A lot of restaurants fail because they are stupid

Yes these are trying times and there is a lack of workers.
Some of these places are just silly.

There is a local place, a little fancier than average. They were offering family to go meals since Covid. They just stopped to focus on in person dining.
Then they didn’t have enough staff so they are now closed two days a week. The to go family meals were a huge success. They even said it. Why on earth would you stop? I’ve seen this kind of thing so much. Lots of restaurants are good at cooking, bad at business decisions.
There was another place, I wanted a baked potato with my meal. They said it wasn’t offered with my meal only different meal. I offered to pay for to have it a la carte. Nope, either all or nothing. When you have customers throwing money at you, take it!

Here’s the other thing, no workers, no restaurant. There is no way around this. It does not matter if you don’t think they deserve 15 an hour or not. If you have zero workers you have no business (well until the robots) So what are the smart places doing? They are upping the pay. It works, they are still open. They are actually getting more business because people figure out real quick which places are slacking and avoid them. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. The places that are fully staffed are getting slammed with tons of business.

Some of you might say if a restaurant pays more they can’t afford to stay open. First of all, I don’t believe that in the majority of cases.
There was a time when owners would make slightly more than their workers. I remember it. Business owners lived in the same neighborhood as everyone else. Their houses were slightly bigger, but nothing crazy. Somewhere along the way we allowed that gap get to an obscene level. Now people actually believe it when they say they can’t afford to pay more.

Thief is more easy with drive thru. Owners have a much more difficult time to control like free drinks and that is where a lot of profit is made. Also when the boss isn't around, assist. mgr. could also be on the game also of cheating.

I've always wanted to run a business- but those darn customers are just not worth dealing with, so I never got around to it.

Now that nobody is willing to work for money I'm glad I don't have employees to deal with.

originally posted by: musicismagic
Thief is more easy with drive thru. Owners have a much more difficult time to control like free drinks and that is where a lot of profit is made. Also when the boss isn't around, assist. mgr. could also be on the game also of cheating.

This isn’t a fast food situation, its a restaurant where they sell a family dish, like a casserole and you pay for it ahead of time. Not sure how any theft could happen as it is all ordered online and paid for.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: musicismagic
Thief is more easy with drive thru. Owners have a much more difficult time to control like free drinks and that is where a lot of profit is made. Also when the boss isn't around, assist. mgr. could also be on the game also of cheating.

This isn’t a fast food situation, its a restaurant where they sell a family dish, like a casserole and you pay for it ahead of time. Not sure how any theft could happen as it is all ordered online and paid for.

OK, I understand now.

Had a roadside bar/grille here that got into a death spiral. Great potential but people stopped going because of the lousy service. So the owner cut staff resulting in even worse service….

More than one person told the owner “Please, you gotta do something here” to which their answer was “Don’t tell me how to run my business.”

So don’t know if it’s entirely stupidity, but it is hard to watch a place run itself out of business when success is right in front of them.

When I go to a restaurant, it is because I feel like getting served. Take out is not the same, if I wanted takeout I would go McDs or BK and order their dollar specials or go get take out from the deli at the store for half the price of the restaurants.

I am a pretty good cook, making things from scratch, and the wife is a good cook too, we make different kinds of foods we both eat...very good tasting and healthy from scratch foods usually, something you only find in restaurants where you pay over fifty bucks a person. Now why should I pay three fold the cost of our dinners to get something not as good without getting the service of a waitress or waiter. We still go out and eat a few times a month to remind us how good our home cooked meals are compared to the restaurants. Of course, I do like a good fish and chips dinner at a few restaurants, but would never get it to go. I do not have a big enough high quality frier to make good deep fried whitefish or Cod. But to go at the restaurant you wind up with soggy deep fried filets and the fries are not fresh anymore by the time you get it home.

originally posted by: gb540
Had a roadside bar/grille here that got into a death spiral. Great potential but people stopped going because of the lousy service. So the owner cut staff resulting in even worse service….

More than one person told the owner “Please, you gotta do something here” to which their answer was “Don’t tell me how to run my business.”

So don’t know if it’s entirely stupidity, but it is hard to watch a place run itself out of business when success is right in front of them.

It's kind of a pet peeve of mine - I've seen multiple restaurants fail in my area - double-digits in the last 2 years within 1 mile of me - while many were bad concepts or had bad food, so who cares? But many of them failed just b/c of bad staff.

This is a pretty wealthy area - and many of these restaurants hired local spoiled, lazy, and/or incompetent rich kids, and service and food quality in these places are completely unpredictable (family-owned and staffed don't have this problem.) I'm not paying premium prices for food that's basically Russian Roulette - spectacular one time, dog food the next.

