The state of the restaurant industry • Hacker News Board

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#261

Post by evo_9 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:20 PM UTC

joering2 wrote: post #241

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…

What's your mobile app please? :)

Davita Care Connect. Def. not 'my app', I just work on it.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#262

Post by mixmastamyk » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:21 PM UTC

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.

Sounds like you’ve never been to Albertsons. That’s why we usually drive to TJs, a few items are approx 40% cheaper.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#263

Post by linuxftw » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #211

Losing 30% of retirement savings likely caused a chunk of this as well. Maybe not the bulk but I’d bet it’s a factor in people pulling back on all spending.

Technically speaking, nobody should have lost 30% of their retirement savings. Young people should have much more saving to do, so it will be a smaller fraction of their overall retirement savings. Older folks should have been pivoting into less risky assets already.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#264

Post by markdown » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

jborichevskiy wrote: post #229

whatshisface wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can kick the can down the road until the virus goes away, you just saved the whole economy. The ability of my local Chinese place to serve customers is undiminished, my desire to eat Chinese food is undiminished, and all that's in the way is an ultimately temporary law.

> The ability of my local Chinese place to serve customers is undiminished, my desire to eat Chinese food is undiminished, and all that's in the way is an ultimately temporary law. Agreed on this. But the rent paid out during the period of reduced revenue coming in creates a delta that this loan is filling in. The loan still needs to be paid back (even assuming 0% interest). That extra money needs to come from somewh…

A better way would be to suspend all debt collection and rent collection for x months. That will keep lots of small businesses alive, and employees on reduced salaries will still be able to feed their families if they don't have to worry about rent.

Throw in food stamps for the unemployed and you're most of the way to keeping a nation going.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#265

Post by spookthesunset » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #180

dlandis wrote: post #5

Does that data indicate that seated reservations are only presently down 56% YOY in the US ? That's pretty discouraging if that many people are still ignoring standard guidance.

A friend of mine spoke to someone today who was not aware of COVID-19 at all . Literally had not heard the term.

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1053/

Probably don’t even need to click to know which one it is...

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#266

Post by SamPatt » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

oarsinsync wrote: post #245

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're home all day long one of the main spurs for going out to eat is gone, at the end of the day you're no longer too tired to make food, you're not getting home too late to make it at a good time, you don't need to save time. Thus the only spur left to wanting to order food is eating something tasty you can't make at home easily - I admit that is good but given that the delivery is also a potential virus delive…

There are a lot of us tech yuppies that either can’t cook or won’t cook. We will continue to order in all our meals. Of course that depends on the variety remaining. It may not. It’s been 3 weeks and I’m already starting to tire of my local options. Maybe I might end up learning to cook after all...

It's cheaper and better for you, and you can cook for your own preferences once you understand the basics.

It's a great time to learn!

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#267

Post by markdown » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #107

slg wrote: post #39

The government has talked about bailouts for various industries from airlines, to cruise ships, to shale companies. But almost every sector of the US economy is going to be hit by this and I have no idea how we are going to react. Will there be a restaurant bailout? What would that even look like? It is much easier to work on bailing out a handful of airlines but how do you handle it for literally thousands of small…

UBI is honestly the only solution here.

Nah, you could never pay enough (in the short term) to keep everyone going.

Suspend loan repayments and rent collection for 6 months, and print food stamps for the unemployed.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#268

Post by coldtea » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #260

coldtea wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stop with the doomsday panic. This lockdown thing isn’t going to last more than a few weeks at most—at least without massive social upheaval. Social upheaval against a "lockdown" becomes a moot point if people you know keep dropping dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdf5EXo6I68 Until this happens, I won't really think it was a "big deal" at all, and more along the lines of being merely a flesh wound.

Yeah, give it a month and come back to this comment section

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#269

Post by bentcorner » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:26 PM UTC

irrational wrote: post #255

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're home all day long one of the main spurs for going out to eat is gone, at the end of the day you're no longer too tired to make food, you're not getting home too late to make it at a good time, you don't need to save time. Thus the only spur left to wanting to order food is eating something tasty you can't make at home easily - I admit that is good but given that the delivery is also a potential virus delive…

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.

It's a spectrum. We normally eat out a lot and usually had a reasonably full fridge but ever since this all started I made sure our pantry and fridge were full, and we've been cooking at home ever since.

Re: The state of the restaurant industry

#270

Post by BenjiWiebe » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 7:26 PM UTC

oarsinsync wrote: post #245

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're home all day long one of the main spurs for going out to eat is gone, at the end of the day you're no longer too tired to make food, you're not getting home too late to make it at a good time, you don't need to save time. Thus the only spur left to wanting to order food is eating something tasty you can't make at home easily - I admit that is good but given that the delivery is also a potential virus delive…

There are a lot of us tech yuppies that either can’t cook or won’t cook. We will continue to order in all our meals. Of course that depends on the variety remaining. It may not. It’s been 3 weeks and I’m already starting to tire of my local options. Maybe I might end up learning to cook after all...

If you like the technical aspects of "tech", you could learn to love the technical aspects of cooking. You can treat cooking as a chore, an art, or a science. Your choice!