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Do local restaurants pass along credit-card fees as a separate line item? —Wendy R., St. Charles
A similar question was asked several months ago regarding additional charges to guest checks in St. Charles, which turned out to be legitimate, mandatory tourism taxes. This questioner noticed that credit-card fees are sometimes added to guest checks (for instance, at two restaurants in St. Charles) and wanted to know whether the practice was widespread. The answer is no, but as food and labor prices continue to increase, that policy may be changing.
We contacted representatives from Hendrick’s BBQ and Gingham’s Homestyle Restaurant, the two restaurants in question. Hendrick’s charges a 2 percent fee to guests paying by credit card. The policy is stated on the front desk. The manager on duty said that unrelenting price increases necessitated the policy, which began a few months ago, in lieu of raising menu prices.
Craig Uttendorf, owner of Gingham’s, says that ever since the restaurant reopened after the pandemic shutdown, a discount of 2.75 percent was offered to guests paying in cash (Gingham’s calls it a “cash savings”) and is so noted on the bottom of every guest check. (The restaurant also has an ATM machine for anyone preferring to pay in cash.) Uttendorf adds that credit-card fees at the 24-hour restaurant amount to $180,000 per year, an “insane amount” equal to his lease payment.
“The cash savings program allows me to pay my employees a living wage and offer benefits,” he says, adding that there has been "almost negligible opposition" to the program. “We’ve been serving 55,000 guests per month for over a year now,” he says, “and that number has been going up and not down.”
Stanley Browne, owner of Robust in Webster Groves, says the financial burden has increased as more restaurant customers pay with plastic (the case with approximately 95 percent of transactions at Robust nowadays). “If I could pass on the $50,000 we pay in credit card fees—which I’ve considered doing—that would go a long way to paying higher wages and increasing health care coverage,” he says.
Uttendorf is on the same page. “I know of restaurants that charge a ‘5 percent employee welfare’ fee," he says. "Whatever you call it, in order for us to become better employers, the money has to come from somewhere.”
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