The owner of Giuseppi's Italian Restaurant willingly sells its delicious, but expensive, strawberry cheesecake for half-price after 10 p.m. because he will have to throw it away as stale if it remains unsold. Food servers are instructed to offer cheesecake to customers at full price. If they hesitate or complain about being "too full for dessert," the food servers then are instructed to offer the cheesecake at half-price.
Question A
Is it ethical for the food servers to first offer the cheesecake at full price, knowing that the restaurant owner is willing to lower the price to half-off?
Question B
Is it ethical for the food server to offer the cheesecake at half-price at 9:30 p.m. to a customer who was unwilling to pay full price?
Question C
Is it ethical for the food server to immediately offer the cheesecake at half-price at 10:00 p.m. to her friends who visited the restaurant in part because she had told her friends about the bargain price of the cheesecake?
Question D
Assume that her friends visiting the restaurant did not know about cheesecake becoming available at half-price after 10 p.m. When the friends order the cheesecake at full price at 9:45 p.m., the food server tells them to wait 15 minutes, so they can get the cheesecake at half-price. Is her conduct ethical?