Well said Bicker! As someone who has grown up in a restaurant family (lots of buffets, catering, etc.), I must say that the biggest amount of food wastage is with children, for a multitude of reasons. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, parents piling food on plates in hopes of picky eaters eating is one (my friend does this, and most food goes in the garbage), kids being allowed to take whatever they want, kids touching food that then has to be thrown in the garbage or just plain big eaters. Just discussed this with my family the other day as we have all extremes in our family, from small to big eaters! I swear my niece will eat 50 lbs of olives, cheese and Mortadella if you let her and she's a very skinny 6 year old!
Bottom line is that this age category was obviously a problem area for Disney, so by raising prices, they are probably hoping that 1) They will see more profit and 2) They will see less wastage. If you are paying full price for a meal for a 9 or 10 year old, you may be more apt to closely monitor eating habits in regards to food wastage - I have actually seen this work since I've been around restaurants my entire life! Not trying to cause an argument with this statement, but I'm sure many of you have piled food on a plate for a child in the hopes that he/she may eat it, knowing full well that they probably would not. I'm wondering how much thought went into food wastage since you weren't paying very much money? My family and I have talked about this many times - customers waste tremendous amounts of food and expect the restaurant to "eat" (pardon the pun - LOL!) the costs, but when a legitimate price increase has to be made, all heck breaks loose!
As someone else mentioned, Disney is a well run corporation for a reason; therefore I'm pretty confident they didn't just arbitrarily raise prices - they've more than likely been studying eating patterns, observing buffet wastage, etc. that is what they are in the business to do! Lastly, we also have to figure that since they didn't make an all-around buffet increase for all age categories (unless this is also coming), that this must have been the area of most importance to them - whether it be to get in line with theme park ages or not.
Lastly, everyone is forgetting that most people eat at buffets for one reason, and one reason only, and that is to load up their plates! Sure Disney buffets are not cheap, but buffets are precarious to begin with - I myself eat a few dollars worth of food, but I've seen some families eat more food than I eat in a week! Therefore, one needs to decide if a buffet is right for their family period and with the price increase, this may not be feasible for some. Only time will tell!
As mentioned, everyone needs to do what is right for their family, but to suggest that Disney is thinking of each and every individual family need is silly. Anyone who has kids knows that eating and kids is a silly and crazy topic to begin with - whether you have a picky eater or a big eater like I do!
Happy eating to all, wherever that may be! Tiger
and "whatever" in teen slang speech means FU...
This may be true in some cases, but kids go through stages and tastes change over the years. My oldest used to love vegetables and would eat almost exclusively, now he'll hardly touch them. He used to hate meat, but now loves it. My younger loves both. One loves some ethnic foods, the other different. Plus, just wait until they go to school and they have pizza two or three times a week. My point, none of us are perfect parents and shouldn't judge or be judged, esp. over food choices.
