If you've ever gorged yourself at an all you can eat buffet, you've probably wondered how they manage to make any money. Letting people just eat anything they want all willy-nilly couldn't possibly be profitable, right? Well, grab a plate, because we're about to reveal how all-you-can-eat buffets really make their money...
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00If you've ever gorged yourself at an all-you-can-eat buffet, you've probably wondered how they
00:04manage to make any money.
00:06Letting people just eat anything they want all willy-nilly couldn't possibly be profitable,
00:10right?
00:11Well, grab a plate, because we're about to reveal how all-you-can-eat buffets really
00:15make their money.
00:17Cutting back on overhead
00:18One of the things buffets have going for them is an overhead different than traditional
00:22restaurants.
00:23That's because you're doing most of the work for them, and paying for the privilege.
00:26You serve yourself, and in some places, you might even get your own drinks.
00:30This means that there's next to no need for waitstaff, and since the menu relies heavily
00:34on a series of regular dishes which are prepared in advance, they can hire fewer, and cheaper,
00:39chefs.
00:40Heck, at some buffets, like Korean barbecue places, the customers are even doing the cooking
00:44as well as the serving.
00:46Minimizing waste
00:47Ovation Brands, which runs the country buffet chain, owns and manages more than 100 buffets
00:52across America, and they have a ton of data on every aspect of their business.
00:56They monitor everything, including weekly waste amounts, and plug it into a massive
01:00computer model.
01:01That allows them to track exactly how much customers are eating and how much is getting
01:05thrown away, and allows them to adjust menus based on what's popular, allowing them to
01:10plan ahead and put out what people are going to want, and in the right quantities.
01:14And when they do put it out, they use small pans to minimize how much goes to waste.
01:19That is beautiful.
01:21I told you, the buffet, man.
01:22Boy, did we do the wrong thing.
01:26Cheap ingredients
01:27Psychology Today took a look at what's going on in the buffet line, and they call it the
01:31fill-the-customers-belly-cheaply metric.
01:34For a lot of buffets, things like vegetables, potatoes, and rice are staple dishes.
01:38That's because they are both super cheap and extremely filling.
01:41The more rice and veggies you eat, the more money the restaurant makes.
01:45What did I teach you about buffet strategy?
01:48Always start with your high-end meats, skip veggies, they'll only fill you up with nonsense.
01:53Seasonal and regional specialties
01:55Psychology Today also reported that there are two good reasons you're likely to find
01:59a lot of seasonal and regional foods in the buffet line.
02:02First, if something's in season or grown, the restaurant is going to be able to buy
02:06it cheaply in bulk, as it's readily available.
02:09And secondly, it makes the buffet look good.
02:11When they can offer menus advertised with words like locally sourced and seasonal, it
02:15makes customers feel like they're getting something special, and it'll keep them coming
02:19back.
02:20Drink up
02:21Drinks usually aren't included in the price of the buffet, and there's good reason for
02:25that.
02:26While the food being served often has a relatively modest 30 percent markup over cost, restaurants
02:30can jack up the price of drinks by as much as 90 percent, and the more you eat, the thirstier
02:35you're going to get.
02:36As a result, they make a lot of bank off your beverage.
02:39Drinks.
02:40Cold.
02:41Are you ready?
02:42Here we go.
02:44Giving you smaller tools
02:45One of the biggest factors impacting your eating habits at a buffet are the tools you're given.
02:50You'll almost never see full-sized dinner plates or actual soup bowls, and instead, you'll
02:54be given small plates and even tiny dessert bowls, in order to limit the amount of food
02:58you take.
02:59Restaurant suppliers know this, and buffets can even purchase miniature tableware especially
03:03designed for buffets.
03:05That even includes silverware, which tends to be smaller, but not small enough you'd
03:08really notice unless you already know their sneaky tricks.
03:11You're welcome.
03:12A strategic layout
03:14Buffets spend a lot of time figuring out the right layout for the food.
03:18Those cheap, filling foods like salads, veggies, rice, and noodles are likely to come right
03:22at the start, so you can load up before you get to the expensive stuff like meat and fish.
03:26Check out the way things are served, too.
03:28You can grab a massive ladleful of rice and veggies, but it's tongs when it comes to those
03:33inevitably small portions of meat.
03:35They'll take longer to get on your plate, and most people don't like the pressure of
03:38holding up a line, so they tend to move quickly through.
03:41Also, pans with more expensive foods are generally less full, a subtle encouragement to take
03:46less, while cheap ingredients will be served in giant, overflowing pans.
03:51There's plenty for all, and people like that.
03:53Cheaper isn't always better
03:55The Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University conducted an experiment to see how the price
03:59of a buffet influenced customers.
04:02They offered two groups of customers the same pizza buffet, and charged one group $4, while
04:06the other group was charged $8.
04:08The group who paid more was overwhelmingly more satisfied with the entire experience.
04:13That kind of psychology has filtered down even to Las Vegas.
04:16Just a few years ago, $1.99 all-you-can-eat buffets were everywhere as a lure to bring
04:21hungry patrons into casinos.
04:23By 2013, though, they had suddenly vanished, with the average buffet price hovering between
04:27$20 and $25.
04:29Why?
04:30Because people will now pass on the cheaper buffets because they feel like they get better
04:33food and a better experience if they are paying more.
04:36You know what they say, one way or the other, the house always wins.
04:40People absolutely get banned
04:42Finally, you may not want to take the all-you-can-eat part so literally.
04:46People can and have been banned from buffets for eating too much food.
04:50For instance, a Wisconsin man named Bill Wist was not only banned, yet the cops called on
04:55him for abusing his local buffet.
04:57Put the sign, say all you can eat.
05:02So before you go back for that fourth plate of rice and veggies, ask yourself how much
05:06you might like a taste of jail food.
05:08Because the buffets there aren't nearly as good.