When people talk about software there’s a concept of total cost of ownership. This is the cost of the entire software; the implementation,  maintenance costs, staff time internally and training among other things that add up tot he real cost, not just the sticker price of software. 

I feel the same way about napkins. To save cost, a restaurant might choose to have a cheap napkin but the customer needs to use 4x the amount. 

Is that really cheaper when we look at the total cost?

Further, what does it say about how you feel about your customer and how you value them and their time and feelings.  To me it says, I only care enough that you get annoyed when trying to clean your hands? As I am trying to clean my hands or the hands of people around me with ineffective napkins the thought occurs to me. 

I wonder who makes the decisions and how much they are really saving. At my food delivery company we had about 5,000 orders in a typical week and napkins would cost us about $40 a case of 10k napkins. If margins are that thing, something seems weird. 

My mind immediately goes to… If your cutting napkin quality, what other quality in the kitchen might be being cut?

Ingredients?

Cleaning products?

Fire safety?

Where’s the line?

It all comes together and paints a picture of what you value.