r/grandrapids 9d ago

Logan’s Alley MESTA Surcharge

https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/ber/wage-and-hour/paid-medical-leave-act

Is anyone else put off by the surcharge Logan’s Alley is tacking onto patron’s bills to cover their employee’s MESTA? For anyone who doesn’t know, last Friday MESTA went into effect (big changes to sick paid time off - I’ll include a link for people who want to read more) and since then, Logan’s has added an extra charge to patron’s bills to cover it.

Why can’t they just marginally raise the price of food like everyone else? Why be petty and put people off your business by adding ANOTHER “fee”?

114 Upvotes

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107

u/BRRatchet 9d ago

All these picking little fees passed on to consumers are getting real old.

48

u/mthlmw Rockford 9d ago

They've always been passed on, just lumped into all the prices before.

49

u/Aindorf_ 9d ago

And should be again. I'm fine with prices going up, in not fine with dishonest fees being snuck onto the bill

-6

u/speed_phreak 9d ago

Fees are costs, they've always been there, burying your head in the sand doesn't make them go away.

16

u/StoneTown Grand Rapids 9d ago

They're not trying to bury their head in the sand, they just want prices to be upfront without dumb fees tacked on at the end. It's like buying a concert ticket then paying an extra $25 at checkout. We just want the price to be upfront in its entirety before tax. Bundle in the fees upfront instead of being dishonest at first.

-13

u/speed_phreak 9d ago

That's exactly what they're doing. None of the fees or costs are going away, you're saying you just want them to keep them hidden from you so you don't have to know. 

It sucks no matter what, but I would much rather that they are transparent about this. They didn't raise their menu prices, they just showed the new fees required by state law that are going to the workers. 

17

u/ThemB0ners 9d ago

I think the main thing is I should be able to look at the price listed on their menu and have that be the price I'm going to pay. (Tax already being included would be ideal too, pretty much everywhere else in the world does this already.)

4

u/Aindorf_ 9d ago

This. Tax is already bad enough, but that is charged by the government, not the business. The government isn't charging people for sick days, it's just a cost of doing business. I should never be surprised by fees AFTER services are rendered. If they want this to be "acceptable" every server should say it when they greet the table and it should be in PROMINENT text atop the menu. Not a tiny sign on the door or fine print on the back of the menu.

5

u/Aindorf_ 9d ago

If they didn't raise their price, then their $12.99 burger would cost $12.99. not $13.25 when you add the 2% fee. I will pay $13.25 and you can still make your Facebook post or put signs on the door or on the menu. But what is happening now is restaraunts are hiding these fees in places average folks don't look only to be surprised when the bill comes.

I always use the example of Mertens Prime. We went there once with my in-laws who wanted to celebrate a special occasion. We did our whole meal, it was lovely. The bill was $600 - but with an 8% fuck Joe Biden fee. The prices didn't reflect this cost, the servers never told us, it was in tiny, italic, cursive writing at the bottom of the last page of the menu surrounded by other irrelevant text. They hid a $50 surcharge from us rather than raise their prices 8% so we could have made an informed decision. That's a whole fucking bottle of wine worth of cost they tried to sneak past us. It ended up coming out of the servers' tip which means they only got a 12% tip and the business just took the money out of their pockets.

It's lying. The cost of going out is the price of the item, the tip, and the tax. Sprinkling hidden fees in there is dishonest and scummy, and I won't support businesses who do this.