4 ms·

Your local diner probably doesn't have months worth of cash sitting around. They make food, sell it, pay employees and open the doors the next day. That falls a

by jvm_ 7y ago

Your local diner probably doesn't have months worth of cash sitting around. They make food, sell it, pay employees and open the doors the next day. That falls apart pretty quickly if people stop buying their food.

internalthief 7y ago
One of my favorite bagel shops is barely making payroll during this shutdown, and only because they are heavily innovating how they keep customers. They are now offering meal kits, so you get a meal for two to four people in one easy go, they started shipping via USPS, and they are doing local deliveries. They make their own in-house butter, cheese and cream cheese so their kits do fairly well. They are also increasing what other items they are selling, such as adding bread to their lineup. Which is absolutely fantastic. But it's still hard for them, with the reduction in people coming in and sitting around they don't get people buying a bunch of coffee or having breakfast and then lunch while chatting. They have had to furlough some of their staff, and I really hope they make it through, because another favorite restaurant of mine is going under, they simply can't afford to keep going, even with a loan that would help pay salaries, there are other contracts and payables due that simply can't be covered with enough loans... loans against what collateral?
- xeromal 7y ago
  One of my favorite bread shops is basically in tears on instagram due to this thing. They've tried a few approaches to improve sales but they're basically closing shop for now.
remmargorp64 7y ago
So lay off the employees, have them collect unemployment. What are your operating costs? Really just the lease on the building. So don't pay the lease for a couple months. Who suffers? The commercial real estate holder. What are they going to do? Lease it to another restaurant while your doors are closed? So the commercial real estate investor loses out on some profit and/or defaults on their commercial mortgage payment to the bank. Now who is suffering? The bank! But what happens when the big banks don't get their real estate loans paid? They can always just put loan payments on hold for a couple of months, and instead of making $300 billion in profits that year, they make only a measly $100 billion. When it all blows over, the small/medium businesses can re-open and re-hire all of the people back again, and they can all stop taking unemployment. Life continues on as usual. Why should the average person have to suffer so that these big banks can keep charging interest on their loans every month? Why can't we just legally mandate that they have to put the loans on pause and suck it up like the rest of us?
- poulsbohemian 7y ago
  >What are your operating costs? Really just the lease on the building. My partner made the same mistake talking about a local small-scale brewery. Talking to the brewer, servicing the equipment loan was one of their biggest monthly expenses and their bank called them to tell them to defer payments for several months. Meanwhile, the landlord (actually a local government agency...) has sat paralyzed unsure what to do. Also, those commercial real estate holders aren't necessarily rolling around in cash either. So while yes, they should have reserves, that doesn't mean they can necessarily go months or years without a paying tenant in place. For that matter - the bank I mentioned above that did right by the brewer is a local bank. Not every bank is BofA, Wells Fargo, or Chase. Lots of banks in rural America look an awful lot like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.

by jvm_ 7y ago

internalthief 7y ago

One of my favorite bagel shops is barely making payroll during this shutdown, and only because they are heavily innovating how they keep customers. They are now offering meal kits, so you get a meal for two to four people in one easy go, they started shipping via USPS, and they are doing local deliveries. They make their own in-house butter, cheese and cream cheese so their kits do fairly well. They are also increasing what other items they are selling, such as adding bread to their lineup. Which is absolutely fantastic. But it's still hard for them, with the reduction in people coming in and sitting around they don't get people buying a bunch of coffee or having breakfast and then lunch while chatting. They have had to furlough some of their staff, and I really hope they make it through, because another favorite restaurant of mine is going under, they simply can't afford to keep going, even with a loan that would help pay salaries, there are other contracts and payables due that simply can't be covered with enough loans... loans against what collateral?

xeromal 7y ago
One of my favorite bread shops is basically in tears on instagram due to this thing. They've tried a few approaches to improve sales but they're basically closing shop for now.

remmargorp64 7y ago

So lay off the employees, have them collect unemployment. What are your operating costs? Really just the lease on the building. So don't pay the lease for a couple months. Who suffers? The commercial real estate holder. What are they going to do? Lease it to another restaurant while your doors are closed? So the commercial real estate investor loses out on some profit and/or defaults on their commercial mortgage payment to the bank. Now who is suffering? The bank! But what happens when the big banks don't get their real estate loans paid? They can always just put loan payments on hold for a couple of months, and instead of making $300 billion in profits that year, they make only a measly $100 billion. When it all blows over, the small/medium businesses can re-open and re-hire all of the people back again, and they can all stop taking unemployment. Life continues on as usual. Why should the average person have to suffer so that these big banks can keep charging interest on their loans every month? Why can't we just legally mandate that they have to put the loans on pause and suck it up like the rest of us?

poulsbohemian 7y ago
>What are your operating costs? Really just the lease on the building. My partner made the same mistake talking about a local small-scale brewery. Talking to the brewer, servicing the equipment loan was one of their biggest monthly expenses and their bank called them to tell them to defer payments for several months. Meanwhile, the landlord (actually a local government agency...) has sat paralyzed unsure what to do. Also, those commercial real estate holders aren't necessarily rolling around in cash either. So while yes, they should have reserves, that doesn't mean they can necessarily go months or years without a paying tenant in place. For that matter - the bank I mentioned above that did right by the brewer is a local bank. Not every bank is BofA, Wells Fargo, or Chase. Lots of banks in rural America look an awful lot like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.