The buffet death spiral
Anyone seen this happen in a place?....
Restaurant that's not exclusively a buffet place starts offering a buffet as an option, perhaps for lunch.
Buffet becomes popular.
Restaurant raises prices rather than compromise on food offered. Also to keep buffet from losing money.
Some people decide it's gotten too pricey, others still like it but make more of a point to bring an appetite.
Prices get raised again rather than compromise on food.
Customers decide it's "serious eating" and they really need to bring an appetite if they get the buffet.
Prices raised again, driving away more people but attracting or retaining the big-appetite folks.
Prices raised yet again (rinse and repeat).
* * *
A buffet at one of my favorite places, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, will end in just over a week. It's a privately owned "chain" with limited locations across the country, and one of the two brothers in charge from the founding family made his first visit out to that location in 15 years and ordered the plug to be pulled (in the name of uniformity across the chain, or something like that).
Most locations don't offer it, but this one had done so at lunchtime Monday-Saturday for I'd guess close to 15 years. They had AYCE cold shrimp of a good size (would guess 20 count), 2 kinds of salad, gumbo, crawfish etouffee, dirty rice, chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, red beans and rice, fried shrimp, salmon filets, banana pudding, s'mores, 2 other kinds of desserts, and other things I'm forgetting. All of a high ingredient standard (same as on the a la carte, except a different roux on the crawfish).
When they introduced it, it was $9.95 some 15 or so years ago, but the price has crept up repeatedly to where it's now $24.95. Which is well out of lunch price range for many people (though their other items also had gone up a good bit). I'd gone less frequently with all the increases (maybe 3-4 times a year) and made sure to bring the appetite, and I'm sure others played it the same. In its heyday you had to get there before 11:30 or wait in a longish line, but lately there's much less line but still always customers, at least when I'd gone. They used to offer it until 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, but a few years back went to strictly 11-2.
I have mixed feelings about the demise. Had always eaten too much when there and it was a menace to health, but at 3-4 times a year it had to be treat-level, anyway.
I think it suffered the death spiral, though. But to the restaurant's credit, they never cut the food quality in all the years they had it.