Why do some restaurants feel more expensive even when they are not?
People spend money rationally and experience it emotionally.
Restaurants can feel expensive because lighting, music, service style, and expectations influence how customers experience prices.
Two restaurants charge exactly the same prices.
One feels affordable.
The other feels expensive.
The hidden mechanism is contextual perception. Customers rarely judge prices in isolation. They compare them to atmosphere, decoration, service style, and their own expectations.
Daniel Kahneman showed that humans evaluate experiences relative to surrounding cues.
People often think price lives on the menu.
More often, it lives in the customer's mind.
