Facing higher costs to keep workers and customers safe, suppressed demand for an indefinite period, a cap on the number of customers that can be served — all these factors have led some businesses to impose a coronavirus-related fee aimed at getting customers to share some of their expenses.
While some businesses are cutting services and jobs, the stakes of adding surcharges can be higher for small businesses, which tend to operate on thinner profit margins and smaller cash reserves, as they reopen after weeks of shut down and are made to confront a cost-revenue ratio that is increasingly out of whack, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Billy Yuzar, the owner of Kiko Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Lounge in West Plains, Missouri, opted to add a surcharge to diners’ tabs as a simple way to compensate for higher food prices at his restaurant, than raising menu prices, because he said he could update the fee in the business’s point-of-sale computer in one step.
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Regular customers were supportive, he said, but when a photo
