Saudi restaurants: Hot new menus, flaming prices

AT THE END of January 2012, the Ministry of Commerce issued a decision to abolish the service charge imposed by restaurants in addition to the prices of items on the menu, and the ministry gave a two months’ notice to the food industry providers to remove the extra fees from the menus.
Certainly this decision is in the interest of the consumer and in line with global customs, which leaves the customers to assess the level of service themselves, and reward the waiter to the rate of 10% to 20% maximum. Some countries including the United States and the United Arab Emirates consider these added fees to be illegal, while other countries such as the United Kingdom recognize the service charges, but ensure the right of the consumer of non-payment or reducing it in the event of dissatisfaction with service. But the current situation in Saudi Arabia makes us wonder: Have we benefited from the cancellation of the service charges in restaurants?
Saudi newspapers’ review of the overall situation since the launching of the decision to cancel the service charge after the deadline of 60 days indicates that the restaurants not only canceled service charges, which were estimated previously in the range of 15%, but actually doubled the value of those charges within the new menu prices.
A week before the deadline, specifically on March 22, Asharq Alawsat newspaper published a statement by Nasser Atawaim, president of the Consumer Protection Association about the “near the release of a list of penalties and fines on restaurants and cafes in Saudi Arabia that have not committed to implementing the decision of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry regarding the cancellation of the service charges imposed.” He further explained that the ministry has asked the municipalities to keep copies of price lists before the implementation of the new law, and to be vigilant of raising prices after the deadline.
After the deadline Asharq Alawsat newspaper published on April 12, a story with the title: “Trade: Leaves the consumer the choice to accept restaurant menu prices” stating that the Consumer Protection Association has denied any move to impose prices on the providers of such services, leaving the option for the consumer as there are many alternatives!
In fact, people soon realized that the decision to cancel service charges led to the increase in the price menus in excess of the value of service charges. An investigation conducted by Al-Madinah newspaper. In the report, which was published on April 24, under the title: “The increase offsets the cancellation of the service charges from menus.. And citizens are demanding price control,” the report also pointed out that the deletion of service charges have raised the prices of meals in the city of Jeddah by 25 percent.
In the past month I made a number of observations in several restaurants, where I saw my favorite restaurant offer a new menu poor in quality and free from images and there are no changes in terms of meals other than the prices which have increased by as much as 25%. I also visited another restaurant that canceled the service charges while reducing the number of employees, thus providing slow service by surly waiters and it took almost an hour for our meals to be served. In yet another restaurant they replaced high quality butter provided with appetizers with lower quality butter and added more water and sugar to fresh juices. A world-famous restaurant adopted by creating new dishes at a higher cost.
The bottom line is, there is no doubt that the decision of the Ministry of Commerce not to impose any additional charges to the prices of food and beverages was intended to protect the consumer, but the way of dealing with the resolution reflected negatively on the consumer, increased restaurant prices and made service worse, all of which happen before the eyes of the Consumer Protection Association that seems to stand idly by after confirmation by its chief executive recently that they only have twenty employees most of them collaborators, and that the budget allocated to it does not exceed five million riyals!