Fark Toast!

The “Toast” in this case is Toast Inc., the people responsible for the flaming dumpster fire that is ToastTab.

What prompts this latest outpouring of vitriol?

Toast Inc., a powerful cloud-based third-party point-of-sale vendor used by more than 85,000 restaurants, is unilaterally adding a 99-cent “processing fee” to online orders of $10 or more.

Yes, I realize this is the NYPost and rage bait, but the story is documented.

The fee is being charged to consumers — not to the restaurants that are paying Toast for its services.
Toast is then lifting the fee for itself, its clients say — paid for by consumers who, in most cases, never heard of Toast, let alone agreed to do business with them.

That’s right. The 99 cents is coming out of your pocket, not the restaurant’s.

Toast is also paid a percentage fee on every credit card sale.

So they’re gouging customers, while getting paid by the restaurants.

The charge from Toast appears as a line item on receipts under the term “order processing fee.”
The receipt includes a note at the end, added without input from the shop owner: “The Order Processing Fee is set by Toast to help provide affordable digital ordering services for local restaurants.”
In states with a meals tax, the Toast fee is included in the taxable bill.
Restaurants will be forced to show the fee as income, even though the money is lifted out of their bank accounts by Toast.

Why would they do something like this? Well, obviously, money. But I didn’t realize their business was floundering:

The publicly traded company suffered a net loss of $275 million in 2022, according to its SEC filings, and is on pace to fare worse in 2023, with an $81-million loss in the first quarter.

Ain’t that a shame?

I’m starting to feel a new cause coming on for the Saturday Dining Conspiracy: drive Toast Inc. out of business. I realize that their employees will lose their jobs, but perhaps they can find more honest work as thugs, pimps, or record company executives.