Where Did My Hospitality Items Go?

What happened to hospitality?

We went to Thai Ginger, today. The food was tasty and the service was pretty good for a Thai place... but they charge for rice. What the hell?

Now, let's get something clear. I pay four dollars for coffee twice a day. Obviously, I don't have a problem with useless expenses, but I take exception to getting charged for rice. If you want to charge an extra buck-fifty a meal, here's a thought: add one-dollar and fifty cents to the price of your meals. I don't go to a Mexican restaurant and pay for chips. I don't go to a Japanese restaurant and pay for soup. I don't go to a fast food joint and pay for drink refills. Why should I go to a Thai restaurant and pay for rice?

If it were one restaurant, I probably wouldn't sweat it. The problem is that this is a growing trend and it is a symptom of the debasement of our culture and the cultures that produced these fine cuisines. People are willing to pay more if they are doing so in smaller increments. It's some funky factor of human psychology. The fact that non-chain establishments are leveraging this mechanism in our brains shows that the people - the individuals - running these companies are succumbing to the "almighty buck."

There is nothing wrong with wealth. There is nothing wrong with the acquisition thereof. There is nothing wrong with the rich living a nicer life than the poor. The problem with people who subscribe to the "almighty buck" theory of business is that they, invariably, are myopic - by both definitions of the word.

Not offering hospitality items grants a short-term gain with a long-term cost. I've dealt with a number of businessmen who believed that a series of short-term, high-yield plans was an effective way to run a business. I was a believer. These people had a lot of money... compared to me. Through time and observation I found that those men, and I, were wrong. Short-term planning yields short-term results. You can acquire wealth with such thinking, but you will never be rich. You've got to be a long-term planner to make it big.

The acquisition of wealth, power, and fame can be done through means both nefarious and virtuous - look at Dick Cheney and Bill Gates (respectively) - but in either case it is done in a careful, thoughtful manner. So I say this to the food & hospitality industry: unless you want to get bitch-slapped by the invisible hand, stop reaching into my wallet.