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Paying For Your Greed In Trinidad

There is a fast food restaurant by the name of El Pecos, which is located in Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook. This particular restaurant is a little different from the mainstream since the owners charge customers by the weight of their food. How does this work? The food is offered in buffet style, so therefore, the customer can help himself and take as much food as he wants. The customer places a plastic glove on his hand, picks up a take away sytrotex container and begins to serve himself. The owners charge customers $30.00 per pound. So after packing your styrotex container with as much food as it can hold, the customer goes to the cashier, places the food on a digital scale where it is weighed and depending on the weight, the customer is charged accordingly. I forgot to mention that, there is no limit on how many styrotex containers a customer can take.

Is this an excellent way to capitalize on a Trinibagonian's greed or do you consider this to be "highway robbery?" What are your views on this?

Trinidad Greed Your Paying

This should be a good thing as a person who is not very hungry can pay less than the one who can eat his/her weight in food.

Paying For Your Greed In Trinidad Caribbean / Tobago & Trinidad

I am unsure of the cost for a typical meal in Trinidad but given the average person likely downs 1 to 2 lbs of food. That means 30 to 60 dollars per meal. Seems expensive especially if is curry and rice.

Trinidad Greed Your Paying

All you can eat restaurants are common the world over. So in that sense, it's not so unusual.

I think one issue is that Trinidad is a country of excess. Trinis like to splurge and binge a lot.

Trinidad Greed Your Paying

I have see this before. I guess they do not have lighter things on the menu like shrimps otherwise those Trinis will be filling their containers like there is no tomorrow. The menu is mostly made up of carbohydrates I bet.

The drawback with such a service is the ones who eat with their eyes and take more than they care to pay for, then you end up with food wastage since you simply cannot put the food you do not want back in the containers.

Paying For Your Greed In Trinidad

Ca1979 said:

Geenie:

Buffets are very common all over the world but I did mention that what makes this fast food outlet different from the others is, being charged for the weight of the food.

Krakyn:

Well the cost of living has gone up in Trinidad. It is very rare for a person to buy a meal which costs less than $30.00. Although there are a few fast food restaurants which may offer meals for about $25.00 but the quantity is usually very small and the quality of the food is always quite poor.

The menu at El Pecos is: french fries, sweet potato fries, breadfruit fries, fried plantain, stir fried vegetables, festive rice, fried chicken, barbecue chicken, baked chicken, jerk chicken, barbecue pork, jerk pork, jerk lamb chops, barbecue pigtail, grilled fish, baked potatoes, baked cassava, macaroni salad, macaroni pie, potato salad and green salad. So considering the menu Krakyn, I think $30.00 per pound is a bit expensive but you are getting your money's worth.

JB:

You are absolutely right! Shrimp is never on the menu because if it was, I believe that they would be forced to charge more, since the chefs would be working overtime, trying to meet the demand for shrimp.

JB:

Yes JB Trinis are very greedy and I am very embarrassed to say that the women eat as much or sometimes even more than the men! But it is funny JB that I have seen people eat all of their food, even when the container can barely close. And if in the case that too much food is taken, well, the customer could eat whatever he can manage and then leave back the rest to carry home! But I suspect that most Trinis cholesterol level is extremely high because the majority of the foods offered are not exactly for the health conscious, except for the grilled fish.

Paying Your Greed Trinidad

Just heard on TV6 News that at around 1pm today there was a fire at El Pecos that started in the kitchen and caused over a million dollars in damages.

Paying Your Greed Trinidad Trinidad & Tobago / Caribbean

There are so many Trinis missing their favourite fast food place, El Pecos! The last report I heard was, they were hoping to be opened again at Christmas time. But when I passed there last week, I noticed that they started painting outside. I think they might be ready to open just in time for the summer holidays! Trinis will be happy!