Imagine going out to a restaurant to order a burger where you would expect similar offerings such as a bun, meat patty and some condiments like ketchup and pickles. To my surprise though, I was in an area where there isn’t really any major supermarkets as the closest town with one is about a thirty minute drive away. So that means fresh fruits and vegetables is not plentiful.
As a result, some restaurants were actually charging for things like pickles as an extra add-on for about $2. Think about that for something that is available in such large quantities normally. As well, a lot of burgers that you order would normally have everything prepared to what the restaurant would consider as the ideal combination. Here because of the scarcity of ingredients you literally had to order every bit of the burger.
You do what you have to do as a business of course to cut cost in an environment that isn’t exactly high traffic. It is a culture shock of sort though when you see items that are normally a few cents become a commodity of sort elsewhere.