What’s sad is that syndication wasn’t even a new concept at that point.
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It’s really easy in comparison to ‘start’ a restaurant. It’s not easy to keep an independent one going long term. I know 3 local Asian restaurants in the Hershey/Harrisburg area that have shuttered, permanently since December. All have been due to rent hikes, low business, and economic factors. Keeping a restaurant open is NOT easy, and definitely not a retirement gig. You need to be a little bit crazy, passionate, and know what you’re doing, or damn lucky to do so.
It is so painful, my family friend’s buffet restaurant shuttered due to a rent hike in January. Landlords doubled the rent from 2500/month to over 5k. They emigrated here when my parents moved here, and both being Taiwanese, we became family friends. It’s so hard to move kitchen equipment out of a restaurant that’s been open for 14 years, just emotionally. I personally spent so many days being babysat there, because my parents had to work, and they had kids too, so it was convenient.
There’s a reason shows like Restaurant Impossible exist, because the food industry is not an easy gig. I know my chef, shows up at 6 am to start morning service at our hotel. He does not leave until 9 pm most nights he works, sometimes later if it’s a menu launch, or VIP service. I absolutely hate it when people say restaurant work is easy, the food industry is easy, or anything like that. The line guys and gals, and chefs work their ass off, come in around 2pm and don’t leave till midnight, while working in a 90+ degree environment, leave covered in grease and oil.
I have it flipping easy, I just deal with people out front. Right now as an industry, we are all suffering. I haven’t seen a paycheck deposit since March 13th and haven’t worked since around then too. Restaurants in themselves are a very low margin business, big money makers include liquor, and high end products that are easy to mark up (truffle shavings, etc). It’s not easy for independents to have capital to survive something like this, although possible if successful.
My 2 cents is that this industry is going to suffer, big time. Could be your local bar closing, or your favorite dine in place sizing down, who knows at this point. We were supposed to re-open on the 28th of March after a two week quarantine, big joke right now, and I haven’t received a shift schedule since March 8th.
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It’s true restaurant work is hard. I wouldn’t do it again.
If’n one doesn’t fancy all the above downside, one should aim for a different career.
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Yes. Restaurant expenses are location costs, food costs, and labor costs (in a nutshell). Food is a sh@t load more than labor. Servers go for 2.13-3/hr, bussers @ 12/hr+tips, and runners at 11.50 +tips. Line cooks in my area make around 17-25/hr FT with benefits and tip sharing. Of course this goes up, and salaried exec chefs, sous chefs, and head chefs obviously make more. My exec sous drives a '16 GT 350, so obviously he is making a decent amount.
However as @anon92897398 said, expect to get really dirty for what little payout you get. You for sure aren’t going to start out at a Michelin joint unless you got connections or some serious talent.
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Lance Stroll does not take kindly to people insulting his father like that.
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Anyone old enough to remember when local bookstores were a thing?
Some things don’t come back after they go away.
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Small sample size but seeing quite a few (more than usual?) higher end cars appearing for lease transfers lately
7-series, S-class, M cars, etc.
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My brother recently sent me this picture from my old stomping grounds on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. A local bookstore and a baseball card shop. I have absolutely zero idea how either of these places can possibly be in business after all these years, especially with the cost of rent. Whenever I see something like this I suspect money laundering or something else going on!
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Ive seen this too. Also it’s really tough for any high-volume high-competition business without real differentiation. Most restaurants are just average (at least in the American suburban northeast) and don’t really differentiate themselves other than a select few, making it hard for them to really thrive even when times are well.
Oh, local cafes will presumably come back. They just won’t necessarily be the same cafes that existed before…
Bookstores disappeared b/c of changing tech and market demands, so that was an industry/“genre” change that presumably occurred gradually over time. If/when local cafes close, it will be for very diff reasons and in a very different time frame (a sudden change not giving owners sufficient time to adapt).
So the two situations are not at all, IMHO, comparable.
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The same number will not come back IMO.
I think we can both agree that keeping an existing business open is one thing. Opening or reopening a business when there’s capital required to do so, that’s a very different thing.
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https://leasehackr-assets.b-cdn.netoriginal/3X/f/a/fa1d2da95137c6cef88e389d340df4dfb1ddaff6.jpeg
Paid off commercial space of significant value/original owners/money laundering. There’s a very large commercial retail space in downtown Old Englewood (Denver) occupied by a (I’m not joking) Bible store. Blows my mind.
At least the rarely open and usually empty Russian restaurants try to look legitimate.
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Investment banking paid this when i graduated in 2009, so I assume it paid more in 2020?
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Software engineering does as well, if you’re really really good.
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This is not how people who have this much money think.
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To be fair religion is the greatest product ever, selling an invisible (possibly non-existing) good to billions of people and raising billions of tax-free dollars.
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Religion might be a great business, but I’m not sure selling bibles is.
Most of our people pay cash. They swap cars every six months and don’t care if they lose money because it’s such a negligible about of money for them. If you’re making $50,000 a month what does $2,000 a month mean to you? Money is coming in way faster than it goes out. Had a guy literally yesterday say, “Listen to all these people haggling price. Your time is more valuable than $50 a month. Just pay the price and move on.”
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Good make your money off them. Bc we need them to get the deals we offer. $50/mo over 3 years is a mortgage payment for most people here.
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Ignorance at it’s highest.
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