Price gouging in Edinburgh

Jimmy Chung’s in Edinburgh occupies a prime location between Waverley Station and Prince’s Street - it appears to thrive on a fast flow through of customers eager for a quick fill of chinese food - it needs the high footfall to pay what must be a hefty rent. An obvious approach is to engage in some price gouging - serving fixed price meals at different prices according to the time of day - all prominently displayed as shown. I will use this with my introductory Economics students in a few weeks time.

1/ Why are lunchtime prices cheaper than in the evening?

2/ Why is lunch on a Friday / Weekend more expensive than earlier on in the week?

3/ Why is dinner on a Sunday £2 cheaper than dinner on a Friday?

4/ If they pride themselves on serving a traditional Scottish breakfast - why do they open at 11-45am?

5/ If you order a meal at 4.15pm is the restaurant required to serve you? And if you delay the trek to the buffet until 5.02pm - do you have to pay extra? (Apparently the answer is yes ... if you vacate the table after 5pm ... then you pay the evening prices!)

6/ Why do so many Chinese restaurants offer this ‘fixed price’ menu?

7/ Why 5.99? Why £6.99?

I am sure there are other better questions to ask - can blog readers suggest some more?

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