The Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association says it’s monitoring a disturbing trend in restaurants across the province: customers skipping out on paying for meals — sometimes leaving bills of hundreds of dollars unpaid.
Shaun Jeffrey, the association’s CEO, told 680 CJOB’s The Start that many restaurants are still struggling to recover from the lingering financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is setting them back even further.
“It’s definitely up in frequency, but it’s also up in audacity of value,” Jeffrey said.
“That value is so monumental, both to the person working and to the restaurant — it’s a lot of money to swallow if you’re breaking even or not even doing that.”
Dining and dashing has always been an unfortunate reality of the restaurant industry, Jeffrey said, but the practice has exploded in recent months, with some restaurants taking a bath on hefty bills every few days.
“When I was operating restaurants, you might see one, two a month, and some places are seeing two and three a week,” he said.
“One hundred, $200 walkouts are not unheard of anymore, and it’s really playing heavily on an industry that’s still kind of struggling.”
Silver Heights Restaurant owner Tony Siwicki said increased dine and dashes are affecting an already-hurting industry, as restaurants crawling out of pandemic debt are being hit with another blow to their bottom line. “(It) really takes a number on us,” he said.
Some restaurants are asking for credit card information upfront or charging a fee for no-show reservations, but most say the onus to cover the cost shouldn’t be on workers.
Larry Chornoboy said he doesn’t agree with restaurants asking staff to pony up some cash to cover walk-outs.
“It’s really not fair, it’s a tough gig, the restaurant industry right now,” he told Global News.
Some think establishments should ask patrons to pre-pay for their meals, but Loya Steinwandt, who is visiting from Camrose, Alta. isn’t so sure about the concept.
“I have no idea what I’m gonna order … who’s got my card? Who’s got my number?” she said. “I wouldn’t support it.”
Chornoboy said if taxi companies can demand payment prior to service, so can restaurants.
“Uber is doing it … so why shouldn’t Hy’s or any other restaurant in the city,” he said.
As a victim of fraudulent charges on her credit card, Adriana Cesario said she doesn’t feel it’s necessary to pre-authorize her credit card when dining.
“I would totally understand that you would need a credit card to require a booking, but charging a card before you’ve actually experienced the restaurant, I wouldn’t do that,” she said.
Jeffrey said despite how people feel about being charged before eating versus after, dine and dashes are becoming extremely frustrating for everyone — to the point where even other customers are getting involved to stop perpetrators from taking advantage.
“Customers are even stepping up and saying, ‘I don’t think so,’ and that’s really nice,” he said.
For Siwicki, he said despite the hard times the thefts don’t deter him from continuing to run his business.
“99.9 per cent of the people are fantastic and here to have a good time … it’s that 1.5 per cent that causes an issue.”
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