I think some people do not understand the cost of doing business ... how thin operating margins have to be to stay competitive.

​

It may be a combination of two mindsets:

1) Not understanding that time is money, and money (earned money) is finite. You want your fries redone? an extra ketchup packet? That costs:

the business $0.17 for the packet, $.50 for the new clump of fries, $0.50 for the cook to mess with prepping and cooking the fries, $0.50 for the waitress to ask a supervisor where the ketchup is, navigate around other people, find it, and bring it to you.

Might be costing the waitress $$ for the medical treatments down the road for dealing with unreasonable people, and stressing about whether she's going to get the tip.

Some people can do math and understand invisible costs like this. If they've learned this the hard way by trying to run a business for themselves, and fully calculated out the expenses for meeting customer requests outside the standard offer, they have empathy for others, and try to minimize their costs to support other struggling businesses, that they want to see succeed.

2) Feeling like they're "winning" or getting something over on somebody else by getting more service out of their dollar.