in a given time period), the monetary value of your time is higher in the standard microeconomic model. Hopefully that is uncontroversial. IMO that doesn’t mean someone who makes a lower income doesn’t enjoy something as much (or more), just because they cannot pay as much money for it. Or that their time has less true value to them. However, I would assert that having more money makes many people more willing to trade money for time (not spending time waiting or hitting F5), whether that reflects the true value of their time or not. Conversely it also makes them less willing to wait in line. Increased access to capital affects willingness to pay in real humans in a way that’s disconnected with how truly valuable something is to them. So simply charging what the market will bear doesn’t actually result in the people who would get the most value from something actually buying that thing.
4 Likes
I was curious about the correlation between hours worked and income level so I did some research.
The best research I found is here:
The conclusion is that higher-income people in the U.S. work slightly more hours per week than lower-income people. I’d like to see more details on the survey method.
Yeah. I remember sitting in an econ class in college and being taught that the free market ensures that scarce goods and services are directed to the people who value them most. That’s asinine, for the reasons you point out. It would only make sense if everyone had the same income level.
1 Like
As the price of the meal escalates, doesn’t cognitive dissonance kick in, i.e., the higher the cost the less likely the diner is to find fault with the food and drink?
1 Like
At least anecdotally from my personal perspective I don’t know if that’s true. I generally stick to some type of rudimentary scale of QPR and that usually makes lower priced or high quality medium priced places my favorites.
The fanciest or most expensive meals have definitely not always been my favorite, although some have.
6 Likes
any recent reports?
went last month
cocktails still amazing. Food pretty similar vibes and concepts as all the prior visits but dishes are different.
The private dining room is still my favorite place to drink wine and hang with friends
4 Likes
Dynamic pricing is everywhere. What makes a seat at a dining room different than an airline seat or hotel room? All are items that lose a business owner money when they remain empty so peak and off peak pricing is a sound approach. Businesses need to maximize revenue where possible and sell distressed inventory by every means possible.
2 Likes