Should consumers who eat more at an all-you-can-eat buffet or those who wear a larger size piece of clothing be expected to have to pay more than those who eat less and wear smaller sizes?
Variations on these two questions continue to arrive in emails from readers. They’re also on online discussion boards where someone is incensed that someone is getting more for the same price.
In all cases, it’s up to the retail establishment or restaurant to be clear with prospective customers about the rules of engagement.
Straying from the food or clothing examples for a moment, let’s look at buying a piece of furniture online. Often, you might find a chest of drawers for sale and see a price for it that seems attractive. The item also comes in different finishes and colors. When you click on the finish or color you want, you notice the item is several dollars more expensive. No reason is given for the price variation. It could be based on consumer demand. Perhaps the finish you want costs more to apply. Maybe it’s simply the whim of the retailer. Even if it was the lower price that drew your interest, as long as the retailer is clear about price when you choose the particular item in the style you want, that retailer has done nothing wrong. Hidden prices that are charged after the fact are bad. Upfront prices that a retailer makes known from the outset are fair game.
For all-you-can-eat buffets, a similar rule applies. As long as the restaurant is clear on the rules of the buffet, there’s no harm done – aside from perhaps the food consumed. Some establishments place a time limit on their all-you-can-eat buffet and insist that you can only partake for a set number of hours. Again, that might not seem like it’s really “all-you-can-eat” but as long as the restaurant makes those rules clear to the diners from the outset, it’s done nothing wrong. That some people can eat more at one of these buffets than others has more to do with appetite than fairness. If you’re someone who doesn’t like to eat a lot of food in one sitting, that should be your guide in deciding whether these buffets are really a bargain.
The clothing size conundrum likely falls more into the camp of a retailer deciding that the extra money it costs for materials for a sweater or other garment is nothing compared to the labor and overhead that goes into making and stocking all items. Typically, it costs more to make the clothes than it does to buy the material to make them. Or at least that’s the common argument made. But again, as long as the retailer is clear on its pricing from the outset, there’s no deception involved. Sure, some items might be overpriced for all sizes offered, but consumers have the capacity to decide when something simply costs too much for the perceived value.
In all cases, the right thing is for anyone selling something to be as clear as possible in how much the item will cost the consumer. Consumers do the right thing by deciding how much they are willing to pay for something or when they simply should walk away.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.
Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.
(c) 2026 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
No comments:
Post a Comment