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The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

bfi.uchicago.edu

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

#51

Post by jldugger »

JackFr wrote: post #12

I'm not an academic economist, so what do I know, but I think the authors aare missing something else. I think the productivity was in some part driven by minimum wage laws. At lower wages, developing, installing and maintaining ordering kiosks and smart phone ordering apps makes less sense, because fast food cashiers are so cheap. When fast food cashiers become more expensive (and the technology costs come down) kio…

Well, the minimum wage laws are more or less constant, but the paper is able to examine inter-store variation:

> Within McDonald’s restaurants, for example, the locations with the largest increase in short-stay customers saw the most productivity growth.

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

#52

Post by dylan604 »

satvikpendem wrote: post #43
tw04 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

I guess we need to define sit-down restaurants. Fast-food places with sit-down available typically has plastic seating. I know that the Chick-fil-a and McDonalds in the area do.

Some of the gastropub places near me have bare wooden seating. It's part of their "charm" this thread is swooning about. It's literally just a wooden picnic table, but yeah, that's so worth that extra money.

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

#53

Post by lynguist »

wormlord wrote: post #48
mediaman wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

It feels like under whatever hood one looks or whichever layer of paint one looks behind - when it’s a relatively new change in society, one always finds the root cause to be neoliberalism.

Your comment reconfirms this especially pictorially with the last statement: productivity and it alone goes up and quality or service are not even part of the equation.

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

#55

Post by wormlord »

lynguist wrote: post #53
wormlord wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 th…

It feels like under whatever hood one looks or whichever layer of paint one looks behind - when it’s a relatively new change in society, one always finds the root cause to be neoliberalism. Your comment reconfirms this especially pictorially with the last statement: productivity and it alone goes up and quality or service are not even part of the equation.

I get why people took issue with my parent comment, because it seems like I am just whining that economists are measuring the only things they can measure. But it's like the fish asking "what's water?".

why do we pay people to measure these things? why do they measure what they measure and not something else? why is this type of thinking dominant among the technocratic elite? Especially when the view from the ground floor only seems to be getting worse and worse.

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

#56

Post by copypasterepeat »

I wonder if the surge in productivity would hold up if you also take into account the productivity of delivery people, who are with the move to delivery apps as much a part of the kitchen-to-table pipeline as the people working in the kitchens. I don't have any data on what they typically make, but my very anecdotal evidence suggests it's usually not much, especially when you take into account the gas, wear and tear on the car, etc.

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

#57

Post by supertrope »

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…

It depends on the restaurant. If there is a line of patrons to be seated they will definitely nudge you toward conclusion. Even if they are not busy the more customers a waiter churns through the more they earn. I find tips deceptive. One is not evaluating service quality. It’s just letting them advertise prices at 75% of actual cost before 20% de facto mandatory tip and 10% sales tax.

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

#58

Post by infecto »

dylan604 wrote: post #52
satvikpendem wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I guess we need to define sit-down restaurants. Fast-food places with sit-down available typically has plastic seating. I know that the Chick-fil-a and McDonalds in the area do. Some of the gastropub places near me have bare wooden seating. It's part of their "charm" this thread is swooning about. It's literally just a wooden picnic table, but yeah, that's so worth that extra money.

Do we really need to define it? In America and Britain a sit down restaurant is defined as one where you are seated by a host and order via waitstaff.

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

#59

Post by dylan604 »

infecto wrote: post #58
dylan604 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we need to define sit-down restaurants. Fast-food places with sit-down available typically has plastic seating. I know that the Chick-fil-a and McDonalds in the area do. Some of the gastropub places near me have bare wooden seating. It's part of their "charm" this thread is swooning about. It's literally just a wooden picnic table, but yeah, that's so worth that extra money.

Do we really need to define it? In America and Britain a sit down restaurant is defined as one where you are seated by a host and order via waitstaff.

I guess we do, because I am not familiar with that specific definition

What about those "sit down" places where you load up a QR code, order from that site, pay from that site, but have a server bring your food? are they still a "sit down" place?

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

#60

Post by Izkata »

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.

There is an in-between, log cabin themed restaurants that have wooden benches and chairs without padding. They're not fancy in any way, but they're not fast food either. Granted they're not very common.
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