I was reading an article about Darden Restaurants today. Darden recently responded to investor criticism of their mismanagement of Olive Garden restaurants.

Their response included the following passage:

False customer waits at the front door: “Since beginning our focus on this issue over the past year, our false waits are now at historic lows and guest complaints regarding false waits are the lowest they have ever been.”

What are false waits? Are they the same as regular waits? Why are they called false?

A False Wait is just that. Used to give the illusion that the place is so popular that there is an extended wait time for a table.

Gee...this place must be good. Look how long the wait for a table is.

Pretty common in my city for brunch, where most places have a no-reservation policy. Make you want to avoid the restaurant !

The reason restaurants do it when otherwise not full (or in Olive Gardens' case, mostly empty) is to get guests to spend additional money at the bar or gift shop or casino while waiting.

I have no patience to begin with. I usually spend my additional money at the place across the street. If i even suspected a restaurant of pulling that crap, i'd be out of there and a long time gone. Unless i'm down by the beach during high summer, there's too many empty restaurant seats in this town to have to wait for a table. When I see empty tables and a line at the door, I tend to blame it on being short staffed.

Unsuspecting customers can be easily deceived in these establishments, especially with mutiple dining rooms or sub-sections, and even if it's one wide open & big hall by having the tables uncleaned (or slowly) and closing off part of it - marking them as "reserved". There are many tricks in the bag besides the rabbit

While you wait for the next table to become available for seating, those bar drinks are seldom, if ever, complimentary of the management ...

I burst out laughing imagining the kind of people would apply this logic to an Olive Garden.

I wouldn't wait any amount of time at one. I'd much rather use that time walking/driving to someplace better.

I've never really understood why people would want to eat at a place like Olive Garden. The food is neither good nor healthy, and not particularly cheap either. So, it seems that if you want good food, you go elsewhere, if you want healthy food, you go elsewhere, if you want cheap food, you go elsewhere. What's left, besides a false wait?

Nor do I but, but in my small hometown in Ohio that I escaped from a number of years ago, that's eating high on the hog for many people... might even be their special monthly night out. Then again almost everyone I knew during high school who still lives there is now grossly overweight supporting your unhealthy statement.

Frankly I despise all of those chain restaurants in the US in that similar teir. Everything is ridiculously over sauced and over spiced to cover the otherwise drab to rancid taste. When I do go back to my hometown I usually eat at someone's home or a local restaurant. I'm sure the local joints aren't terribly healthy but at least I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off either... oh and no false waits. In larger cities I prefer something ethnic.

Not everyone lives within 30 minutes of a great restaurant.

Free salad and breadsticks. When you're there, you're family.

.....

Sometimes the reason for "false waits" is because the servers have just been double or triple seated. In theory it is preferable to have guests wait for a table than wait to be served once seated.

By the way, The Starboard Value investor presentation regarding Darden is quite an interesting read!

That always puzzled me too. It's happened at several similiar restaurants. You can see that it is half full/half empty and are told to wait 5-10 minutes. Uh, I can see plenty of open tables. The only thing I thought about is that they were waiting for a service person for that section to be ready.

How would you know this if you don't eat there?

Like all chain restaurants, the menu gets revised regularly. The last time I was there, I enjoyed what I ordered. And as a lifetime Weight Watcher, I was not bothered by the "un-healthiness" factor.

The OG atmosphere, OTOH, leaves me desiring something else. No matter where I sit, including the bar area (they had some cute name for it but it's the bar area) seems to be overrun with ill-behaved children.