The amount the customers pay should stay the same, unless the service is excellent, then a tip would be given to the wait-saff.
Unfortunately the mindset of required tipping won't go away anytime soon.
It's not going to happen until the laws that allow below minimum wage pay are abolished, then wait a few years for people to get into the habit of tipping primarily for quality of service.
If there aren't enough customers that are willing to pay the "higher" cost then there doesn't need to be that many upscale restaurants. Sometimes I'd prefer to save a few dollars and walk to the kitchen window and get my own food.
If the profit margin is that low for restaurants then they either need to go out of business or reduce expenses, having hidden fees (tips) isn't the answer.
But you will get fewer customers because people react more to the up-front price than the future final price. People tend to look at the price of he entree and double it, reflecting the additional cost of a starter, drinks coffee, etc. Only in fast food restaurants do people go in with a clear expectation of paying a specific amount.
If the profit margin is that low for restaurants then they either need to go out of business or reduce expenses, having hidden fees (tips) isn't the answer.
Most restaurants don't make it to the age of 2. It's already a hyper-competitive business because dining at restaurant A is not a straight economic substitution for dining at restaurant B. People have strong and sometimes irrational preferences about where they dine.
Tips are not hidden fees. In fact if the tip isn't included as part of the charge it isn't even legally required to be paid either.
"The amount the customers pay would stay the same."
If a businesses expenses go up then their profit goes down. So they either have to accept less profit or they need to raise prices. Please explain another scenario. I'm not talking about some outlier where something else out of the ordinary happened for some other non duplicatable reason. Or how a particular business may charge less than another because they make it up on volume. (There are many particulars to why a business might operate at a different cost structure (location, suppliers as only two examples).
"Sometimes I'd prefer to save a few dollars and walk to the kitchen window and get my own food."
Ok I see where you are going with this. Have you ever seen what others prefer to do and how actual restaurants operate? It seems that most people don't prefer to "walk to the kitchen window and get their own food".
Unfortunately the mindset of required tipping won't go away anytime soon.
It's not going to happen until the laws that allow below minimum wage pay are abolished, then wait a few years for people to get into the habit of tipping primarily for quality of service.
If there aren't enough customers that are willing to pay the "higher" cost then there doesn't need to be that many upscale restaurants. Sometimes I'd prefer to save a few dollars and walk to the kitchen window and get my own food.
If the profit margin is that low for restaurants then they either need to go out of business or reduce expenses, having hidden fees (tips) isn't the answer.