The state of the restaurant industry • Hacker News Board

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#281

Post by spookthesunset » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:35 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #252

spookthesunset wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop with the doomsday panic. This lockdown thing isn’t going to last more than a few weeks at most—at least without massive social upheaval. Source: my ill informed opinion, same as yours. same source as yours.

> Stop with the doomsday panic. This lockdown thing isn’t going to last more than a few weeks at most—at least without massive social upheaval. Social upheaval against a "lockdown" becomes a moot point if people you know keep dropping dead.

People will start dropping dead from social unrest, addiction, substance abuse, suicide, etc. this “lockdown” isn’t free. It has massive health impacts that could easily outweight any lives saved by the lockdown.

People need to put on their critical thinking caps around here. What is the end game of this lockdown? What data is it based on? How will we know when to end it—given all factors, which include vastly more than slowing the spread of the virus.

Also stop downvoting people asking questions. Asking questions and thinking critically and rationally is what this forum is supposed to be about.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#282

Post by jschwartzi » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:35 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #223

sneak wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many grocery stores have major shortages, short-term grocery deliveries are fully booked, and where I am, normally 1-2 day Amazon food/medicine mail-order deliveries are presently at 5+ days. I stocked up a month ago when everything was still running to ensure my household has food 12 weeks (I always have 30 days, but wanted to be on the safe side), but I know many people did not, and it’s going to be a while before…

Especially when you have people who already have 4 weeks of food going out and buying another 2 months worth.

The store I went to last night definitely had issues with the standard nonperishable foods. Canned goods and boxed dinners were sold out, and people had bought up all the medium- and long-grain rice and the standard three or 4 kinds of beans(navy, black, pinto, and chickpeas). However I was able to find several pounds of millet and quinoa as well as several kinds of beans that most people don't have any experience eating. Also nobody had bought any of the textured vegetable protein or any of the other non-perishable foods that most people don't normally cook. There was also tons of non-wheat flour, several kinds of short-grain rice, and a lot of breakfast cereal and granola.

Suddenly all the years I've spent buying and learning to cook "strange" foods is paying off. Also the people buying "non-perishable" foods are going to suddenly discover how important sauce and spice is when they're eating their unseasoned white rice and beans every night for the next year.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#283

Post by pavas » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:37 PM UTC

citilife wrote: post #185

baby wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UBI is honestly the only solution here.

Printing money and giving it to everyone essentially taxes every dollar by the same amount. That's not necessarily the best solution here.

In the end the money for UBI comes from taxes one way or another. Even if every dollar is taxed the same amount, not everyone makes the same amount of dollars.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#284

Post by rosybox » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:37 PM UTC

spookthesunset wrote: post #247

rosybox wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's going to be wiped out far beyond June. Based on the recent models run by UK, the same models that prompted the White House to warn against gatherings of greater than 10 people, the curve doesn't end even without intervention until August. With intervention what we are going through right now could last well into 2021.

Stop with the doomsday panic. This lockdown thing isn’t going to last more than a few weeks at most—at least without massive social upheaval. Source: my ill informed opinion, same as yours. same source as yours.

Doomsday panic? Ill informed opinion? I'm literally looking at the chart used by the White House that comes from the data generated by the UK government. Look for yourself:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/s...

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#285

Post by 76543210 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #107

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…

UBI is honestly the only solution here.

It has not worked for every test city that tried it. Why is this different?

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#286

Post by vonmoltke » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #228

mcv wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food delivery to homes will probably boom. That's going to be the replacement for visiting a restaurant in the coming weeks or months. But every luxury industry that involves going outside and meeting people will be wiped out. The tourist industry is going to be completely dead for a while. Hopefully it can be revived afterward. Hopefully the people involved can find other jobs in the mean time. But it's going to be…

if you're home all day long one of the main spurs for going out to eat is gone, at the end of the day you're no longer too tired to make food, you're not getting home too late to make it at a good time, you don't need to save time. Thus the only spur left to wanting to order food is eating something tasty you can't make at home easily - I admit that is good but given that the delivery is also a potential virus delive…

Well, except there is a new spur right now: empty grocery store shelves.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#287

Post by rosybox » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

bjourne wrote: post #250

rosybox wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The WSJ Editorial Board has suggested that the Fed create a new facility that gives very cheap loans to businesses that need them. These loans will not need to be repaid right away and should sustain any business that needs it during this period. It sounded workable. https://www.wsj.com/articles/financing-an-economic-shutdown-...

How would loans help? A lot of employees aren't currently needed so they will be laid off regardless of whether the business owner can take out cheap loans. I don't see how loans can make up for the much reduced economic activity.

I imagine the WSJ Editorial Board is focusing on a solution to keep businesses surviving, not employment. They may have other ideas to help with that later. Without businesses, there will be no employment.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#288

Post by pc86 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:42 PM UTC

_jal wrote: post #277

pc86 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your local restaurant might make less (I'm not sure I buy that), but the delivery driver likely makes more per hour. If it was a net loss for everyone except GrubHub or Uber, it wouldn't exist.

> Your local restaurant might make less (I'm not sure I buy that), but the delivery driver likely makes more per hour. I don't know what Uber pays their drivers, but I happen to know the place in question pays a good wage, comparably. I seriously doubt it driving Uber beats it. >If it was a net loss for everyone except GrubHub or Uber, it wouldn't exist. And yet, here we are. Econ 101 only takes you so far; why do yo…

You say "and yet, here we are" as if you've proven something, when you have no evidence to back up your statement and rely on passive aggressive pseudo-insults to imply that I don't know what I'm talking about.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#289

Post by 76543210 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:43 PM UTC

It's a useless industry, it's a disposable luxury. I feel for the workers, but as a whole, less disposable luxuries sounds good for fiscal responsibility and productivity.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#290

Post by hkmurakami » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:43 PM UTC

pwinnski wrote: post #246

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're home all day long one of the main spurs for going out to eat is gone, at the end of the day you're no longer too tired to make food, you're not getting home too late to make it at a good time, you don't need to save time. Thus the only spur left to wanting to order food is eating something tasty you can't make at home easily - I admit that is good but given that the delivery is also a potential virus delive…

I want to agree with you, but I think we might both be underestimating the extent to which Americans don't know how to cook food at home. At a certain level of income, I know people who eat every meal out other than maybe breakfast. I can only guess that they're going to be having most meals delivered now.

Some younger googlers have never cooked for themselves in years, so this will be an interesting challenge for them. (Source: 2nd year googler friend)