Minnesota cafe add minimum wage surcharge

[Quantum Windbag]

Idiots take offense.

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs.

Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. Instead of adding it on to food prices, he added the “minimum wage fee” — the only restaurant known to do so in Minnesota so far.

It’s set off a firestorm of debate on Facebook and in the east metro community, with one customer calling the cafe Wednesday to demand a refund and others taking to Facebook to encourage people to boycott the roadside cafe.

“We’re shocked at what’s going on,” manager Colin Orcutt said of the public response. “We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do.”

It’s not the only restaurant responding to the wage hike.

Blue Plate Co., which owns eight restaurants in the Twin Cities and has about 650 workers, says the wage increase and rising expenses because of the health care law will cost the company $1.25 million, prompting it to increase prices and add a fee to servers when a credit card is used to pay a tip.

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

At the Stillwater cafe, which sits at the edge of the downtown and near its historic caves, customers filed in Wednesday for the cafe’s signature burgers or breakfast meals. Despite online boycott threats, business has actually increased so far this week, Orcutt said.

Stillwater cafe faces heat for adding 'minimum wage fee' to tab | Star Tribune

 

[PredFan]

Good for them!

 

[norwegen]

All the crybabies complaining about the surcharge must not care that without it, some of the employees might lose their jobs or get their hours reduced.

Liberals are so ironical, ain't they.

 

[Rikurzhen]

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

Where do these liberals think the money is going to come from if not from consumers?

Every time I spend money in a restaurant I'm always facing an "me versus them" mentality - I want to pay less and the restaurant keeps trying to get me to spend more by sending over desert carts and the waiters always suggesting additional dishes.

Sheesh, what a bunch of maroons.

 

[Care4all]

add the total of 35 cents to the price of the 10 items ordered on the average check for a table of 3....

3.5 cents higher per average item ordered...would not have even been noticed....

the restaurant CLEARLY CHOSE this route to express his political position...surely he can stand the heat, from what he created?

 

[Againsheila]

Idiots take offense.

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs.

Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. Instead of adding it on to food prices, he added the “minimum wage fee” — the only restaurant known to do so in Minnesota so far.

It’s set off a firestorm of debate on Facebook and in the east metro community, with one customer calling the cafe Wednesday to demand a refund and others taking to Facebook to encourage people to boycott the roadside cafe.

“We’re shocked at what’s going on,” manager Colin Orcutt said of the public response. “We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do.”

It’s not the only restaurant responding to the wage hike.

Blue Plate Co., which owns eight restaurants in the Twin Cities and has about 650 workers, says the wage increase and rising expenses because of the health care law will cost the company $1.25 million, prompting it to increase prices and add a fee to servers when a credit card is used to pay a tip.

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

At the Stillwater cafe, which sits at the edge of the downtown and near its historic caves, customers filed in Wednesday for the cafe’s signature burgers or breakfast meals. Despite online boycott threats, business has actually increased so far this week, Orcutt said.

Stillwater cafe faces heat for adding 'minimum wage fee' to tab | Star Tribune

My only problem is it doesn't mention when people find out about the fee. If they are up front and notify customers of the fee BEFORE they order, I have no problems with it.

 

[Againsheila]

All the crybabies complaining about the surcharge must not care that without it, some of the employees might lose their jobs or get their hours reduced.

Liberals are so ironical, ain't they.

I don't think there's a whole lot complaining about it. I saw a news clip and everyone seemed to think it was okay. Even the guy who didn't even know the fee was there.

My only problem is there is no mention of when they tell the customers of the new fee. If they know upfront, I have no problems with it. If I didn't find out about it until I got my bill, I would probably be upset.

 

[Noomi]

Not a very good Cafe if he can't afford to pay his employees a decent wage.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Not a very good Cafe if he can't afford to pay his employees a decent wage.

He is paying them a decent wage, plus they get tips.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Wow what stupid owners

 

[Two Thumbs]

Idiots take offense.

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs.

Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. Instead of adding it on to food prices, he added the “minimum wage fee” — the only restaurant known to do so in Minnesota so far.

It’s set off a firestorm of debate on Facebook and in the east metro community, with one customer calling the cafe Wednesday to demand a refund and others taking to Facebook to encourage people to boycott the roadside cafe.

“We’re shocked at what’s going on,” manager Colin Orcutt said of the public response. “We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do.”

It’s not the only restaurant responding to the wage hike.

Blue Plate Co., which owns eight restaurants in the Twin Cities and has about 650 workers, says the wage increase and rising expenses because of the health care law will cost the company $1.25 million, prompting it to increase prices and add a fee to servers when a credit card is used to pay a tip.

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

At the Stillwater cafe, which sits at the edge of the downtown and near its historic caves, customers filed in Wednesday for the cafe’s signature burgers or breakfast meals. Despite online boycott threats, business has actually increased so far this week, Orcutt said.

Stillwater cafe faces heat for adding 'minimum wage fee' to tab | Star Tribune

THAT right there proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that leftist have no idea how a business works.

None
At
All

 

[Two Thumbs]

Who gets bent out of shape for having to pay for their ideas?

liberals

You "people" really don't know that things cost money

 

[Missourian]

This makes me

Everyone wants to pay people more...until they personally have to SEE that it is they who are paying for it.

If the cafe HIDES the increase...that's A-OK...but do it out in the open and they are outraged.

Hysterical.

 

[Rikurzhen]

This makes me

Everyone wants to pay people more...until they personally have to SEE that it is they who are paying for it.

If the cafe HIDES the increase...that's A-OK...but do it out in the open and they are outraged.

Hysterical.

You mean like this:

What’s happened is that a new rule by the U.S. Department of Transportation has taken effect requiring carriers to include all mandatory taxes and fees in their fares upfront.​

 

[auditor0007]

Idiots take offense.

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs.

Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. Instead of adding it on to food prices, he added the “minimum wage fee” — the only restaurant known to do so in Minnesota so far.

It’s set off a firestorm of debate on Facebook and in the east metro community, with one customer calling the cafe Wednesday to demand a refund and others taking to Facebook to encourage people to boycott the roadside cafe.

“We’re shocked at what’s going on,” manager Colin Orcutt said of the public response. “We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do.”

It’s not the only restaurant responding to the wage hike.

Blue Plate Co., which owns eight restaurants in the Twin Cities and has about 650 workers, says the wage increase and rising expenses because of the health care law will cost the company $1.25 million, prompting it to increase prices and add a fee to servers when a credit card is used to pay a tip.

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

At the Stillwater cafe, which sits at the edge of the downtown and near its historic caves, customers filed in Wednesday for the cafe’s signature burgers or breakfast meals. Despite online boycott threats, business has actually increased so far this week, Orcutt said.

Stillwater cafe faces heat for adding 'minimum wage fee' to tab | Star Tribune

Some will cheer, some will sneer. Personally, I would just never eat at this restaurant again.

 

[auditor0007]

All the crybabies complaining about the surcharge must not care that without it, some of the employees might lose their jobs or get their hours reduced.

Liberals are so ironical, ain't they.

I have no issue with them raising their prices if they need to, but I do have an issue with them charging in this manner. They are a bunch of pussy whiners and would not get my business. I'm so sick of companies who could give a rats ass about their employees. Those minimum wage employees work their asses off and are rarely appreciated.

 

[auditor0007]

add the total of 35 cents to the price of the 10 items ordered on the average check for a table of 3....

3.5 cents higher per average item ordered...would not have even been noticed....

the restaurant CLEARLY CHOSE this route to express his political position...surely he can stand the heat, from what he created?

Yup, business owner being a complete dickhead. Hope the restaurant goes belly up.

 

[SmedlyButler]

Idiots take offense.

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs.

Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. Instead of adding it on to food prices, he added the “minimum wage fee” — the only restaurant known to do so in Minnesota so far.

