# Best way to take a Chinese buffet to the cleaners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 17, 2003, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124 "2003-01-17T01:27:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/61 "2003-01-17T23:35:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lemur866 \* > \*\*I have to add that soda costs the restaurants a few pennies a serving. Unlimited serve-yourself soda is a moneymaker for them even if you drink a gallon of pop. \*\* Let’s think about that statement for a second. Say the buffet buys 5 gallons of Cola syrup for $30.00 and dilutes it 5:1 with carbonated water as advised by the manufacturer. He gets 25 gallons of Cola for $30.00 plus the cost of water, carbonation, and service on the machine (we’ll round off to zero to keep the math easy) $1.20 cents per gallon of Cola. At a traditional fast feeder where the 16 oz Cola is $1.25, 16 oz of Cola costs him 15 cents, so he nets $1.10 gross profit on every 16 oz cup. That’s a guaranteed moneymaker. However, at the buffet where the price of the drink is included in the total, it still costs him 15 cents per 16 oz portion but he retains no additional revenue with each extra serving consumed. Unequivically, if you drink a gallon of Cola the owner takes a $1.05 extra hit to the cost side compared to the fellow who drinks only 16 oz. It’s impossible to guarantee a profit if you cannot control your costs. The concept of money’s worth may not be the healthiest way to look at getting good value from an all-you-can-eat place. It’s not a zero-sum game. If you “accidentally” drop a pan of shrimp fried rice on the floor, the owner is out a few bucks, but what have you gained? If you eat everything you care to eat and are full and proceed to eat a whole pan of shrimp fried rice, the owner is still out a few bucks, but what have you gained? You can’t really store it like other things: you’ll be hungry again in a few hours, anyway. Drink an extra gallon of Cola. The owner’s out $1.25 and what have you gained? Good businesses deserve to make a profit. Trying to squeeze every last nickel out of a company in order to get one’s money’s worth is not the best way to do business, IMHO. What if everyone did it? Could the system sustain itself or is the nickel squeezer merely taking advantage of all the customers who don’t nickel squeeze. ---
**Author:** ![23skidoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f04885/32.png) [@23skidoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/23skidoo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/62 "2003-01-18T00:16:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flint Ironstag \* > **Regarding your posts, Sailor, I am not looking to cause expense, I’m looking to feel, just once, like I ate $5.50 worth of food that they charged me for. That’s what I paid for, that’s what I want. If you went to a restaurant, paid for a 32 ounce steak and they served you a 24 ounce one would you object? Would it be low class or petty to demand the larger steak you paid for? The 24 ounce steak would be the same meat and will probably fill you up, afterall.** Yeah, but a buffet is technically an unlimited amount of food. I’d be upset if I paid for an unlimited amount of food, and then was told that I could only have one plateful. But you’re getting what you pay for, an unlimited amount of food. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, that’s cool. But it seems weird to hear someone think that access to an unlimited supply of food is somehow not worth $5.50. How much would it cost you to buy and cook the amount of food that you normally eat there? Like, $4.00? $2.95? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/63 "2003-01-18T00:41:58Z")
What I find really petty and childish is the thought “I feel like eating X but I’ll eat Y because it’s more expensive”. Sort of reminds me of a kid thinking “even though I’m hungry I won’t eat because it annoys my mother”. I went to a buffet with that guy I mentioned and he put an apple in his pocket. When I told him that was not nice he reasoned he had not eaten as much as other people so he was entitled to to that. People like that drive up the cost of things for everybody. The worst offenders are those who abuse alcoholic beverages just because they’re free. And a couple of times recently I’ve been seated next to people like that on airplanes. Low class scum. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/64 "2003-01-20T23:15:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Woodall \* > \*\*In the interest of fighting ignorance, I must remark that $5.50 for a buffet, even a lunch buffet, is at least $2-3 cheaper than the cheapest chinese-cuisine lunch buffet I’ve seen in the last couple of years. > And I’m in the midwest, not exactly the most high-priced place in the USA. \*\* Time to eat my words. I went to West Virginia over the weekend, and sure enough I saw a Chinese buffet for $4.95. Of course this area is more depressed than where I am, so the difference may be attributable to differences in rent, labor costs, and average incomes of the potential clientele between Middle of Nowhere, W.Va and Akron, OH. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/65 "2003-01-21T01:10:12Z")
**sailor** : Free drinks on an airplane? Only if you don’t count the difference in ticket price between coach and first class. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/66 "2003-01-21T01:31:39Z")
At 385 pounds, I am no amatuer eater. Me and a rather large cajun gentleman, who, in Louisiana once drove an all you can eat mudbug place nearly to bankruptcy (he could hear the owner in the kitchen screaming that he was losing money for the night because of this one guy…) once went to a all you can eat chinese buffet. We had already done some serious damage to the place, and the owner came buy…we joking remarked about how we were making him lose money, and he said “If I was worried about that, I wouldnt have opened a buffet)”. Great place. I think I shall go their tomorrow for lunch. They even have mongolian BBQ. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@Stan\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/67 "2003-01-21T03:44:49Z")
Q:Mrs. Simpson, when you were ejected from the restaurant where did you go? A:We went home. Q:Mrs. Simpson… A:We drove around looking for another all you can eat seafood restaurant. Q:And when you couldn’t find one… A:We went fishing. Q:Your honor, do those sound like the actions of a man who had “all he could eat”? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/68 "2003-01-21T11:31:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr2001 \* > \*\ ***sailor** : Free drinks on an airplane? Only if you don’t count the difference in ticket price between coach and first class. \*\* It has been some time since I have flown on first class and every flight I have been on had free drinks in cattle class. In any case, drinks should be steeply priced, if not banned, in all the aircraft. There have been too many incidents already. ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124/69 "2003-01-21T12:55:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Woodall \* > \*\*Time to eat my words. I went to West Virginia over the weekend, and sure enough I saw a Chinese buffet for $4.95. > \*\* Wow. Have to say that Chinese food is generally the most expensive meal you can eat here in the UK / Ireland. (without, of course, going to a major chef-owned restaurant) The local Chinese buffet in my home town is £12.95 ($20 USD), and I think that’s a good deal. A standard set meal from a takeaway Chinese restaurant costs around £8 - 9.00 here. Add drinks and prawn crackers to that etc…and the buffet price looks good. BTW, I bought takeaway Chinese food for 7 people last week and it came to £78.00 ($125 USD) You guys should all be well pleased at how cheap you can eat out. (and drive too, with petrol prices so low!). (Sorry for taking this a little of the OP) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-take-a-chinese-buffet-to-the-cleaners/149124.md?page=3)