Editorial: Charging more for the holidays

Kim Gillespie

As a tourist city we approach public holidays in a different manner to similar sized towns.

Not only do our retailers face the prospect of being forced to close by Easter trading rules when the town is being flooded with long weekend and school holiday visitors, but our eating establishments are expected to open to meet the increased demand from visitors and locals alike.

On a public holiday this incurs extra costs for business owners with employees entitled to pay at time-and-a-half and a day in lieu.

For several years now restaurants and cafes have placed a surcharge on their products to help cover these extra running costs.

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Customers wishing to eat out on a public holiday face the prospect of their favourite venue hiking prices of often up to 15 per cent higher.

A survey of Restaurant Association members last year found the surcharge only went some way to covering the extra costs. But the survey did reveal fewer businesses were adding the surcharge - a swing from 55 per cent of them in 2010 to just 38 per cent.

Most of those who chose not to add a surcharge said the cost of opening on public holidays was built into the annual budget.

This makes sense, and reflects the way most other businesses work. We can't charge you more for your Rotorua Daily Post on Easter Monday, and wouldn't want to.

But if a business wants to penalise customers for choosing them on a public holiday, rather than spreading the cost across the year, they're perfectly entitled to. Just as customers are entitled to vote with their feet and choose somewhere else.

Some may feel it's better to not open. The survey found the vast majority of these businesses cited increased labour costs as the reason for staying closed.

Maybe you could get away with that in another town, but as I mentioned earlier, in a tourist town there are expectations that our businesses will be open.

Remember the fuss this year over Eat Streat being closed for breakfast?

It's a fine line for our local restaurant and cafe owners to walk. Like any other business, they are there to make money. But like any other business, aren't they also there to fill a need?