The 40-Cent Solution

I decided to pop in to Souplantation today.  I was just in the mood for large amounts of food.  To my surprise, it turns out that lunch on Saturday at Souplantation costs more than during the week.  To my greater surprise, for no known reason to Man, it is a whopping 40-cents more.

I could see if it was, say, $1.50 more on Saturday because they had some additional food items.  But that's not the case.  (I asked -- "No, the menu is exactly the same.")  I could see even it a dollar or so more on Saturday because they felt there was a certain caché to dining there on a relaxed Saturday.  (There isn't.)  I could see raising the price several dollars all employees were paid time-and-a-half on Saturday.  (And that makes no sense, since you only would have to juggle schedules so that no one is on overtime.)  But...40 cents??  Where on earth did that come from??

It's obviously not a big deal.  It's just 40 cents.  But that's all the more reason to make it odd.  Why in the world raise your price by a "whopping" (tm) 40 cents on just that one day???  When everything else is apparently exactly the same.

I asked an employee, and she was bewildered by it.  "Maybe it's because of there being a big rush or something." You'd think that they'd like that, I said.  And besides, there was no rush, it was even seemed a touch less busy.  (Side note: I love it when employees don't have a clue what the answer is, and just pull some meaningless answer out of an orifice.)  Was there any difference at all in the menu, I asked?  No, none, it was the same, she said.  I asked the manger -- it didn't change anything, I'd already paid, after all, and was only 40 cents.  But at this point I was just trying to find an answer because it was so odd.   -- and even he didn't have any idea.  He thought it was strange, too, and said that they were always asking upper management themselves for the reason and never were told.

So, it's fine, but bizarre.  Why on earth do you raise the price a whopping 40 cents one day of the week, when the menu doesn't change.  I have to assume there's a reason.  That doesn't mean it's a good one or makes sense, though who knows, maybe it does.  But when even the manager doesn't know and has kept asking, you have to figure that the answer probably is a pretty thin one.  "Thin" as in incomprehensible.

Fairly tasty soup, though.