TOT: is this reasonable?

This happened to me on Saturday.

At least mine was about two minutes away.

In message <11477vk$32q7t$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 10:21:56 on Mon, 27 Jul

Subsidised corporate canteen. Absolutely nothing at all like the environment in a commercial pub.

In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, at 12:37:11 on Mon, 27 Jul 2026, alan_m snipped-for-privacy@admac.myzen.co.uk> remarked:

They also tend to "level out" the price of the meals, irrespective of the ingredients. But TNP already told us that.

In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, at 15:34:01 on Mon, 27 Jul 2026, Scott snipped-for-privacy@gefion.myzen.co.uk> remarked:

I wonder if this is a new trend? Could be caused by penny-pinching on staff in the current financial crisis.

I was wondering the same. Also, I think even asking for a 'doggy bag' is a relatively new trend. In the past this would have been considered vulgar.

Or maybe just can't get the staff anymore. One of the things which seems strange having moved from up-country to Penwith is the local (excellent) Indian restaurant delivery service. All the delivery men are middle-aged long-bearded Cornish men, not young sharp-dressed Indian men, though just as brown.

You ,miss the point. She had been trained in catering including 'normal' markups.

Yes the BBC was around 30% food cost. Other restaurant places were far far less.

A few really subsidised canteens were more

There are only rough guidelines. Many places that become 'fashionable' raise prices even higher

When you say markup do you include labour costs, storage costs, premises costs, etc? If the mark-up used genuine accounting of all (proportional) costs the profit would be 2/3s. But what you mean is something like 3x food ingredients cost, ignoring associated costs such a preparation.

The point being the work preparing, storing, a bottle of wine is not similar, proportionally, to the cost of preparing food.

In reality restaurants will generate profit where they can. They charge markups that customers are willing to pay.

Which bring us back to your doggy bag.

That is because restaurateurs are not financial geniuses or economists.

The retail sector in *anything* tends to work on a 3:1 markup irrsepective of labour overheads etc

Not because its right,m but because it is simple.

Neither is the work reheating a frozen ready meal the same as fresh cooking a sunday roast.

Or in many case are increasingly less willing to pay...

Hard core surfers funding their habit?

In message <11482vk$3c3hi$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 18:02:44 on Mon, 27 Jul

We were talking about pubs. Traditional grub at about half the retail of restaurants.

Can you name very many Michelin Starred pubs, not gastro-pubs obviously.

In message <11484g4$37g5n$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 18:28:35 on Mon, 27 Jul

Obviously not. It's the markup on the ingredients. Those other costs are paid from the 2/3 of the retail price which isn't ingredients.

Yes.

Depends what the food is. Selecting and buying, and storing, wine isn't free (plus there's the interest on the money borrowed to pay for it up front). Boil-in-the-bag pub-grub takes almost no preparation.

The doggy bag was free, but it didn't come with labour to fill it.

The restaurant was busy, and had three quite frantic staff trying to service too many tables. The main course took 1hr 45mins to arrive after we were seated, which was OK for us, but not a great proposition for lunch.

In message <11484om$3c3hi$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 18:33:10 on Mon, 27 Jul

That's simply not true in for example consumer electronics. The retailer gets a 30% margin, the importer perhaps 20%, and the manufacturer around

So something on the shelf of whatever Dixons is called this week with a £299 price tag will have cost them £200, and the importer would have bought it for £160, and the component cost being around £145.

Dixons didn't have its own manufacturing plant, but did a certain amount of its own importing (Saisho brand). But that meant they were stuck with the stock, whereas third party imported items were usually on sale-or-return.

In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, at 17:47:27 on Mon, 27 Jul 2026, Scott snipped-for-privacy@gefion.myzen.co.uk> remarked:

How far in the past? I'd have estimated it to be in the 1940's in USA,

You haven't worked in that area have you?

Back in the day no retail outlet would accept goods with less than 200% markup on retail price.

That's the cost of running a staffed shop, customer support and warehousing stock.

Supermarkets are different. They work on high turnover JIT costings,

You have to be joking. No one supplies retail shops on a sale or return basis, Customers perhaps ...

Not even newspapers?

I don't think I ever requested a 'doggy bag' in the UK before 2020.

In message <1149uhg$3tkg5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 10:59:12 on Tue, 28 Jul

Oh the irony. Only for about 20yrs.

That's just complete bollocks.

Pretty much everything in Argos, Dixons etc (and right up to date, Amazon) is sale-or-return. And quite a lot even today in Tesco.

When the latter has a "offer" on something like flat screen TVs, it's because the importer has said 'rather than send them back, try to get as much as you can for them'.

In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, at 16:25:20 on Tue, 28 Jul 2026, Scott snipped-for-privacy@gefion.myzen.co.uk> remarked:

Newspapers and magazines are classic sale-or-return. It's one reason why the August issue of a glossy mag will be on the shelves from as early as