* Price Ain’t Right!
* Price Ain’t Right!
Jeff Eats just heard about a woman who won $160,000 in merchandise-prizes and $10,000 in cash on the day-time version of TV’s “The Price Is Right.”
Do you guys have any idea, what the tax-bill is on those $170,000 in winnings? Well I do, and unless this lady is made of money, I seriously doubt that she will even bother to “collect” on her winnings.
Which brings me to the subject “at hand.”—The ridiculous prices that some South Florida joints charge on New Year’s Eve.
Now I’m not gonna name names, but don’t you think that $250 per person (tax and tip included) is a bit much for a Country Club party-featuring a buffet dinner, 8 piece band and an open bar? You guys can do the simple math, but that’s $500.00 a couple.
Now I’m not gonna name names, but some of those South Beach “Hotspots” are getting $30,000-$100,000+ for a table of 10.
Now I’m not gonna name names, but some Italian/Steak joints are fetching $225 a person (tax and tip included) for a 5-course meal, party favors and a champagne toast.
Now I’m gonna name names out of South Florida–just Google the “prices” that TIMES SQUARE- TGI Fridays, Applebees, Ruby Tuesday, Bubba Gump are getting. Jeff Eats knows, location-location-location, but high-way robbery is still high-way robbery!-and to boot, we ain’t exactly talking the Four Seasons here!
Now just maybe Jeff Eats is “out of the loop” but don’t you think that this type of celebratory-spending may-be sending the wrong message to all of those Chinese folks over in China who own all of those US bonds?
Happy New Year To ALL!!!
Jeff Eats will be at home watching the Times Square-Ball Drop!
One final thing, best wishes to you NYC guys with your new mayor, because I think you’re really gonna need it!
Jeff, just saw cnbc that said that applebees is something like 375 a person and Fridays is like 1200 a couple. nuts!
Her tax bill on the merchandise will come to about $50K. If they let her, she is better off taking the wholesale value in cash and paying the taxes on that,
My wife and I long ago concluded that other than a party with some dear friends and relatives, New Years Eve is “Amateur Night”.
Another cool column. Catch you next year. Happy New Year.
I was in a warehouse many years ago in LA at CBS (studio tour). Unclaimed prizes (price is right) were sitting there. Sometimes winners dont claim prizes because they are based on unrealistic retail values. In other cases they can sell items to raise cash for taxes. Cars and boats are easy to convert to cash as needed.
I couldn’t agree with you more! Add to that that New Year’s Eve is the one night of the year that all those “social drinkers” let go and howl at the moon, and you realize that it’s not a night to be out there. My lovely neighbor and I catered and enjoyed a party for 10 in her condo where we served great munchies like jumbo shrimp cocktail, home made guacamole, smoked fish dip, crab dip, etc, followed by a sit down dinner of roast turkey, eggplant lasagna, mashed sweet potato with pineapple, kasha varnishkes, homemade cranberries etc. The total cost was somewhere around $30 a couple, and a whole lot of sweat equity from me, the chef. And we were safe and happy watching Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper make fools of themselves. A good time was had by all.
Happy New Year Jeff, and thanks for the past year of reviews and news. It’s always appreciated.
We went to Matteos last night. The place was packed and they had a regular menu(which is why we went) The food and service were great we ate what we wanted and did not have to pay anything extra because it was New Years Eve. job well done
Nothing for nothing, methinks Jeff “says” “nothing for nothing” too much. Methinks he also “uses” too “many” quotation “marks.”