Restaurant Menus, Dollar Signs, and Spending

A new study by the Center for Hospitality Research at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration reveals that the way in which prices are displayed on restaurant menus has an impact on the amount of spending by diners.

Dollarsign Working with St. Andrew's Café at the Culinary Institute of America, the Cornell research team tested responses to menus with three different price formats: dollars and cents numerical format with a dollar sign ($00.00), a numerical format without a dollar sign (00.), and scripted prices (zero dollars).

Interestingly, they found that diners with the menus without dollar signs spent more on their meals than those with with menus using dollar signs:

Contrary to expectations, guests given the numeral-only menu spent significantly more than those who received a menu with prices showing a dollar sign or those whose menus had prices written out in words. Psychological theory, by contrast, predicted that the scripted format would draw higher sales. Although these findings may apply only to lunch at this particular restaurant, they indicate that menu-price formats do influence customers’ spending, both in terms of total check and spending per cover.

Via Consumerist.

 
Posted by Josh Friedland on Jun 11, 2009 in Business, Dining Out, Science, What's Fresh | Link | | Print this page | Share This
 


 

Comments

Jun 16, 2009 3:17:14 PM
Posted By: wayne

If you read the study you'll see that their findings are highly inconclusive and they call for more research in this topic.

 

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