References:
Price of wholesale buttermilk pancake batter: https://www.foodservicedirect.com/krusteaz-buttermilk-pancake-mix-25-pound-1-each-74798.html
Average pancake weight: https://www.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_pancake_weigh_in_grams So (30 g + 45 g)/2 = 37.5 g
Price of unlimited pancakes as of 2022: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2022/01/15/ihop-all-you-can-eat-pancakes/6540034001/
It's alot less than that, you're only factoring in raw material, not wages, rent, utilities all that goes into providing the good to the customer who is paying for it. This is nonsense.
Nonsense is a bit of a stretch.
The IHOP exists and is staffed whether or not you are there gorging yourself on pancakes. The rent and staffing is already being spent by IHOP. The factors that can contribute is if the amount of dishes you create make them run the washer an extra time and if the pancakes cool the griddle down enough to increase the cost of heating the griddle. Both of which are negligible.
The only extra cost is the batter itself.
Further reading: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marginalcostofproduction.asp
Absolutely!
MC is a great tool for internal accounting that can help a company extrapolate the "true" cost of every item. In this pancake scenario it's important to remember that the majority of costs are fixed costs, that do not change based on whether they sell pancakes or not.
There are some accounting methods that spread the fixed costs across all items, but that doesn't actually change the profitability of the company on the whole, just the expected margin of that particular item.
You need more equipment, you likely need more people (or quality of service will go down) need more electricity. Need more space (this one is tricky, if you have extra space, then it does not cost you anything, if you do not have extra space, then it costs you a lot, so think about average)