I know what it costs to start up a restaurant, and it's irritating to me to know someone is gonna be out hundreds of thousands of dollars when they inevitably fail b/c some high school kids would rather flirt with the cashier than to wait his tables, that kind of thing.

It's on the manager, the GM, the investors - I don't pity them, really - they need to pay attention.

But it is a waste.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I can’t fathom why a restaurant charges 60.00 Australian dollars for two pieces of eye fillet, some green veggies, fries, a really small salad, and cracked pepper gravy.

When I could make the same meal at home for four for the same price. All fresh, not from typical frozen catering bulk packs.


I realise overheads etc, though some restaurants out there really think they can charge like a wounded bill.

a reply to: squittles
You are right, we have a little pizza shop near where I live, it’s family owned and run, really great people. Not time the pizza maker put oregano by mistake on the pizza, he then mad another one with no oregano.

I said to him it’s no problem, I’ll take the pizza.

Bd said I don’t want you to be dissapointed I want to make you happy.

The pizzas are really good better than the big franchises. Plus I am happy to support a small business.

a reply to: JAGStorm

You need a corporate restaurant for that, franchises will be hit or miss but mostly consistent, single owner though who is passionate about their craft... Well that doesn't fit into today's business model. Worry not, They will be gone soon

Being in business is difficult to say the least.

The difference between being a great chef and being a great business man are worlds apart. I have seen it in every industry. A great tradesman who can’t run a business or a great business man who can’t do anything with his hands. 90% of business fail in the first 5 years.

Add in the BS Covid scamdemic and we are going to see major businesses fail.

a reply to: JAGStorm

It varies from region to region, but a lot of restaurateurs don't realize how nightmarish the hygiene regulations are. Simply fitting out a kitchen can cost a fortune. Things like stainless steel fitting can trash your profit margine.

Glad to see that this trend of acknowledging 'STUPID' as the singular main contributing factor in the worst of our present real life experience is developing apace here on ATS. Check out these extra 'STUPID' threads while you're at it:

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity & The Five Laws of Stupidity

People Don’t even know what Racism is anymore

Never underestimate the power of STUPID people in large groups...

a reply to: lordcomac

Here in the UK they were offering to pay £35 per hour ($48 per hour!!!) for seasonal work to pick vegetables/fruits from the fields. But because they deem the work to be 'beneath them' the vast majority of British young people simply won't do it. Now that many of the foreign seasonal staff have been deported & are no longer able to obtain work permits, the jobs which used to pay £7.85 per hour ($10.79 per hour), as noted, now pay more than qualified professionals such as engineers & solicitors get when they start out the gate from university! As a result of the severe staffing shortage, many farmers were left literally losing their crops, rotting in the fields because the British youth are so damn privileged that they refuse to do it. Pathetic.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

so damn privileged that they refuse to do it. Pathetic.

did you see those jobs advertised?
or just the paper headlines?

a reply to: Rikku

This is information shared on social media by the farmers themselves. As I don't live in an agricultural part of the country (I'm something like 300 miles away from where this took place), I didn't see the actual job advertisements. I think the pay was offered as a desperate last effort to at least get a few workers in place so as to break even & prevent the loss of the entire crop due to having it rot away in the fields.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Around here those jobs pay $6 an hour plus a per pound bonus if you pick more than the expected amount of fruit.
I've heard of people averaging 20 an hour, but most just get the 6.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

As a result of the severe staffing shortage, many farmers were left literally losing their crops, rotting in the fields because the British youth are so damn privileged that they refuse to do it. Pathetic.

Ever picked fruit or vegetables from a field? I have, and it’s not worth $48 to break my back, get bitten by bugs, baked by the sun. Maybe those “privileged” kids are smarter than previous generations.

Maybe farmers shouldn’t grow more than they can manage. Farmers knew this before and they had many children to tend the crops.
Then farmers hired local teens, that sure didn’t last long. Then………………………….immigrants, illegal aliens, and a lot of downtrodden people, people I also call modern day slaves came to the rescue. We all know what happened there. I think a lot of these places didn’t enjoy the dirt cheap labor while they had it.

If there was one job I’m 100% for automation, it’s that!

originally posted by: Nickn3
Being in business is difficult to say the least.

The difference between being a great chef and being a great business man are worlds apart. I have seen it in every industry. A great tradesman who can’t run a business or a great business man who can’t do anything with his hands. 90% of business fail in the first 5 years.

Add in the BS Covid scamdemic and we are going to see major businesses fail.

100% the gist of my OP. This restaurant has amazing quality food, but it won’t be enough to save them.
I told my hubs, that is going to be the next one to bite the dust.

Customers were upset with the one day a week closure (on a weekend) but now with two is probably pushing it.