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The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

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

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because drones are noisy and irritating in reality and nobody wants them flying around their neighborhood and they don’t scale and they can potentially scare animals and and and…

And they can't press buttons in the elevator. I don't think any delivery service will take off in a city if people have to leave their apartments.

[deleted]

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

#112
post #67

I wonder if there are also cultural/regulatory differences here. I'm in the EU, and of course we had the forced shift to takeout as well, during covid. But while homeoffice as a concept stayed, restaurants very quickly went back to in-house dining when it was over. Seeing a takeout-only restaurant with a repurposed dine-in area here in 2025 would be beyond weird and would probably just give everyone covid flashbacks.…

>I wonder if there are also cultural/regulatory differences here.

It has more to do with cost of rental and salary difference, comparing to median Income and spending. And it is a world wide thing.

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

#113
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the move away from cash coincided with COVID but was not related much. The convenience of digital simply made cash useless (mostly).

> The convenience of digital simply made cash useless (mostly). Useless? Wait until your digital transactions fail or your bank or your state decides to block your access to your payment system. And believe me, it's not a "if", this is a real threat that will be waged against people. When it's technically possible, it always ends up becoming a reality. And by that time, "going back to cash" may not be an option in ce…

Is that more or less likely than the state deciding to block your access to freedom, and arresting and imprisoning/deporting you?

When you live in an authoritarian state with arbitrary law 'enforcement', the problem isn't the payment system that you're using. It's that you no longer live in a country of laws.

And that's not a problem that's going to be solved by using dead tree money.

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

#114
post #105
post #86

People got out of their comfort zone during COVID and tried new things. Campgrounds got packed, people got into skateboarding… if you look at statistics, you’ll see a 2020-ish bump for many interests and an associated sudden growth in revenue. But the question is how long it will last… Some outdoor brands that expanded with new stores post-pandemic discovered that many people who tried camping/surfing/etc. only had a…

> Tech companies that hired during the pandemic found out a lot of people who tried online meetings/online work only did it because they had to and stopped as soon as they could and these companies had to lay off staff. Quite the opposite: Many (US) companies are still figuring out how to get their office employees to actually start coming to physical offices again. There seem to have been more lasting pandemic-cause…

People only were working remotely that much because everyone was forced to be home which was unprecedented. It can only possibly go downhill from “everyone was forced to be home.”

But even that aside, according to Gallup, exclusively remote employees fell from a high of 70% to a measly 26%(!).

Many employees did transition to hybrid work but working fully remotely is very different than knowing that you’ll see Mary and Bob in the office tomorrow.

https://www.gallup.com/401384/indicator-hybrid-work.aspx

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

#115
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the move away from cash coincided with COVID but was not related much. The convenience of digital simply made cash useless (mostly).

> The convenience of digital simply made cash useless (mostly). Useless? Wait until your digital transactions fail or your bank or your state decides to block your access to your payment system. And believe me, it's not a "if", this is a real threat that will be waged against people. When it's technically possible, it always ends up becoming a reality. And by that time, "going back to cash" may not be an option in ce…

I don't see the relevance in your comment. I'm saying it's useless in the sense that I haven't paid for nearly a single thing in cash in a year or two, and this is because of convenience and not because of COVID.

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

#116

> 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…

On the flip side, many bars and restaurants are throwing lots of attention to entertainment and in-person experiences.

It’s a lot easier to find in person entertainment.

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

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because drones are noisy and irritating in reality and nobody wants them flying around their neighborhood and they don’t scale and they can potentially scare animals and and and…

And they can't press buttons in the elevator. I don't think any delivery service will take off in a city if people have to leave their apartments.

Uhhhh, balconies?

Reach out of an open window like a reverse drive-through?

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

#118

> 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…

This sounds too similar not to be - Fukada?

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

#119
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating out seems less popular in the the US right now. Everything is more expensive and there's the 18-25% tip that gets applied. Going out to even a basic lunch with my wife is close to 50 usually for the meal. Takeout I can tip the delivery person a little less. And keep left overs a little easier. Take out is only for being lazy, I'd still just cook and meet or beat in quality any restaurant except ones that mignt…

most restaurants are absolutely terrible value for money.

Depends on what you value. If all you value are calories, then sure, there are much cheaper ways of getting the calories you need. But if you value time, or novelty, or the dining experience, or conversation with a neighbor or even just the bartender then there are plenty of places that cater to your values.

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

#120
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tech companies that hired during the pandemic found out a lot of people who tried online meetings/online work only did it because they had to and stopped as soon as they could and these companies had to lay off staff. Quite the opposite: Many (US) companies are still figuring out how to get their office employees to actually start coming to physical offices again. There seem to have been more lasting pandemic-cause…

People only were working remotely that much because everyone was forced to be home which was unprecedented. It can only possibly go downhill from “everyone was forced to be home.” But even that aside, according to Gallup, exclusively remote employees fell from a high of 70% to a measly 26%(!). Many employees did transition to hybrid work but working fully remotely is very different than knowing that you’ll see Mary a…

Another thing driving people back is actually IT departments. Managing remote devices is difficult and adds a lot of complexity. I did a couple years of contracting after COVID and a lot of these companies had to scramble to figure it out and now have weird hacked together hybrid AD/Intune/AAD setups that now are an unwieldy mess. Buying whatever laptops they could find on short notice has led to random makes and models that present another set of challenges. Much easier to manage when all the devices are in the office and everyone has the same ThinkCenter that gets policy from the local domain controller.

I'm a huge proponent of WFH but I think the cost of the management challenge that presents is often ignored. Is it a net saving for the company? Maybe. IT departments? Absolutely not.

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