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Overeating in all-you-can-eat buffet: paying before versus paying after

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  • Erez Siniver
  • Yosef Mealem
  • Gideon Yaniv

Abstract

A widespread meal-serving system commonly blamed for contributing to the obesity epidemic is the all-you-can-eat buffet, where customers can help themselves to as much food as they wish to eat in a single meal for a fixed entry price. We set forth the hypothesis that buffet restaurants' practice of collecting the price in advance, rather than at the end of the meal, encourages overeating. Viewing advance payment as a token of disrespectful treatment, we first establish this result theoretically by extending two recent and competing models on buffet behaviour to take account of the customer's treatment experience. We then report the results of two experiments conducted in a sushi restaurant which support our hypothesis. The experiments reveal, ceteris paribus , that paying for the buffet meal after eating reduces sushi consumption by about 4.5 units, as compared to paying before eating. The result bears a straightforward and simple policy implication: To help reduce obesity, buffet restaurants should be banned from collecting the price in advance.

Suggested Citation

  • Erez Siniver & Yosef Mealem & Gideon Yaniv, 2013. "Overeating in all-you-can-eat buffet: paying before versus paying after," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(35), pages 4940-4948, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:45:y:2013:i:35:p:4940-4948
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2013.808309
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    Cited by:

    1. Ya-Hui Wang, 2014. "All You Can Eat: Behavioral Evidence From Taiwan," International Journal of Management and Marketing Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 7(2), pages 29-37.
    2. Sirikarn Phuchada & Phumsith Mahasuweerachai, 2022. "The Higher the Goal, the More You Eat: Reference Dependence In an “ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT†Restaurant," PIER Discussion Papers 185, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Pham, Matthew V. & Roe, Brian E., 2014. "The Effect of an Information Intervention on the Healthfulness of College Meal Plan Purchases in a Use-it or Lose-it Meal Plan Currency System," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170166, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Kee, Jennifer & Segovia, Michelle S. & Saboury, Piruz & Palma, Marco A., 2022. "Appealing to generosity to reduce food calorie intake: A natural field experiment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).

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