Give Customers Value for Their Money
There`s a little bar/cafe that started up here in my town a few years ago. They had the absolute best hamburgers that I`ve tasted in Guatemala and were very low priced. You could get a plate with a steak, salad, guacamole, beans and potatoes for about $3, and a full combo with a hamburger, drink and fries cost less than just a Big Mac on its own at McDonalds.
We used to frequent this place quite often when I was pregnant and working still. It was fast, good food and cheap. But they were also very successful and soon raised their prices. No one really minded, the quality and convenience was excellent. We knew the owners, the mother worked in the kitchen cooking, the father dealt with the front of the house and the two daughters waited tables while their son ran deliveries.
Then things took a turn for the worse. See, the success of this business was such that they decided to expand. Soon, they had three other locations in small towns around Antigua. The family no longer did the cooking or waiting, they were busy managing. The prices went up again. And again. Now they were double the cost. The portions got smaller. Instead of the nice slab of steak with all the fixings, you now get a tiny piece of meat the size of your palm, half a plate of lettuce with a few shreds of tomato on top and a dollop of beans. What used to be a massive plate of fries is now double the price and half the size. The new cooks don`t care much about the food and it frequently comes out burnt or even bad, having sat out too long.
We don`t eat at this restaurant anymore. Most people only go there to drink now, the food is worse than what you would find at a street vendor stall and I`ve actually gotten sick from it a couple of times! Where the bar used to be full at noon, with families eating and chatting with the family, now there are only a couple of early drunks, dealt with by surly waitresses.
The moral of this story? Raising your prices isn`t a bad thing . . . but give your customers value for their money.
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