'This should have never happened': CA may let restaurants keep charging fees

sfstandard.com

4 pointsgnicholas3 comments

Do I have the history on this right?

SF mandates businesses to pay into a healthcare fund, so businesses tack on surcharges

Businesses in cities near SF realize they can benefit from this by also adding surcharges (even though they don't have to pay into SF's fund)

Consumers are confused and frustrated by all of the surcharges, which are sometimes substantial and catch them by surprise

Legislators pass a law that will forbid the use of separately-priced surcharges

Restaurants lobby the shit out of legislators in order to be exempted from this new law before it goes into effect.

Strikes me as kind of circular!

Sounds about right.

Restaurants will do anything, likely up to and including just shuttering their business, before they put their prices up.

The funny thing is this is the perfect time to do it. All businesses will have an even playing field, so it's not like you have to worry about being less competitive (unless you've been hiding an unusually large surcharge in recent years). And you can blame the increases on inflation, which everyone knows has been bad, especially for food items like eggs.

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