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The state of the restaurant industry

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311–320 of 591 posts

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

We don’t have enough data or understanding to project anything. Many countries stupidly aren’t doing pervasive testing.

Places that do have pervasive testing (some town in Italy, South Korea, and Singapore) suggest this virus is widespread and has a >1% death rate. But this data is early and subject to change.

Suggesting we are going to be locked for months or years is irresponsible fear mongering at best.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Makes you wonder if the real “virus” is a mental one? Society got infected with one hell of a meme.

It is like everybody has that X-Files “I want to believe” poster on their wall when they repeat some of this doomsday stuff.

We are all stuck inside all day, bouncing around with nothing better to do than read doomsday porn. And around and around that stuff goes into people’s head until you get where we are now.

People should be much less concerned about this virus and way more concerned about social unrest. Humans are social creatures. You can’t just “lock” people in their homes for an indeterminate amount of time and expect good things to happen.

Those toilet paper memes and work from home memes are funny at first, but once the novelty wears off over the next week or so, shit is going to get very real. It ain’t funny to see empty shelves of toilet paper or baby wipes when you actually need them.... it ain’t funny to have absolutely nothing to do but sit around and obsess about this virus.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#313

I can't understand why would somebody think that putting latest data on the left is a good idea.

That's bad enough, but they also put the month on the left (3/16 instead of 16/3). Odd for an international app to treat a date like that when only one country of note records dates in that silly way.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

We don’t have enough data or understanding to project anything. Many countries stupidly aren’t doing pervasive testing. Places that do have pervasive testing (some town in Italy, South Korea, and Singapore) suggest this virus is widespread and has a >1% death rate. But this data is early and subject to change. Suggesting we are going to be locked for months or years is irresponsible fear mongering at best.

A few times in my career, I have been in a meeting that I didn't want to be in. One of the meeting-runners hinted that the meeting could be shorter than scheduled. Failure to deliver on that was not well received.

If you're going to say anything, you're better off overestimate how long it's going to be.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#316
post #205

>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…

Not for long. Restaurants won’t be able to make rent to do takeout.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#317
post #276

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…

> "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 clearly don't have children. I need to work from home while also getting primary school children to do their schoolwork and not kill each other.

sorry but I do, although my experience is perhaps clouded by having a spouse who does not need to work from home while I do.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#318

>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…

Distribution networks and key service providers seem like the best place to intervene. Actual restaurants already float on bare margins, so if we are triaging...

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#319
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…

I've worked at home for many years. I also really enjoy cooking, and put a fair amount of effort into it. But that doesn't mean I don't like to go out to eat as well. I'm not going to be doing that for a while (Colorado has shut down all restaurants) but I'm looking forward to when it will be possible again.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#320
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?

I truly hope your friend can figure out a way through this ... however isn't selling gift cards just kind of punting the problem down the road? If their customers buy gift cards now, and then return to use then in X weeks/months, wouldn't they just be working for "free" at that point (assuming all the funds from the gift cards were used to get them through the customer-less time)?
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