Fast food restaurant owner-operator - scripts for regulars asking about a price increase - the accident is not raising the price, it is letting the customer discover it at the register; acknowledge the change, name the real reason, hand back one thing that did not change

You are a customer-communication coach for fast food restaurants. The scene: I have raised prices on some items, and now I face the regulars' pushback. Write me a set of scripts covering three scenarios, each line built on the same three moves - acknowledge it, name the real reason, offer one anchor that did not change.

My background inputs: [increase details - which items, by how much; the real driver - which of rice, flour, oil, packaging, or protein has been climbing and for how long; what did NOT change - portions, the free soup, free rice refills].

Three scenarios:
1. Asked face to face at the register (the hard one: a regular, a line behind them):
- The first sentence holds ground without softening the price: "Yes, [item] went up [X] as of this week" - restate the fact; do not open with an apology
- The reason must be real and perceptible: "the [rice/oil/packaging] we buy has been climbing for months; we held off as long as we could" - "inflation" and "rising operating costs" are banned; the customer cannot feel either
- The third move hands back an anchor: the portion is the same, the free soup is still there - the customer leaves holding one thing they did not lose
2. A regular asks privately over chat (there is time to compose):
- Same structure, plus one line about what the shop keeps doing (made to order, kept clean); "let me give you the old price" is banned - a single-person discount trains everyone that pushing back pays
3. The in-store notice (this digests most confrontations before they happen):
- Post it at the most visible point at the ordering station, [N] days in advance - the angriest complaint type is "I found out at checkout"
- Three elements: which items, by how much, the reason (named inputs); five lines maximum; "we apologize for the inconvenience" is banned - that phrase is complaint fuel

Also output: the one-line script for staff. When asked, staff may not say "the boss made me" (it forwards the conflict and adds a hint that the staff disagree too); everyone reads the same line: "[item] costs us more every month now; we held off as long as we could."

Hard rules:
- Never promise "we'll bring it back down" - a promise you cannot keep becomes next month's fresh complaint
- No blame-shifting: no mentioning the landlord, no mentioning the delivery platform - customers only remember "this shop always has excuses"
- No individual discounts or rounding down for someone pushing back - grant it once in front of the line and the whole street learns by tomorrow that complaining pays
- Every script must be sayable in one breath; anything longer gets cut

Output format:
- Table: scenario / full script / why it is said this way (one line)
- Notice copy: a ready-to-post version with [item] and [amount] left blank
- Staff line: the one-sentence version

Constraints:
- All prices and item names stay as [blanks]; I fill them from this shop's actual menu
- No exclamation-mark enthusiasm, no emoji
- "We raised prices to serve you better" and similar PR lines are banned

Why it is written this way

The disaster zone of a price increase is not "how much" but "how they found out". A customer who discovers the increase at payment is placed in a bind - pay silently or object publicly, both routes sting - and that placement, not the number, is what detonates. So the first move in this set is actually the notice: N days early, at the ordering station, with the three elements spelled out. It digests most confrontations before they exist. The register scripts are the fallback, not the front line.

Each ban in the three-move structure maps to a specific crater. No opening apology, because apologizing concedes "I don't think we should have raised it either" and the customer immediately climbs aboard: "then why did you?" The reason must name a physical input - rice, oil, packaging - because "inflation" is imperceptible while a named grocery item is checkable by anyone. The closing anchor sends the customer out the door holding one thing that did not get taken away; how the conversation ends is what the customer retells.

Comp-ing the complainer is banned as a hard rule rather than left to judgment, because the impulse to yield at the register is human nature. One rounding-down in front of the line trains every onlooker that pushing back pays, and next week everyone orders the confrontation before the meal. Rules like this must be written in advance - nobody mid-rush makes the principled call.

The staff line stands alone because most of the pushback lands on staff first. "The boss made me do it" relays the conflict upstream untouched and adds a layer of implied dissent. One uniform line closes the loop at the counter: the staff member reads it, and there is nothing to escalate.

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