Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

bfi.uchicago.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 280 posts

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#41

Post by tw04 »

tmpz22 wrote: post #35
deathanatos wrote: post #19

> The restaurants’ productivity growth rates are strongly correlated, however, with reductions in the amount of time their customers spend in the establishments, particularly with a rising share of customers spending 10 minutes or less. The frequency of such ‘take-out’ customers rose considerably during COVID, even at fast food restaurants, and never went back down. The magnitude of the restaurant-level relationship…

Just look at the furniture in American restaurants - cheap, plastic, and uncomfortable, even in high priced restaurants. I empathize with the economic predicament of restauranteurs but I'll continue to frequent establishments with better comfort features especially because the prices are high no matter where you go. Why pay $25 rushed sloppy meal when you could pay $30 for a better meal, in a better setting, and resu…

>Just look at the furniture in American restaurants - cheap, plastic, and uncomfortable, even in high priced restaurants.

Seriously, where are you eating? Nothing remotely resembling "high end" anywhere near me uses plastic furniture. It's all well-padded wood. From steak restaurants to ramen to pizza, I can't name a single place I go to that's plastic other than the typical fast food joints.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#42

Post by satvikpendem »

deathanatos wrote: post #19

> The restaurants’ productivity growth rates are strongly correlated, however, with reductions in the amount of time their customers spend in the establishments, particularly with a rising share of customers spending 10 minutes or less. The frequency of such ‘take-out’ customers rose considerably during COVID, even at fast food restaurants, and never went back down. The magnitude of the restaurant-level relationship…

Ghost restaurants, essentially. Incidentally, I wonder what Travis Kalanick and his company CloudKitchens is up to now that he doesn't run Uber anymore.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#43

Post by satvikpendem »

tw04 wrote: post #41
tmpz22 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just look at the furniture in American restaurants - cheap, plastic, and uncomfortable, even in high priced restaurants. I empathize with the economic predicament of restauranteurs but I'll continue to frequent establishments with better comfort features especially because the prices are high no matter where you go. Why pay $25 rushed sloppy meal when you could pay $30 for a better meal, in a better setting, and resu…

>Just look at the furniture in American restaurants - cheap, plastic, and uncomfortable, even in high priced restaurants. Seriously, where are you eating? Nothing remotely resembling "high end" anywhere near me uses plastic furniture. It's all well-padded wood. From steak restaurants to ramen to pizza, I can't name a single place I go to that's plastic other than the typical fast food joints.

I agree, I don't recall seeing plastic in any sit-down restaurants.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#44

Post by [deleted] »

krunck wrote: post #28

Eating in American restaurants where there is constant pressure to shovel in the food and leave, is a waste. You feel like you're on an assembly line. What's the point then? On top of that they have the gall to ask for 25% tips. For what? Pressuring me to leave? I enjoy visiting Eastern Europe(and Europe in general) where a party can sit at a table at 7pm, dine, drink, talk, and relax and remain there until close at…

[deleted]

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#45

Post by erulabs »

simonw wrote: post #18
erulabs wrote: post #6

My favorite ~75 year old BBQ place here in Pasadena has half the bar (where you'd sit and eat and socialize if you were eating alone) reserved to give space for all the take-out orders and uber-eats pickups flowing through. I see single people come in and, without a space at the bar, take a seat at a booth alone. I don't blame restaurants for this at all, it's a tough business, but I do think it's about time we apply…

"I do think it's about time we apply just an ounce of shame to people who uber-eats every meal they eat from restaurants clearly designed for eating-in" Help me out here. What negative effect does that behavior have on the world such that people should feel shame for doing it? (I'm still Covid cautious enough that I avoid dining indoors in places where I share air with strangers. This is a huge lifestyle limitation,…

Ghost kitchens instead of community gathering places. 100 year old bar space used to stack outgoing uber-eats orders instead of for people to meet and chat. More plastic waste used on packaging. Fewer home-cooked meals. More time spent in front of the TV instead of in your community. A disrespect for expensive and supply-limited food - delivery sushi in particular strikes me as a culinary crime.

It's really not that big of a deal, but I will never not be a bit irked by that bar space being used to stack bags instead of to serve beer and brisket.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#46

Post by technothrasher »

erulabs wrote: post #10
EcommerceFlow wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ridiculous, you can't force user behavior like that. Have the restaurants and what not entice you to stay.

The fact that sitting in at a nice cozy almost 100 year old bar and talking to your neighbors does not entice you is the problem I'm attempting to fix with a little good ol' fashion social shaming.

Nothing against people who like to chat with random strangers at a bar; that's perfectly fine. But no, sorry, it does not "entice me". I find it tiresome and distracting. I typically will only sit at the bar if I'm with others. If I'm by myself, I'd prefer a quiet table.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#47

Post by NemoNobody »

kittikitti wrote: post #5

I don't have to deal with racist waiters by ordering through an app and having it delivered. This is a win-win where the restaurant is more "productive" and I don't have to deal with the staff guessing my race so they know how badly to treat me.

I've been a waiter or bartender on and off since University days - I'm really sorry you've experienced that. Making someone feel unwelcome is maybe the worse mistake you can make as a Server in restaurant - it leaves an impression on people, as You've noticed.

Obviously, they failed their job responsibilities - failed at being people too. The owner/manager should never be allowing such behavior, if they are acting in a way that makes you feel like you do, that shouldn't be happening at all. That is an administrative failure too.

I'm sorry that it's like that. I'd say stop eating there but you shouldn't have to do that even.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#48

Post by wormlord »

mediaman wrote: post #39
wormlord wrote: post #8

Friedmanite economists lauding the "productivity increases" of restaurants, meanwhile I have stopped eating anywhere except food trucks because mid-tier dining is so bad now due to cost-cutting and loss of expertise. Yeah that tracks for Chicago School economics.

The paper does not cover "mid-tier dining." It covers fast food because that's where they had good data. Moreover, real restaurant spending in total is up, so while your personal dining decisions are interesting they don't appear to reflect the aggregate data. I'm also not sure why you are calling Goolsbee a "Friedmanite." He served in the Obama administration and advocated strong government intervention during the f…

> I'm also not sure why you are calling Goolsbee a "Friedmanite."

The paper is from the Becker-Friedman Institute of Economics. It is literally the Chicago school. Do the authors need to call themselves disciples of Milton Friedman?

> I'm also not sure why you are calling Goolsbee a "Friedmanite." He served in the Obama administration and advocated strong government intervention during the financial crisis. Do you think every UChicago economist is a Friedman disciple?

Most orthodox economists at this point are. Sure maybe an ideologically pure free marketeer would have advocated against government intervention in 2008. But do you really think this guy is outside the neoliberal mainstream?

> where did you infer the economists are "lauding" the productivity increases?

Neoliberal economists believe that productivity is inherently good. I don't see anything in this paper about quality of life of employees or quality of service. Elevating one dimension above everything else implies a particularly importance of that dimension.

Re: The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

#50

Post by Carrok »

nemomarx wrote: post #25
erulabs wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that sitting in at a nice cozy almost 100 year old bar and talking to your neighbors does not entice you is the problem I'm attempting to fix with a little good ol' fashion social shaming.

I prefer to talk to my loved ones at home, usually? What's the use case for eating alone at a restaurant anyway?

Is this a serious question? Because you're hungry, want to eat, and can't or don't want to cook (e.g., traveling for work).

Sitting at a bar with other people, suddenly you are not eating alone.

It's called socializing. Some people enjoy such things.

Post reply on HN