It’s set off a firestorm of debate on Facebook and in the east metro community, with one customer calling the cafe Wednesday to demand a refund and others taking to Facebook to encourage people to boycott the roadside cafe.

“We’re shocked at what’s going on,” manager Colin Orcutt said of the public response. “We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do.”

It’s not the only restaurant responding to the wage hike.

Blue Plate Co., which owns eight restaurants in the Twin Cities and has about 650 workers, says the wage increase and rising expenses because of the health care law will cost the company $1.25 million, prompting it to increase prices and add a fee to servers when a credit card is used to pay a tip.

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

At the Stillwater cafe, which sits at the edge of the downtown and near its historic caves, customers filed in Wednesday for the cafe’s signature burgers or breakfast meals. Despite online boycott threats, business has actually increased so far this week, Orcutt said.

Stillwater cafe faces heat for adding 'minimum wage fee' to tab | Star Tribune

has to raise it's prices to cover increased costs but the way this business went about it does kind of make the employees the goats in the affair. Makes me wonder if this statement is sincere;

“We’re shocked at what’s going on,” manager Colin Orcutt said of the public response. “We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do.”

Would have been better to leave his employees out of it and direct his protest at the legislators who passed the law more directly. And I'm curious....how many times has he raised the price of a burger since the last time the minimum wage went up? I would suspect that in the 10 years since that happened he's had to raise prices more than once. If so what kind of protest did he stage over the increase in the cost of doing business at those times? But hey, don't mind me, I'm just thinking out loud here.

 

[Agit8r]

Idiots take offense.

A small cafe in Stillwater has thrown itself into the big battle over Minnesota’s minimum wage increases, inundating the cafe with dozens of phone calls and online comments this week after it tacked on a 35-cent fee to meal tabs.

Oasis Cafe owner Craig Beemer said the fee is needed to offset the 75-cent wage hike that took effect Aug. 1, the first time Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased in a decade. Even with only half a dozen servers, Beemer says it will cost him $10,000 more a year to pay servers $8 an hour instead of the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. Instead of adding it on to food prices, he added the “minimum wage fee” — the only restaurant known to do so in Minnesota so far.

It’s set off a firestorm of debate on Facebook and in the east metro community, with one customer calling the cafe Wednesday to demand a refund and others taking to Facebook to encourage people to boycott the roadside cafe.

“We’re shocked at what’s going on,” manager Colin Orcutt said of the public response. “We’re all appalled at the response for just protecting his employees. We’re just doing what we have to do.”

It’s not the only restaurant responding to the wage hike.

Blue Plate Co., which owns eight restaurants in the Twin Cities and has about 650 workers, says the wage increase and rising expenses because of the health care law will cost the company $1.25 million, prompting it to increase prices and add a fee to servers when a credit card is used to pay a tip.

“We believe that the industry is overreacting,” Wade Luneburg of the MN State Council of UNITE HERE Unions told the Star Tribune this week. “Putting [minimum wage] fees on tickets and passing the cost on to consumers directly is strange at best, and creates an ‘us against them’ mentality while ordering dinner.”

At the Stillwater cafe, which sits at the edge of the downtown and near its historic caves, customers filed in Wednesday for the cafe’s signature burgers or breakfast meals. Despite online boycott threats, business has actually increased so far this week, Orcutt said.

Stillwater cafe faces heat for adding 'minimum wage fee' to tab | Star Tribune

THAT right there proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that leftist have no idea how a business works.

None
At
All

My understanding of any business that caters to the general public, is that one should never alienate a portion of ones customer base by putting one's political views on their receipt.

 

[auditor0007]

This makes me

Everyone wants to pay people more...until they personally have to SEE that it is they who are paying for it.

If the cafe HIDES the increase...that's A-OK...but do it out in the open and they are outraged.

Hysterical.

The minimum wage there has not been raised in ten years, and businesses complain when they finally do increase the minimum. Probably the first raise any of those workers have seen in ten years.