It's Time To Toot Your Horn About The Deal You Offer

Whatever you think of the Zagat restaurant surveys, you've got to tip your hat to the endurance of the little red rectangular booklets. Zagat Survey celebrates its 25th anniversary this year (yeah, I know, where does the time go?). In a recent interview, Tim Zagat, who created the publication with

One of the biggest surprises the New Yorker discussed was prices. While the cost of nearly everything else has skyrocketed, the cost of dining out has not. Since 1982, he says, the average cost at the same restaurant rose from $29.23 to $50.32, which represents a 2.62% annual rate. For that same period, inflation rose at an annual rate of 3.12%. Prices at restaurants have consistently been below the consumer price index for 25 years, says Zagat.

This is a point most of your customers don't get, and the press may be a large part of the problem. Flashy, wildly expensive new restaurants get a lot of the ink, but the restaurants people eat in every day have kept their prices very reasonable. Zagat says these restaurants recognize that dining out for many is a necessity dictated by their busy schedules. And most people choose to do so at places he calls BATH, better alternative than home. "These restaurants have to produce food at a price that is competitive to what it would cost people to buy at prepared food places or to make food at home," he says.