We all know that prices have gone up, yet in many cases we don’t realize how high it is until we get our receipt. Hidden fees have become more common over the last few years and restaurants & retailers are using them regularly. Sticker shock has already caused consumers to close their wallets and now it can be hard to understand just how much something is going to cost at checkout. Hidden fees have the potential to permanently drive a customer away and no business can afford that right now. The situation has become so dire that even the federal government is getting involved.

Delivery fees, convenience fees, surcharges, it all has the same goal; to nickel and dime consumers without adding to the sticker price. The hope is that consumers won’t notice the fee tacked onto their bill will be so close to checkout that they won’t do anything about it. Despite the quick buck for the company, it could have longstanding negative effects. Restaurants can be some of the worst offenders for this practice, yet retailers and grocery stores are following suit as well. Raising prices is always a balancing act and companies have had to walk the tightrope recently. Going too high too often pushes consumers away, yet failing to raise prices could halt pandemic recovery and future profits. Many companies, particularly in foodservice, have reported that profits have risen this year while traffic has fallen. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when many of them are raising prices by 5% every six months. Consumers are turned away by these increases and hidden fees will not be the salve that changes this.

Delivery and shipping fees have been a point of contention since the pandemic. Supply chain challenges have raised costs and demand for delivery has increased tenfold. The higher demand has brought increased fees from places like DoorDash or Uber Eats and companies trying to keep up with the delivery pipeline of Amazon. The most recent company to do this is a restaurant management point of sale software that will be adding a 99-cent surcharge to orders. What makes matter worse is that this surcharge will not be noted on the receipt, it will be hidden in the taxes and fees line. This sneaky behavior is predatory and designed to squeeze each customer while leaving them mystified as to why the price is higher than they initially thought. Additional fees and surcharges are often justified as a way to provide employees with healthcare or to maintain the high quality of products. These excuses often ring hollow, and consumers are only going to put up with it for so long.

The federal government has taken an interest in these high surcharges and is actively pursuing methods to curtail the practices. President Joe Biden has been urging Congress to pass the Junk Fee Protection Act which could prevent companies from hiding fees until the end of the purchase and potentially stimulate the economy. Businesses risk alienating their consumers if these fees continue to grow and become more difficult to detect. Prices for goods and services continue to rise and trust between businesses and consumers is at a breaking point. We could see the demand for delivery drop and businesses that are upfront about pricing have an opportunity to sway consumers. Something will change in the near future; we just aren’t sure what it will be.