Case Study: Near empty Restaurants And

Offseason Miniature Golf

Have you ever walked into a restaurant for lunch and found it almost empty? Why, you might have asked, does the

restaurant even bother to stay open? It might seem that the revenue from the few customers could not possibly

cover the cost of running the restaurant.

In making the decision whether to open for lunch, a restaurant owner must keep in mind the distinction between

fixed and variable costs. Many of a restaurant's coststhe rent, kitchen equipment, tables, plates, silverware, and

so on are fixed. Shutting down during lunch would not reduce these costs. In other words, these costs are sunk

in the short run. When the owner is deciding whether to serve lunch, only the variable coststhe price of the

additional food and the wages of the extra staffare relevant. The owner shuts down the restaurant at lunchtime

only if the revenue from the few lunchtime customers fails to cover the restaurant's variable costs.

An operator of a miniature-golf course in a summer resort community faces a similar decision. Because revenue

varies substantially from season to season, the firm must decide when to open and when to close. Once again, the

fixed coststhe costs of buying the land and building the courseare irrelevant. The miniature-golf course should

be open for business only during those times of year when its revenue exceeds its variable costs.