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I appreciate your perspective, but regarding things not being that bad, it depends on your vantage point. I have a few friends with established restaurants in t

I appreciate your perspective, but regarding things not being that bad, it depends on your vantage point. I have a few friends with established restaurants in town. As you can imagine, this is pretty dire for them. They're looking at losing everything they've built up slowly over a matter of years being completely destroyed in the matter of a few months--with ripple effects to dozens of employees that are essentially "family". It's brutal. I agree that there are a lot of silver linings, which you've outlined pretty well, but for some folks, it is REALLY bad.

xwdv 7y ago
It sucks for your friends yes, but to be honest most restaurants fail and the only thing notable about the present situation is many of them are failing all at once. It’s not like a restaurant failing and putting entire families out of business is some surprising event. I’m sure it happens everyday. You have to look at the other side, when your friends restaurants fail and move out, new ones will move in with the same optimism as your friend originally had, except this time it may be better equipped to survive social distancing by adopting a “take-out first” approach.
- umanwizard 7y ago
  > most restaurants fail I don't have the numbers but this doesn't seem to match my anecdotal experience. Yes, restaurants do fail but I really don't think "most" of the ones I have seen in various neighborhoods I lived in failed. I haven't lived in Seattle for 4 years or Tucson for 7, but when I go back to those places, most of the restaurants I remember frequenting are still around.
  - lostapathy 7y ago
    Survivor bias. New restaurants open and close within a few months all the time. You aren't looking for them now because they weren't there long to begin with.
    - CydeWeys 7y ago
      Not relevant though, because the coronavirus is going to be killing many of even the previously long-established, previously profitable, well-run restaurants. It's a difference in kind. It doesn't matter so much when new restaurants churn (because that's the established order of things), but when all restaurants churn, now you've got a huge problem.
      - xwdv 7y ago
        No you don’t, the restaurant industry isn’t “too big to fail”, people can still eat food. And new restaurants will absolutely pop up to replace the ones that were gone, especially if they are lured in with discounts due to the excess supply of restaurant real estate. Only the best restaurants with strong support for takeouts and deliveries will survive, and that’s a good thing.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  You know the phrase "walk a mile in someone else's shoes"? Considering and internalizing the meaning behind it would really help you here to be more empathetic towards what the majority of people worldwide are going through right now.

xwdv 7y ago

It sucks for your friends yes, but to be honest most restaurants fail and the only thing notable about the present situation is many of them are failing all at once. It’s not like a restaurant failing and putting entire families out of business is some surprising event. I’m sure it happens everyday. You have to look at the other side, when your friends restaurants fail and move out, new ones will move in with the same optimism as your friend originally had, except this time it may be better equipped to survive social distancing by adopting a “take-out first” approach.

umanwizard 7y ago
> most restaurants fail I don't have the numbers but this doesn't seem to match my anecdotal experience. Yes, restaurants do fail but I really don't think "most" of the ones I have seen in various neighborhoods I lived in failed. I haven't lived in Seattle for 4 years or Tucson for 7, but when I go back to those places, most of the restaurants I remember frequenting are still around.
- lostapathy 7y ago
  Survivor bias. New restaurants open and close within a few months all the time. You aren't looking for them now because they weren't there long to begin with.
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    Not relevant though, because the coronavirus is going to be killing many of even the previously long-established, previously profitable, well-run restaurants. It's a difference in kind. It doesn't matter so much when new restaurants churn (because that's the established order of things), but when all restaurants churn, now you've got a huge problem.
    - xwdv 7y ago
      No you don’t, the restaurant industry isn’t “too big to fail”, people can still eat food. And new restaurants will absolutely pop up to replace the ones that were gone, especially if they are lured in with discounts due to the excess supply of restaurant real estate. Only the best restaurants with strong support for takeouts and deliveries will survive, and that’s a good thing.
CydeWeys 7y ago
You know the phrase "walk a mile in someone else's shoes"? Considering and internalizing the meaning behind it would really help you here to be more empathetic towards what the majority of people worldwide are going through right now.