[ad_1]
Downtown L.A. restaurant scene mainstay Perch has become a main character in the hospitality world’s ongoing surcharge discourse for its decision to make customers pay for security costs.
It’s the latest twist on a broader trend that’s proven divisive among hospitality patrons: itemized fees beyond the food or drink order. What began with automatic service fees has spread to separate charges for employee healthcare and other itemized levies as businesses seek to maintain margins amid roiling economic impacts from the pandemic and new minimum wage laws. (As of April 1, the California base rate is $20 per hour.)
Perch’s policy, in which a 4.5 percent charge is added, became the subject of a viral discussion on Reddit’s Los Angeles discussion board, with the original poster noting: “Having security isn’t atypical. It’s included in our rent. All of the buildings down here [in Perch’s neighborhood of the Historic Core] have security. So why 4.5%? Why not $1.00 per check? Why this amount? How much does this fee generate for them per night? How much do they spend on their security and, most importantly, why do patrons have to pay it? Why advertise it? Is it their commentary about how unsafe their community is?”
Perch’s sister property, the clubby sushi sanctum Mrs. Fish on the ground floor of the same building a few blocks from Skid Row, doesn’t include a security fee on its bill. Their shared operation group, Citrus Hospitality Management, didn’t return The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment. In language on Perch’s website that has since been removed, the restaurant explained that the surcharge is necessary to pay for personnel to secure its footprint, which spans several levels on the top of its tower, including its roof.
Social media commenters were skeptical of the security surcharge, believing that operating costs should be baked into the price of goods and services. “Why not add rent charge? Or insurance charge? Or payroll charge?” one Redditor noted. Another jokingly asked what would happen if you brought your own security, to which a third poster responded: “Then you have to pay a security corkage fee.”
[ad_2]
Source link