The state of the restaurant industry • Hacker News Board

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#411

Post by mttyng » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:44 PM UTC

linuxftw wrote: post #248

evo_9 wrote: post #236

My wife an I opened a nail and wax salon 6 months ago. Really don't know what to do, so far they haven't asked us to shutdown. Business had been steadily growing and we are about break-even. No idea how this will play-out, what if anything the building owner can do to help out, or how the federal help might work for a small business like ours. The rent and payroll are our biggest expenses naturally, we can of course…

> Really don't know what to do People are trapped at home, itching to get out. You run aggressive promotions right now to drive up your customer base since everyone is sitting at home bored with nothing to do.

Doesn’t this fly counter to the recommendation of “staying home”?

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#412

Post by detaro » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:45 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…

So Econ 101 asks: If the drivers were better paid by the restaurant, why did they switch to delivery apps?

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#413

Post by teknopaul » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:48 PM UTC

Shermanium wrote: post #384

We could turn all these empty hotel rooms into ICU beds if we upgrade to negative pressure ventilation, and we could turn all these empty restaurants into community testing and supply distribution centers staffed by the laid off employees paid for with federal helicopter-drop funds. Think New Deal-level changes.

Good plan. Restaurants are almost like like hospitals if you discount for training, facilities and ability to deal with ill people.

ICU === eating pizza

With fries.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#414

Post by Shermanium » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:52 PM UTC

teknopaul wrote: post #413

Shermanium wrote: post #384

We could turn all these empty hotel rooms into ICU beds if we upgrade to negative pressure ventilation, and we could turn all these empty restaurants into community testing and supply distribution centers staffed by the laid off employees paid for with federal helicopter-drop funds. Think New Deal-level changes.

Good plan. Restaurants are almost like like hospitals if you discount for training, facilities and ability to deal with ill people. ICU === eating pizza With fries.

i said restaurants for supply sites. whats your idea?

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#415

Post by vincentmarle » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:52 PM UTC

spookthesunset wrote: post #352

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on what I'm seeing, it seems like that's exactly the path we're on in the US unfortunately.

Based on what data?

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

August

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#416

Post by cm2187 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

smallgovt wrote: post #51

Not to trivialize the numbers, but people still have to eat, so these dollars are largely being re-allocated elsewhere, primarily to takeout, food delivery, and grocery stores. Other sectors that are service-based represent real net loss in GDP.

This is still businesses that are going bust and will not reopen when the these lockdowns are lifted (which could take many months).

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#417

Post by bsder » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 11:03 PM UTC

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #117

save_ferris wrote: post #78

Is this really that surprising given that states and countries are now explicitly prohibiting dine-in options and mandating restaurants to be takeout only? I'd love to see this data overlaid against the changes in takeout orders.

Absolutely. My town shut down restaurant eat in this week, but when I went my favorite Thai place for pickup the owner said they had one of their busiest Saturdays ever. Despite fear, rational or not, people still need to eat.

In addition, restaurant supply chains aren't impacted by idiots doing panic buying.

So, you can get pad thai takeout from a restaurant. But you may not be able to get a box of noodles from a grocery store.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#418

Post by kelw22 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

spookthesunset wrote: post #389

ericd wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem like you're panicking. If you need evidence for the necessity, go read literally anything about what Italy is facing. China locked down cities with 0 infections pretty completely for ~4 weeks, and they still have isolation measures going. I believe the heavily hit cities are still totally locked down. This is what it took to get numbers under control once it had spread, and because of the US' late reaction,…

America is not even close to Italy. Not demographically, not density, not medically. Nothing is the same between us. And it isn't "Italy" it is a region in Italy with the problem. Same with china. China isn't locking down "China". Just a small part of it. You cannot take those two datapoints and apply them to the rest of the world. Not even close. And I'm not panicking, I'm just tired of people running around doomsay…

You're comparing America to Italy and saying they're different (which I don't fully agree with). You should also be comparing our response to Italy's and seeing they're the same. We're both under poor leadership who downplay and deny basic scientific facts. The spread here will be the same. The timeline will be the same. Our shortage of hospital beds will be here within a week. The interruption to life is not going to be measured in weeks; it'll be months. I'm not trying to stress you out more, but you keep saying "two weeks" without any actual reason for saying so. I'd put $100 that in two weeks all we see is the very well understood and predicted 2-4x in infection rates.

Last point: I live in Seattle. You have previously mentioned how people won't stand for this and there will be riots. What you're failing to grasp is that when people are scared, 90% of them stop going out on their own. Yes, there were some young people still going to bars, but Seattle shut down FAR before any kind of order to do so. People chose to stay in once it became apparent their choice was either staying in or risking needing a hospital that is oversubscribed. That will happen in many, many other places in our country, and there won't be riots because people don't want to be around enough people to riot.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#419

Post by nstj » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 11:17 PM UTC

It would be interesting to see how this lines up with incidence in coronavirus/covid spread. Some places look to be slower on the uptake in dropping restaurant reservations, which may portend a more severe onset of cv in that community.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#420

Post by mcv » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 11:40 PM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #297

irrational wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to believe this is true, but I once was at my boss's house and saw inside his fridge. All it has was a few beers. I asked him where his food was and he said he ate out for every meal. He was a single guy in a 5000 square foot home on an acre of land. I suppose he could afford to buy every meal out. I kind of doubt he will magically start using his kitchen.

every statistic has its outliers. If I was rich enough I suppose I would have a catering deal to have food delivered to me from a few restaurants, but I'm not rich enough. Probably most people aren't rich enough and only eat out for the reasons I do, I'm just too tired to make the food once again and want something I like the taste of quick. Probably the people rich enough to eat out every meal have a 5000 square foo…

5000 square foot?! Isn't that about 500 m^2?

I think my wife and I could afford to eat out every meal if we really wanted to (and we didn't go to anything too fancy), but we certainly don't have a 500 m^2 home nor any land. That'd be 3 times the size of our home, and our home is already pretty big for our neighbourhood.