US restaurant introduces COVID-19 surcharge to tackle increasing costs

A restaurant in the US has introduced a surcharge to tackle increasing costs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Goog’s Pub & Grub in Michigan is introduced an extra $1 “Covid surcharge” on May 7 to help the business tackle rising costs during the pandemic.

The establishment, which is currently only open for takeout, said that the surcharge was a way for them to be transparent with their customers about rising food costs during the pandemic – a situation worsened by the fact that the restaurant can’t currently sell alcohol.

Goog’s Pub & Grub explains the surcharge in the video below: 

Owner Brad White said that the surcharge is a temporary measure that will hopefully enable the business to stay afloat during the pandemic.

In an interview with Fox 17, he said: “We’re just trying to pay the bills so we can stay open until this is over. Other places are just raising their price and not telling you.

“Takeout averages about 82 cents more per meal just to put that meal out cause you’re not just putting it on a plate or tray and washing that again. It’s the silverware, the boxes.”

Brad continued: “When this started, we were running about $50 for a case of burgers and then it was up to $55, $62, $66, $72 last week and they just told me next week it’ll probably be up to $88 a case, so almost double what we were paying.

“It’s going to be a while before the food industry, the suppliers catch up. If the industry’s prices are going to stay, it’s going to affect people down the road just as much as it is now.”

Brad and general manager Palmer White said that they don’t know other restaurants in the area who have introduced a surcharge, but they expect that they won’t be the only business to do it. They plan to remove it as soon as things go back to normal.

Palmer said: “It’s just all these extra costs added onto each plate and we don’t have as many avenues to bring in extra profit in other places.

“We’re not doing this to get rich. We just want to see our staff is taken care of, make sure people are fed, make sure our lights are on.”

Per the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, at the time of writing, there have been 1, 417, 889  confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the US, and a death toll of 85,906.

This article originally appeared on VT.co