{"id":1712,"date":"2012-01-18T06:47:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T11:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2012-01-18T06:59:06","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T11:59:06","slug":"the-placebo-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com\/index.php\/the-placebo-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"The placebo restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Peter Seebach<\/a>, I like this idea very much:<\/p>\n

This leads to a concept: A restaurant called Placebo. What do they sell? A 50% discount. Which is to say: The entire menu is framed with everything at about twice the price you\u2019d otherwise expect to pay for it, but then your check gets a 50% discount. So say you have a steak roughly of the same quality as the $13 steaks at the Outback Steakhouse. The menu says $26, your bill when it arrives has a 50% discount. But everything you order feels<\/strong> expensive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Ticket,<\/a>
\"Creative<\/a> photo<\/a> credit: ayelienne<\/a><\/small><\/center><\/p>\n

And a bit more:<\/p>\n

For extra credit, you could do interviews and arrange waiters to adopt personalities which suit the customers. Someone comes in who likes Good Wholesome Cooking? We can set you up with a waiter who thinks fancy food is ridiculous. Or, we can set you up with a waiter who is a total food snob, and you can have a wonderful meal knowing that the waiter is missing out on Good Wholesome Cooking. Your call.<\/p>\n

The basic idea here is\u2026 people aren\u2019t going out to eat for the food, they\u2019re going out for the experience. Why not sell the experience as-such as the product? And thanks to some lovely research done on placebos in the 60s or so, we know that in some cases they work even if you know it\u2019s a placebo<\/strong> \u2014 they\u2019ve been shown to treat depression effectively even when explained.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Originally posted on Marginal Revolution<\/em> – click to see comments and suggestions.<\/a><\/p>\n

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