Some U.S. Restaurants Are Adding A ‘COVID-19 Surcharge’ To Your Bill
Keep an eye on your receipts when ordering at restaurants, bars and other dining establishments, because you may be seeing a strange charge.
Most of the people in the comments section seemed pretty split down the middle on whether it's a good thing or not. One person stated:
Lmao yea if a--holes are requesting people work in a dangerous environment then yea covid tax to cover staffing shortages and supplies costs since it's more expensive currently.
While another said:
If anything where risking getting the rona by going and buying we should be getting discounts
So far, I haven't heard of any local Casper business or any in the entire state of Wyoming doing this yet, but in all honesty, I haven't really been that vigilant either. One thing I can say is that personally speaking, I've been a lot more generous in my tipping. My average has always been about 20%, but I have noticed since the pandemic first hit, I've raised that to 35% (or above).
Maybe that's why the thought of a local business doing this almost hurt my feelings. The Cowboy State has always been better than the national average on tipping for years, so I don't really see a need for hometown businesses to do this. That being said, I've been supporting local, so I'm not really sure how national chain restaurants (like Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc.) are handling the fee, if at all.
Have you noticed any local businesses adding a COVID-19 surcharge? If so, let us know in the comments.