RE: Restaurants Again
From: Alex Tabarrok [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 4:25 PM Many fine restaurants, however, have long waiting times to get a reservation. The French Laundry, for example, is perhaps the best restaurant in America and the wait to get in is 2 months or more! (2 months for a normal day - much longer if you want to book for Valentines or something like that.) This sort of waiting seems much more amenable to a Becker type explanation involving non-linearities and prestige factors. My wife just informed me that The French Laundry's reservation policy stipulates that reservations can only be made for the calendar date *EXACTLY* two months ahead of the date you call to make the reservation. No more or less. For example, today they are taking reservations for March 15, 2002, and no other date. Getting a reservation thus requires spending a good portion of a day (or several days) dialing and redialing the reservation line in an attempt to get through, while everybody else is attempting to get through too. (I just called to verify that this was indeed their reservation policy, and the line was busy.) What's the armchair explanation for that? My first suspicion is that it is more important to them to be able to restrict public access to the resturant in order to provide the desired atmosphere for the patrons that do get in. The reservation system is probably circumvented by some pre-approved group of patrons. But that's just a cynical guess. Michael Giesbrecht Internet Engineering Lucasfilm Ltd.
Restaurants Again
Several weeks ago Fabio pointed out a novel reason why restaurants might choose long lines intead of higher prices - the longer lines induce people in the restaurant to eat faster. This is an interesting suggestion but it misses quite a bit of the phenomena because it applies (presumably) only to physical, on-premises waiting. Many fine restaurants, however, have long waiting times to get a reservation. The French Laundry, for example, is perhaps the best restaurant in America and the wait to get in is 2 months or more! (2 months for a normal day - much longer if you want to book for Valentines or something like that.) This sort of waiting seems much more amenable to a Becker type explanation involving non-linearities and prestige factors. Alex Tabarrok
Re: Restaurants Again
My father, who allegedly holds some sort of psycology degree, claims that many restaurants (likely retail chains and not ma and pa's) train their servers to drop subtile hints to get people out the door. Everything from asking if everything is OK to stopping to refill drink or clearing plates. Perhaps the reason larger prestige places have longer lines is because they sell wine. The markup on the entree is large because of the portion size (probably). But these restaurants must rake it in hand over fist selling wine. And while places like Pizzeria Unos give free refills on soda, places like I Can't Afford To Eat Here always offer more, but are sure to put it on the bill. But then again, I'm just a customer. Dan Lewis ad www.whattheheck.com /ad At 08:54 PM 2/10/02 -0600, you wrote: But how many restaurants have such long lines for a reservation? My hunch is that most restaurants don't have any long lines, some have long lines but you can easily get a reservation and there is a small fraction like The French Laundry where you have to wait in line so you can wait in line! My hypothesis: Cheap eateries don't have lines, intermediate restaurants use lines to speed up eating and the fancy places employ the Becker/prestige mechanism. Any industry insiders who can settle this one? Fabio Several weeks ago Fabio pointed out a novel reason why restaurants might choose long lines intead of higher prices - the longer lines induce people in the restaurant to eat faster. This is an interesting suggestion but it misses quite a bit of the phenomena because it applies (presumably) only to physical, on-premises waiting. Many fine restaurants, however, have long waiting times to get a reservation. The French Laundry, for example, is perhaps the best restaurant in America and the wait to get in is 2 months or more! (2 months for a normal day - much longer if you want to book for Valentines or something like that.) This sort of waiting seems much more amenable to a Becker type explanation involving non-linearities and prestige factors. Alex Tabarrok
