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The state of the restaurant industry

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Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#421

Post by dillonmckay »

charwalker wrote: post #368
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…

IF you are i the US employees may be eligible for unemployment immediately even if employed with full/cut/zero hours. Not super helpful to you as the owner unless you can also apply but could make a shutdown easier on staff.

Where are you getting this info from?

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#422

Post by rtisdale »

detaro wrote: post #412
_jal wrote: post #277

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. 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?

Insufficient knowledge of tax law leading to an incorrect assignment of value to each position.

Insufficient knowledge of the wear and tear on ones car.

Desire to "work for themselves" (despite the fact it really isn't).

TL;DR actors in an economic system are often not fully informed.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#423

Post by senordevnyc »

bsder wrote: post #417
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People are buying triple or quadruple their normal weekly amount in anticipation of being locked down and not being able / willing to go out. That’s not “panic buying”, it’s quite prudent given what has happened to China and Italy.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#424

Post by NegativeLatency »

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…

I suspect it will last longer than 4 weeks

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#425

Post by Ensorceled »

acid__ wrote: post #172
Ensorceled wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For restaurant owner running on 3-5% margins, when salaries are a significant expense, it would be suicide to take a loan to make payroll; your business would probably never be profitable again. Better to let the business die and reinvent yourself in June/July.

Yes, better from a personal standpoint, but jeez, from a humanitarian perspective, can you really blame any restaurant owner from wanting to make payroll at any cost so that their employees can continue to feed themselves, pay rent, and take care of their loved ones?

My point is why are we putting them in this position? How about a GRANT instead of a loan?

The restaurant is TOAST when the loan starts being due as they try to reopen in the middle of recession after a forced closing and they'll all be out of work trying to feed themselves, pay rent and take care of their loved ones.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#426

Post by senordevnyc »

spookthesunset wrote: post #359
scruple wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that, but at the white house task force press conferences they're setting the signal pretty clearly. Reporter: "How long?" Trump: "July, August, maybe longer."

Better go get guns if you believe that ‘cause a 3 month lockdown will be much, much, much, much worse than the virus. This ain’t gonna be more than a few weeks tops. People have lost their damn minds. Go outside and get some fresh air.

No one seems to be losing their minds here but you. I’ve been stuck at home for over a week now, in an NYC apartment, with a 4 year old. I get out once or twice a day to walk in the park. It’s not ideal, but I can do it. No one is going to be rioting in the streets. Get a grip.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#427

Post by jaxn »

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.

Most of those changes were AFTER this data represents. The situation escalated very quickly.

I have a niche SaaS that helps brick and mortar retail stores in North America. There was a drastic shift on Thursday. And it escalated daily.

To give a sense of the speed and scale of the shift. All of 2020, at least 1/2 of stores were up at least 10% daily (great growth for retail).

On Thursday, a majority of stores were down for the first time all year. By Sunday, 3/4 of stores were down at least 10%. On Monday, 1/4 of stores were down 50% for the day.

I am not looking forward to reviewing the numbers tonight.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#428

Post by charwalker »

dillonmckay wrote: post #421
charwalker wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IF you are i the US employees may be eligible for unemployment immediately even if employed with full/cut/zero hours. Not super helpful to you as the owner unless you can also apply but could make a shutdown easier on staff.

Where are you getting this info from?

Various headlines as different states open up application options, see below. A reduction in hours or cuts to zero may be considered constructive dismissal and allow collection of benefits but many states are allowing expedited collection or no wait times. Layoffs have hit hard and these types of headlines have floated around for a lot of states.

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/1...

https://katu.com/news/local/oregon-wash-consider-unemploymen...

https://www.wbtv.com/2020/03/17/nc-governors-executive-order...

https://qns.com/story/2020/03/16/new-york-state-waiving-wait...

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#429

Post by chillwaves »

karatestomp wrote: post #167
frgotmylogin wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed the same thing a while back with DoorDash when trying to order some Cracker Barrel breakfast. It was something like a 30-40% hike across the board. I emailed DoorDash to ask what was going on with the prices and got a super misleading response along the lines of "our partner restaurants set their own prices" [1]- basically deflecting the blame back at the restaurant. So I emailed Cracker Barrel, and they ar…

Actually, it may have been DoorDash I used, now that you mention it. Seemed like a really gross way to price delivery, giving fake, higher prices on every single menu item. And then still a delivery fee on top of that! I seriously had to shop around several of their restaurants and several menu combos to find one where I wasn't still paying above-menu even with the fairly "generous" coupon.

They charge a flat delivery fee, tip and an 11% "service fee". Not surprised they also have deceptive pricing.

I used the app once because I had a free delivery (that's the 1.99 waived), ending up costing a lot more than just picking it up myself.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#430

Post by cyphar »

creato wrote: post #56
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.

Even delivered groceries are significantly cheaper than eating out. That difference is mostly the income of restaurant workers.

On the other hand, restaurants are operating on economies of scale (and they get wholesale prices for their raw materials -- their groceries are much cheaper per-portion than yours). Don't get me wrong, cooking at home can be cheaper than eating out -- but only if you're cooking large batches of food or are buying ingredients that can be used for more than one meal.

You'd be surprised how cheap individual portions of food are for restaurants.

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