When you sit down at a restaurant for a nice meal, you probably think that the menu your smiling waiter gave you is simply a way for you to find out what's available and how much it costs. But it's likely that this seemingly innocuous sheet of paper was carefully designed for a more sinister purpose: to extract as much money from you as possible.
In the latest issues of New York Magazine, William Poundstone deconstructs the menu for the popular Soho eatery Balthazar. I eat there for breakfast every time I visit New York, and I had no idea the menu was an instrument of subconscious coercion. Look at the upper-right hand corner, for instance. Most people's eyes go to this spot on a menu anyway, but the illustration practically commands you to look there. It just so happens that the illustration is for the most expensive item on the menu — a seafood platter for $115. This is known as "the anchor." It's not that Balthazar expects you'll order it (though they won't complain if you do). They just want to make everything else on the menu look like a bargain by comparison, like "Le Grande" seafood platter to the immediate left of the anchor, selling for just $70. (Note also that the dollar signs have been omitted from the menu. Why is that? Because then the price is no longer a price, but a mere number.)
Other menu tricks include: avoiding leader dots that link a dish to its price, putting boxes around high-profit margin dishes, and offering hors d'oeuvres in two different sizes (people tend to trade up, explains Poundstone).
What menu tricks have you seen lately? Share them in the comments.
Mark Frauenfelder Credit.com contributor, editor-in-chief of MAKE magazine and the founder of the popular site Boing Boing, Mark was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998 and is the founding editor of Wired Online. He covers creative DIY projects and how-tos that will help you make the most of your money.
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Nice info about menu design