Customers at eight Gator’s Dockside restaurants dotted around central and north Florida are finding a 1 percent surcharge on their bills listed as “ACA,” the letters standing for the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.
“It’s a game. If you want to play the game, customers can play the game too. Instead of 20 percent tip, he (the waiter) gets 18 percent,” said Joe Lee, a retired federal worker.
“We didn’t do this for any, any, any, any, any political reasons,” said a company official who answered the phone at the company’s Orlando headquarters, but asked not to be named.
“It’s clearly political,” said Hank Fishkind, an Orlando-based economic consultant, noting that the company could have increased its meal prices to cover the extra healthcare cost without advertising it.
