Do you upcharge for condiments?

[AdamB]

Hello everyone! 

Do you charge extra for condiments? I’ve seen some places do this if you want extra sauce or some other condiment with your food that isn’t part of the base order. Did you find that it helped offset costs? 🤔

[pessosices]

Great question @AdamB !

As an ice cream shop we do charge extra for cones & toppings - and that’s kind of condiments?

Im really curious about this too and to see what other places are doing! 

[Kellibain]

@AdamB  So we actually add additional modifiers for extra toppings etc. we require certain things when the customer orders (example type of milk - dairy, non dairy), mix-in and if customers want additional mix in it’s counted as extra with a charge associated when it’s added to the ticket. We add the same price for additional mix-ins. Because we use a sticky printer because of customizable ice cream flavors we also are able to see the additional mix ins etc on the kitchen receipt. 

[lulusbakery]

What’s a sticky printer?

[AnnaB]

Depends.  If they want a splash more, heavy on the chocolate,  or a coffee with a dash of oat...no. If they want an extra side portion or an added flavor...yes.  

[ryanwanner]

Hi @AdamB ! Good question!

Being in the coffee world, we obviously get a lot of "no this, extra that" type of orders. When the request is minor, like an extra pump of syrup, we won't charge for it. My rationale is that we usually spill more than that in a day.

For more expensive offerings, like an extra shot of espresso or alternate milks, we do have upcharges.

My overall theory on upcharging is the thought that I hate being nickel and dimed when I go out somewhere. I'm not going to do that to my customers.If I have to bump my pricing by a few pennies across the board to make up for little "freebies" here and there, so be it.

[MAXSDELI]

@AdamB 

We do. I noticed a trend towards customers requesting extra dressings, sauces, etc. in the Notes section so, I created a Category and added it to our online ordering site, as seen below. 

What I’d really like to see is an upsell pop-up before the payment screen, we see a lot of online ordering customers pick up their order and then stand in line to add a beverage or treat because they forgot or, they simply didn’t realize or know how to get back the the Item page to add additional items. 

 

[jjsmeatshak1]

I as well have done this with mods, etc. 

I also do not charge extra for condiments unless it’s something  like extra cheese=$0.15. We live and operate in a smaller community, and don’t want people to feel Nickel and dimmed. 

we have the philosophy of “you want it… you got it” 

[AdamB]

As a consumer I tend to be of two minds about it. One the one hand, I don't want to feel nickel-and-dimed over what seem like small requests (like 25 cents to add a couple pickles). On the other hand, I also feel like I'm not paying for something that might not even be on or in my order. I feel like there's a lot of room for nuance on what the condiment or addition is and also what the food is.

[MAXSDELI]

When I leave my four walls I become a consumer just like anyone else and as such, I really like an online ordering experience that caters to my need-set. 

If I place an order and would like extra sauce on the side, I’m perfectly happy to pay extra if needed. I notice a lot of mom & pop operators don’t account for these extra items and I’m forced to mention it in the Notes section and then rarely, do they arrive with my order. That can be frustrating.

If they become a line-item on a Ticket, they’re more likely to be seen by the prep team and included with the order. 

2¢

[AdamB]

100% agree with you about building it into the order flow. There's a restaurant here that we like that has customization options for all of the sandwich toppings, so I can remove or add whatever I want. There is a charge for adding some items (although you don't save anything for removing). I've never once had my order my wrong. Absolutely worth the extra change for anything I've added.

I can also say as someone who worked in the kitchen of McDonalds as a teenager; if the order clearly shows what should or shouldn't be there it makes it much easier to make it just how the customer wants (versus someone just yelling, "hey, for that 3rd order don't include onions"). I wonder how they handle online orders these days? This was in the days before most people had cellphones or the internet. How did we survive?

[MAXSDELI]

We definitely have a fairly robust library of Modifier sets, many of which I duplicated strictly for online to alleviate the seemingly “endless scroll” however, the Modifier sets for in-house orders are a buffet of buttons.

