New Buffet Charging Scheme
Here in Austin there are several buffet places. There are the Chinese food buffet’s that serve all-you-can-eat Chinese food, and places like Sirloin Stockade that generally serve all-you-can-eat American type food (except there’s no hot dogs or hamburgers). These places generally charge by person and age, so kids under 12 pay less than an adult. They aren’t especially cheap, but the beauty of it is that you can eat like a heifer until you feel as if you’ve gotten your money’s worth.
There’s been some drawbacks due to this type of business model. For instance, in Houma, Louisiana, two large gentlemen were reportedly kicked out of a Chinese buffet because they were eating too much. Another incident had to do with parents being upset because they were paying by their kids height rather than their age.
Obviously the thing to do is to pay by weight. Weigh people when they come in, weigh them when they leave, and charge them the difference. The only drawback I could see to that is the bathrooms. It’s against to law to close them off, but you’d still have to worry about people who purge, at either end.
May 1, 2008 at 9:43 am
Sounds like an idea in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. There was a planet that got so many visitors that planetary erosion as an issue. So each person was weighed when they came into the planet, and when they left the planet.
Here’s an excerpt:
Bethselamin is a fabulously beautiful planet which attracts billions of tourists each year. Unsurprisingly, erosion is a primary concern of the local authorities. Their solution is to remove any net imbalance between the amount of matter eaten and the amount subsequently excreted through amputative surgery. Thus it is vitally important to get a receipt after every trip to the lavatory while on the planet.
May 1, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. This looks like another series I’ll have to re-buy and re-read