'Ridiculous': Outrage over restaurant's 'COVID surcharge' on receipt
People are furious after a woman shared a receipt on Twitter from a restaurant which shows a “COVID-19 surcharge”.
She had been dining at Kiko Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Lounge in the US state of Missouri on Monday.
“‘Scuse me, what? A COVID surcharge?” she tweeted.
Her receipt shows she spent about A$77 but about $3.10 of the bill is for what’s said to be a “COVID-19 surcharge”.
People on Twitter were less than enthused about the addition to the bill.
“I will happily tip extra to my server but you aren't slapping a made-up charge unless you tell me first. My pay has been cut though I've been able to work. Should I charge all my clients an extra fee to cover my bills at home?” one woman tweeted.
Another simply called the surcharge “ridiculous”.
Others weighed into what they thought the surcharge was actually for.
“It's for PPE (personal protective equipment; masks, gloves) and additional equipment (e.g., plexiglass dividers)... all an additional expense to the restaurant,” one man tweeted.
“They work on very thin profit margins; it's also very expensive to print menus for what might be a temporary situation.”
‘We are not doing this to take advantage of you’
After news about the surcharge emerged, Kiko Japanese addressed it on Facebook.
It wrote staff are being harassed over it.
“Please understand we are not doing this to take advantage of you guys,” it wrote.
“We are doing this hoping we can adjust the surcharge weekly rather than just raise all of our prices on our menu, due to increased prices from our supplier on meat, poultry, seafood and produce.
“Almost all of us here are getting our supply through the same supplier.”
Kiko Japanese later added it had removed the surcharge and increased its prices.
America’s meat industry has been under pressure due to two contributing factors: high demand from China and processing facilities shutting down due to coronavirus.
Most exports were agreed to six months ago, before the pandemic.
At least 30 US meatpacking workers have also died of COVID-19 and another 10,000 have been infected or exposed to the virus, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents roughly 80 per cent of the country’s beef and pork workers and 33 per cent of its poultry workers.
with The Associated Press
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