The state of the restaurant industry • Hacker News Board

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#301

Post by GeorgeWBasic » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:57 PM UTC

robocat wrote: post #145

wozniacki wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats more remarkable is that no one has made a peep about RENTAL PAYMENT DEFERRALS or SUSPENSIONS to even COMMERCIAL LANDLORDS of APARTMENTS / SINGLE FAMILY HOMES yet somehow sit-down restaurants and their health are a top concern. These priorities are lop-sided at best. Restaurants are not a critical component of your basic sustenance. They never were, in the course of human history. Heavy dependence on them for on…

“No one” in the US perhaps? Some other countries already have programs. NZ just introduced a program where everyone who’s job is locked-out will still get paid (so they can continue to pay bills). Other countries have different programs.

I don't understand how a program like that, paying just the workers, is going to help when the business they work for still goes out of business. It needs to be suspended payments for everybody: the renters, the landlords and homeowners paying their mortgages, the businesses paying their rent, and so on. You can't just target one group and forget the rest or everything collapses.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#302

Post by vonmoltke » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:58 PM UTC

inetknght wrote: post #91

gwd wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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

Restaurants are required to bump tipped employees up to the non-tipped minimum wage if the tips don't put them over it. Thus, "normal wages" in this case would be the non-tipped minimum wage.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#303

Post by rosybox » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:02 PM UTC

spookthesunset wrote: post #295

rosybox wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

For that one paper you showed me you’ll find another dozen research papers that say something entirely different. Until we know how many people have this or had it, suggesting multi-month lockdowns is ill informed, dangerous doomsday nonsense. PS: while bitching about downvotes is lame, it is quite disappointing to see HN devolve into yet another panic fueled echo chamber where only “rooting for” the worst case scena…

What research papers have you seen with more optimistic projections? You're calling the projections that two governments are relying on as ill informed based on what credentials?

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#304

Post by cycrutchfield » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:05 PM UTC

fma wrote: post #274

cycrutchfield wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about something a bit more targeted? Do we really need to give software engineers working from home extra cash?

That software engineer would spend it elsewhere in the industry, likely some non-essential. That hourly worker w/o a job will pay rent and food. Software engineer...a carwash, new lawn equiment, or hell even a vacation. Giving an airline a tax break won't drive them more customers. Giving their customers more money will give them customers.

What? Nobody is going to be flying anywhere soon, regardless of whether you give everybody $1000.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#305

Post by ganoushoreilly » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:06 PM UTC

As I was reading this I got a notification that Uber Eats would be providing $0 fee delivery for food in our area.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#306

Post by GeorgeWBasic » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:07 PM UTC

markdown wrote: post #264

jborichevskiy wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The ability of my local Chinese place to serve customers is undiminished, my desire to eat Chinese food is undiminished, and all that's in the way is an ultimately temporary law. Agreed on this. But the rent paid out during the period of reduced revenue coming in creates a delta that this loan is filling in. The loan still needs to be paid back (even assuming 0% interest). That extra money needs to come from somewh…

A better way would be to suspend all debt collection and rent collection for x months. That will keep lots of small businesses alive, and employees on reduced salaries will still be able to feed their families if they don't have to worry about rent. Throw in food stamps for the unemployed and you're most of the way to keeping a nation going.

Far, far, far better. In fact, it's the only thing that might actually work. All this talk of loans is just people refusing to admit that a capitalist system (I hate saying that word) simply doesn't function under these conditions. The economy needs to be paused.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#307

Post by vonmoltke » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:07 PM UTC

koliber wrote: post #181

baq wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can somebody explain to me how saying ‘generic bad thing’ and ‘China’ in the same sentence is racist? Is this question racist? Serious answers only because I’m in EU. Bonus question - is Spanish Flu racist?

There is believable evidence that the Spanish flu originated in the US. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journal-plague-year-1... https://www.livescience.com/spanish-flu.html Was the name racist? Not sure, considering that likely it was incorrect. What do you think?

As I understand it, "Spanish Flu" was so named because it started during WWI. Spain was the first non-belligerent to be hit by the disease. Since news media in all of the belligerent nations was highly censored, it was Spanish media that was first to report heavily on the effects. Thus, the belief at the time that the disease originated there.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#308

Post by LgWoodenBadger » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:09 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #243

wincy wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who would order a takeout beer? If I was going to get takeout and wanted a beer I’d stop at a liquor store or gas station on my way home.

In Pennsylvania at least liquor stores are state run and closed at the moment. You can get beer or wine at some gas stations but that's about it. Anything less popular than huge international brands or very, very popular micro-brews you typically have to go to a beer distributor for and most of those are closed, too (the only ones open are those defying the Governor's strong recommendation to close). Basically if you…

You can get to-go beer (6-packs, growlers, etc.) at any restaurant with a liquor license (provided they sell it that way). You can also get beer AND wine from a large number of grocery stores (Giant, Wegmans, etc.). Only liquor is sold by the state-run stores.

There are also all the local micro-breweries...

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#309

Post by rimliu » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:09 PM UTC

mcv wrote: post #205

dylan604 wrote: post #110

>the cascading economic impact from just this one sector will be enormous. The entire hospitality industry is going to take a huge hit. I do work in the convention, corporate travel/event space, and my calendar up until June has been wiped out. Cascading is the key thing people seem to gloss over. Sure, servers and kitchen staff are obvious. The food delivery people will not be needed. Companies like Aramark that pro…

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…

Here we have full-blown quarantine, so all restaurants, cafes, and bars are closed. Those offering take-outs cintinue to operate. The report yesterday (first day of the quarantine) said "despite empty tables kitchen staff is busy as never before". Of course, far from every dining place offers take-outs.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#310

Post by coronapanicthrw » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 8:10 PM UTC

spookthesunset wrote: post #295

rosybox wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

For that one paper you showed me you’ll find another dozen research papers that say something entirely different. Until we know how many people have this or had it, suggesting multi-month lockdowns is ill informed, dangerous doomsday nonsense. PS: while bitching about downvotes is lame, it is quite disappointing to see HN devolve into yet another panic fueled echo chamber where only “rooting for” the worst case scena…

FYI You're not alone in observing the echo chamber effect. Those of us who agree with you that some skepticism of the cost/benefit of the intervention is merited have largely avoided posting on our main accounts because of the massive backlash against anything counter-panic-dogma, or our posts have been flagged/deaded with worrying rapidity.

There were posts threatening _physical harm_ to individuals questioning the level of intervention (I believe the words were "I want to throttle the next person who says this isn't a catastrophe") and from typically well-respected users as well.

It's stunning to me to watch this community devolve in this fashion. I take it as a sign of the times, in terms of groupthink and fear-as-contagion, downvote-if-you-don't-agree behavior on the internet, and a broader eternal september effect on this forum.

I only wish individuals showed this much concern surrounding the massive cost in human life we incurred far more willfully via the opioid epidemic, the wars in the middle east, our prison system, etc; I'd go so far as to say I would be more willing to go along with the current overreaction if we didn't seem so hypocritical and self-serving in where and how we assign value to human life.