An example being condiments/sauces. We have a minimum of four choices for each condiment:

No mustard

Easy mustard

Extra Mustard

Mustard On Side

That may seem extreme however, when we have a customer with a lot of mods to an item, the ability to add each request at the touch of a button rather than using Notes, is a huge timesaver. 

At any rate, I digress. 

The “Upsell” pop up for online would be a welcome addition. 

A true “Order History” with the ability to quickly reorder (with order editing) would also be welcomed. 

[Donnie-M]

I agreed with this for a long time.  I hated having to ask for extra sauce and being told, that will be extra.  If you are not going to charge for extra sauce you have to account for it in the food cost of the dish in order to really understand it.  The best way is to just track, how many sauce cups are you prepping/using in a week and divide by the number of dishes that get those or at least by the number of customers you served.  The goal is to figure out the average number of sauce packets/cost per customer served.  If this is something like say .15c  across all your customers then on average it costs you .15c per dish to cover just the cost of this sort of "spice factor".

So what I do, I have this cost and add it to the cost of every dish as part of the cost to represent what it really costs to make each dish, then if someone gets no sauce or someone gets 4, it is covered.  Where I change this is for say people that just order a basket of fries.  I give up to 2 no question, but after that I have a nominal .29c charge for extra and my people are trained to give up to 2 more extra.  I find that also saying 1 extra sauce is .29c or whatever cost, but knowing that we can give up to 2 makes the customer extra happy, because they discount the one they pay for for the "free" one they get.

Accurately knowing what it really costs you to serve each customer is critical to make sure your dishes are profitable down to the fork/knife/spoon/salt/ketchup/napkin.  At least an average number is better than no number at all.

Donnie-M

[OurCupCakery]

We're a bakery and don't upcharge for sprinkles on cupcakes but if a customer wants an entire cake covered then, a cupcake or cake filled with sprinkles we do.  We look at the "task and food cost" to determine if we upcharge.

[Grahamsfishcamp]

Hi. We have a seafood restaurant and currently do not charge extra for condiments. However the thought has crossed our minds due to the increasing prices of the condiments. 

[baconcook]

Hey there, yes, we have a drive thru and also carry out at our diner so we charge 1.00 for every order over 10. It covers condiments/take-out containers.

[Bistro796]

We give them one, after that it’s a small charge $.25-1.00 depending on the sauce but we make everything in house. We didn’t used to charge extra but we consistently had people ordering 4 dressings on one side salad…

[danggooddogs]

Hot dog cart here, have "Free Fixins" (ketchup, mustard, relish, sauerkraut, onions, cole slaw, they get a choice of 4 condiments)... and then .50 extra if you want chili/cheese. However, we are raising our prices starting 2022 as it's no long sustainable given the rise of cost of goods. 

[pieous]

We charge for extra condiments because we make them all. The consumer mindset thinks everything is free. When someone asks for an extra piece of sourdough bread, we charge them. We are trying to educate a consumer that our goods are handmade, and therefore, come with a cost. If it were ketchup packets, I’d bake them into the price of the order and not complain. But if it’s something that’s made, in house, you need to charge for it. 

[MAXSDELI]

To be clear on this subject, we do have plenty of Condiment modifier options for each Item that may not have an extra charge (ie Extra Mayo, Extra Onions etc.). 

If a customer were dining in and approached the counter asking for an extra dressing, we’ll simply give it to ‘em however, if ordering online and someone wants 3 extra dressings for their salad or a side of our pesto aioli or perhaps, a side of Truff Hot Sauce ($2.16 an ounce, our cost), we have a way for them to add it to their order for an extra charge. 

It’s a delicate balancing act, this business we’re in…

[PStuffel123]

So far in one season condiments has cost us only about $20.00 most of that is on Hot Dogs.  Since that is such an upcharge I feel it is to our advantage to not charge.  A place down the street from us charges the same for a hot dog.  $3.50.  The they add on (SLAW)  $.50 .  If they want relish $.50.  Cheese is also $.50.  So your Dog there cost $5.00.  At our place it is still $3.50.  I hot dog with all the trimmings still cost us only $.85.00.  DON"T GET GREATY.  It will bight you in your but.

Island Time Food Service   It the NC State Fair in 11 days we sold almost 13,000 hotdog.