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The state of the restaurant industry

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Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#91

Post by inetknght »

gwd wrote: post #60
slg wrote: post #39

The government has talked about bailouts for various industries from airlines, to cruise ships, to shale companies. But almost every sector of the US economy is going to be hit by this and I have no idea how we are going to react. Will there be a restaurant bailout? What would that even look like? It is much easier to work on bailing out a handful of airlines but how do you handle it for literally thousands of small…

> Will there be a restaurant bailout? Maybe it could be like farm subsidies, but we pay restaurants to close for a certain amount of time / certain days of the week, on the condition that they pay employees normal wages for those days.

> on the condition that they pay employees normal wages for those days.

"Normal wages" for many restaurant workers in the U.S. exclude tips. Without tips, "normal wages" is below the minimum wage.

While it might better than nothing, it's not liveable.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#92

Post by standardUser »

threatofrain wrote: post #73
standardUser wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if I can help it. I'm ordering delivery constantly, and as soon as restaurants reopen my ass will be in a seat every night of the week to support what is personally my favorite industry. And I'll be tipping extra.

I would argue that an interesting intervention has to come from something more, because the restaurant industry has been suffering terribly and consolidating already, perhaps due to an increasingly unhealthy middle class.

How exactly has the industry been "suffering terribly"? In places I frequent (SF Bay Area, NYC) I see hundreds of long-term restaurants persisting, plus a constant stream of brand new places, all in the face of increasing minimum wages and other employer mandates/regulations. I'd also argue that the quality of both food and service have never been better. I'm not saying you're wrong (I have no clue), but it feels to me like I've been living in a golden age of eating out (expensive though it may be).

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#93

Post by [deleted] »

himinlomax wrote: post #41
vkou wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think any other country would have been able to contain this outbreak?

Other countries don't have those filthy wet markets. They ARE absolutely filthy. They're on the same hygiene levels as the bushmeat markets in the poorest African countries. You know, Ebola? Isn't it amazing that poorer, even denser countries like India or Bangladesh haven't originated the same deadly pandemics? The PRC deserves the blame for this. Scientists have known about the issues with those markets for a long…

[deleted]

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#94

Post by slg »

dlandis wrote: post #5

Does that data indicate that seated reservations are only presently down 56% YOY in the US ? That's pretty discouraging if that many people are still ignoring standard guidance.

Movie theater box office numbers[1] are another good indication of the same thing. You see a similar large drop-off, but still a sizable amount of people gathering in these businesses. This is why it is crucial for the government to force these businesses to close. As long as they are open, people will gather in them.

[1] - https://www.boxofficemojo.com/date/?ref_=bo_nb_wey_secondary...

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#95

Post by fock »

danenania wrote: post #71
himinlomax wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other countries don't have those filthy wet markets. They ARE absolutely filthy. They're on the same hygiene levels as the bushmeat markets in the poorest African countries. You know, Ebola? Isn't it amazing that poorer, even denser countries like India or Bangladesh haven't originated the same deadly pandemics? The PRC deserves the blame for this. Scientists have known about the issues with those markets for a long…

Industrial farming practices in the US and many other countries could easily lead to similarly dangerous animal-to-human transmissions.

fortunately in industrial farming, the infection risk the other way round (human→animal) is such a business risk, that adequate precautions are taken!

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#96

Post by JumpCrisscross »

danenania wrote: post #71
himinlomax wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other countries don't have those filthy wet markets. They ARE absolutely filthy. They're on the same hygiene levels as the bushmeat markets in the poorest African countries. You know, Ebola? Isn't it amazing that poorer, even denser countries like India or Bangladesh haven't originated the same deadly pandemics? The PRC deserves the blame for this. Scientists have known about the issues with those markets for a long…

Industrial farming practices in the US and many other countries could easily lead to similarly dangerous animal-to-human transmissions.

> Industrial farming practices in the US and many other countries could easily lead to similarly dangerous animal-to-human transmissions

SARS-CoV-2 appears to have originated in bats, been passed to Malayan pangolins, and then made its jump to humans [1].

That is likely in a wet market. It is not likely on a single-animal industrial farm.

[1] https://www.cell.com/pb-assets/journals/research/current-bio...

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#98

Post by notacoward »

aresant wrote: post #88

I have a friend that owns a restaurant, doesn't sell gift cards online and no idea how to do. What's the fastest way to set up a Gift Card program?

Could you do something with Venmo plus a manual ledger? Send money, write down the person's name etc., if they come in later you can look it up and give the credit.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#99

Post by artimaeis »

the_economist wrote: post #8
wmeredith wrote: post #6

That's about to completely crater. My city issued guidance just yesterday (3/16) that all dining room service is to stop. Drive through, delivery, and curbside only.

What city?

This is happening across all of North Carolina tonight.

https://governor.nc.gov/news/north-carolina-close-restaurant...

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#100

Post by dillondoyle »

slg wrote: post #53
thedogeye wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SBA just announced a program for loans up to $2M at 3.75% to make payroll

Loans don't solve this. It isn't like once this is over restaurant patronage will jump up to 200% of normal. This is business these companies will never get back. Giving them a loan that they can't repay is just delaying the problem.

probably with compounding interest if they allow deferred payments lol
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