4 ms·

Not trying to sound unsympathetic to those with struggling businesses, but: I don't get why there were so many restaurants in the first place. Everywhere I've

Not trying to sound unsympathetic to those with struggling businesses, but: I don't get why there were so many restaurants in the first place. Everywhere I've been, it seems like there's literally 10+ restaurants per square mile. In cities it's 100+, not exaggerating. And it's not even unique restaurants either: in my local town there are multiple Mexican restaurants, Italian restaurants, Chinese restaurants, American restaurants, with a lot of overlap in the menus. Why? My parents hate to cook and get takeout almost every night. And even they don't get every restaurant, in fact they like to get the same few. Meanwhile, I cook for myself and almost never get takeout because it's healthier, cheaper, easier, and even IMO it usually ends up tasting better anyways. It's mostly common knowledge that the restaurant business sucks to get into anyways. So why are there so many restaurants?

devoutsalsa 5y ago
Does your area have a lot of immigrants? A lot of immigrants start a restaurant because they struggle to find meaningful employment elsewhere (e.g. was a doctor in home country being forced to do minimum wage home healthcare in the country they immigrated to because of licensing issues).
soared 5y ago
I think brand awareness plays a role here. A low quality restaurant can stay in business forever because many people don’t do a lot of research (foot traffic, ordering online, etc). I live in a city and it takes a long time to learn what restaurants are good and bad. Probably plays a role in why there are so many - you can do a bad job and still stick around, at least for now.
jandrewrogers 5y ago
Where I live, there is a high density of restaurants -- no corporate chains either -- and they are all packed full of people most days. I'd say it is a simple matter of supply and demand. There are so many restaurants because there are so many customers. But you are correct that the restaurant business is terrible from an investment perspective. For some people, the restaurant business is their calling and what they know well, can't fault them for that even if the margins are poor. It is like being a startup founder. Mostly a bad idea on a purely economic basis but many people feel compelled to do it.

devoutsalsa 5y ago

Does your area have a lot of immigrants? A lot of immigrants start a restaurant because they struggle to find meaningful employment elsewhere (e.g. was a doctor in home country being forced to do minimum wage home healthcare in the country they immigrated to because of licensing issues).

soared 5y ago

I think brand awareness plays a role here. A low quality restaurant can stay in business forever because many people don’t do a lot of research (foot traffic, ordering online, etc). I live in a city and it takes a long time to learn what restaurants are good and bad. Probably plays a role in why there are so many - you can do a bad job and still stick around, at least for now.

jandrewrogers 5y ago

Where I live, there is a high density of restaurants -- no corporate chains either -- and they are all packed full of people most days. I'd say it is a simple matter of supply and demand. There are so many restaurants because there are so many customers. But you are correct that the restaurant business is terrible from an investment perspective. For some people, the restaurant business is their calling and what they know well, can't fault them for that even if the margins are poor. It is like being a startup founder. Mostly a bad idea on a purely economic basis but many people feel compelled to do it.