this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
71 points (89.0% liked)
Hacker News
1770 readers
1 users here now
This community serves to share top posts on Hacker News with the wider fediverse.
Rules
0. Keep it legal
- Keep it civil and SFW
- Keep it safe for members of marginalised groups
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
What pisses me off is when the online menu says market price.
I understand it reprinting menus every day is expensive, but if you are updating your point of sale terminals, you can type in the price into the online menu.
In what country is it legal for restaurants to say “market price” instead of showing the prices? So I can never go there?
Where is it illegal? I've seen Market Price listed for various menu items across the US.
Ah, that explains it. Over here in Germany, presumably the entirety of the EU and likelu most of the world this is not allowed:
§ 3 (1), PAngV
Of course, this isn't nearly detailed enough. That's why, for restaurants etc. the following applies:
§ 13 (2), PAngV
Just listing the menu with "market price" would violate both these paragraphs. The following exists as well:
§ 13 (5), PAngV
It would be nice to have consumer protections in place like in the EU.
They will tell you the price when you are there and ask or if you call the restaurant. I've seen Market Price listed for fish and some more rare and exotic things like alligator and rattlesnake presumably because the price to the restaurant can change or the it could be based off the weight of a lobster or something like that.
I’ve been to several countries in the EU and never seen a restaurant without explicit prices.
When I've seen it, the menu item was something like fish or lobster mostly, presumably because the cost to the restaurant can change as the prices as the market change and depending on the size of the fish or lobster. Otherwise, I've only seen it for rare/exotic meats like alligator or rattlesnake.
I mean for things like bottled water or soda, 'market price' should be fine. Those are commonly bought everywhere. Things available locally should mention the current price, can't expect guests to know trends.
Even for commonly sold items this practice is harmful to the consumer:
Information asymmetry shifts the power in any economic activities, and should never be encouraged.
Ah, now that's a straight up scam. Market price should directly mean the price 'printed' on it or the retail price. Anything else needs to be mentioned explicitly