Not Having It Your Way

I was reading an article in the New York Times web site over the weekend which was talking about an increasing number of food service establishments in New York that have given up on customer service and are now producing the food they want to make, rather than what the people buying it want to eat. The Times describes these establishments as “hard-line” or “puritan” in character, explaining that the people who run them have decided that specific options are not appropriate – ketchup does not go with their menu, so they don’t have any, regardless of how many customers ask for it, to take one example. Several of the owners are quoted as saying that one size does not fit all, the customer is not always right, and people who don’t want to eat the specialized offerings they have for sale would probably be better off finding another provider anyway. After all, they point out, it’s New York City; there’s going to be another option within a block or two anyway…

I was immediately taken back to a similar experience I had in Santa Monica, California, when the consulting firm I used to work for was based there. There was a nearby bar and grill operation whose menu specified “No changes, no substitutions, no kidding,” and they weren’t, in fact. The only burger on their menu came with caramelized onions, gruyere cheese, arugula and gorgonzola, and you couldn’t get it with any of these items taken off or anything different added. I don’t mind if a restaurant wants to have a “no substitutions” policy – having to custom-make food slows down the service and can complicate the supply issues in direct proportion to what your customers want you to substitute – but not allowing a customer to leave things off seemed a bit odd to me. After all, I’m effectively asking you to spend less money on ingredients and less time making the thing; it doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request. But the owner (who was also the chef who had created this monstrosity) had other ideas…

Now, I will be the first to agree that the customer ISN’T always right; and that people who want you to do things to the detriment of your business for their personal amusement aren’t really customers in the accept sense anyway. And to some extent I have to agree with the owners quoted in this article: if you don’t want their special take on whatever it is you’re ordering, why are you paying the extra price for it in the first place? But in my specific case, I was there on business, ordered one of the only things on the menu that looked vaguely palatable, and was so irritated at not being able to get what I wanted that I not only refused to ever go near the place again but also made a point of telling everyone I could about the “no changes” policy. I also went around the corner and got a bottle of ketchup, which I proceeded to use on my own food (and wound up sharing with half of the people in the place, who also thought the policy was for the birds). You wouldn’t think New Yorkers would put up with this sort of thing, any more than high-maintenance Californians would be willing to accept not getting their way – and yet, the place in Santa Monica is still there, and the practice seems to be spreading in New York…

I’m not sure there’s an actual business lesson here; given the astronomically high failure rate for new restaurants of all kinds, it seems odd to me that any of them would voluntarily choose to turn away any customers with money. At the same time, the idea of being good enough at what you do that you can play by your own rules is hardly a new concept; nor is the idea that such a level of confidence would be attractive. It should be interesting to see if this business model takes off and spreads to other parts of the world, if it remains a New York specialty, or if the erosion of public and economic pressure eventually does it in…