5 ms·
There's a lot going on with restaurants in the US, and unfortunately the end result is going to be even more small businesses closing while the McDonalds and Ap
by JohnWhigham 5y ago
There's a lot going on with restaurants in the US, and unfortunately the end result is going to be even more small businesses closing while the McDonalds and Applebees persevere and contniue to spread like the plague.
I don't see a way out of it either. Raise wages? Small businesses have to raise their (already elevated because they can't compete with Chipotle on scale) prices to compensate, people will look elsewhere. Eliminate tipping? Still have to raise prices, which leads to customers leaving.
Starting a restaurant is just plain fucked in the US.
- nradov 5y agoThe commercial real estate market is a major factor. Most new restaurants lease space. If they become popular and have to renew the lease after a few years the landlord will typically raise the rent enough to capture most of the profit. Larger chains have more flexibility in that they can often take on longer term leases, purchase real estate outright, or move locations without losing customers. McDonald's in particular takes an extremely savvy approach to real estate portfolio management.
- cafard 5y agoAn obituary in today's NY Times remarked that Neary's in NYC survived in part because the owners bought the property.
- eli_gottlieb 5y agoStarting to think that the guys on Twitter saying "everything is a housing issue" sort of have it right. I didn't know that even in major industries, real-estate had become one of the dominant expenses and a major threat to the viability of businesses.
- mpsslh 5y agoTime for robot severs and automation to take over jobs no one wants to do