The Texas chain restaurant, Cotton Patch Café added a surcharge to their customer’s bills back in September.

I was only recently made aware of this, but if you visit the Lubbock Cotton Patch Café location, you will see a notice on the table explaining why there is an additional charge on your bill.

The surcharge was 5% of the bill, meaning that customers were receiving an additional charge of around 1 to 3 dollars on average. This change seems to have been implemented across all of their locations, not only in Lubbock.

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Cotton Patch Café states that the surcharge is in place in order to compensate for “rising commodity prices and employment shortages.” Rather than raising their menu prices, this surcharge is said to be an adjustment in order to ensure that they are able to continue serving their customers in the changing market.

They are claiming that this charge is only temporary until they are able to go back to normal, and they will continue to provide the best service possible.

Cotton Patch Café is not the first restaurant to add a ‘COVID-19 surcharge’ like this. Many establishments around the country have been adding these extra charges to their bills since the coronavirus pandemic first started. Of course, there are also many customers that are not happy with being charged more than they are used to.

I reached out to some Lubbock locals to see how they feel about restaurants adding a surcharge like this to their bill, and most were not happy about it.

The comments I received on the topic ranged from feeling like restaurants add a surcharge don’t know how to run a business, that the menu should just be simplified, or that the products that are hard to get ahold of should have their prices raised rather than adding a surcharge to the entire meal.

Others don’t have any issue with the surcharge, believing that the restaurant should just do what they need to in order to stay afloat during tough times.

I want to know what you think about restaurants adding a surcharge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Do you not mind paying an extra 5%? Or would this cause you to stop going to a restaurant altogether? Leave a comment on Facebook and let us know what you think.

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