He’s NOT wrong…
I truly hate to hear about the number of family restaurants, long time, restaurants, and historic restaurants that are closing their doors…
If you can, support those ‘local’ restaurants that continue to serve up the good, wholesome meals (or at least meals you actually enjoy eating).
It would be nice if more geographically-local restaurants were “local” restaurants rather than chains.
Given a choice and the knowledge, I always eat at a proprietorship, especially when the owner is at the restaurant. There’s very little chance of anything going wrong, and if it does go sideways, the owner is there to fix it. I also tend to pay in cash, and I always leave my gratuity in cash.
That being the case, the minimum wage slaves fast food chains hire can be truly unbelievable. I’ve seen arguments develop in a second over nothing. I’ve also heard the infamous line, “You ain’ tell me what tah do!” A few places near me have closed up.
At the same time, Dollar General and similar stores have cut back on the hours they’re open. The reason? No one will work there for the wages they pay and the work they demand, plus “shrinkage”. Theft is so prevalent you wouldn’t believe it.
One store that’s fighting back is the drive through liquor store down the street from me. They post photos of thieves and troublemakers behind the counter and in the window. It’s a proprietorship, the clerical staff are always nice, and some days they keep a friendly little dog behind the counter. On request, they let the dog out to greet the customers.
It is hard as good restaurants are getting worse, more expensive, and less closer. This is true if they are chains or not chains. It is difficult as our money limits going to a restaurant. I live in the south so prices are not as bad as the north.
This week, I went to an old, venerated, hole-in-the-wall Mexican joint in Phoenix. The lunch menu was $20 per plate. There were very few people there, and it’s usually packed. They’re in a death spiral, as are so many places like theirs. It’s not worth $20 for a lunch portion of beans, rice, a taco, and a cheese enchilada. I won’t be back.
More discussion of same over at Kim’s place–
https://www.kimdutoit.com/2024/09/03/its-the-cost-stupid/
IMHO, another symptom: Gas at stations here along Hwy 20 got down to $2.65/gal. over the holiday weekend. Very few could afford the gas to travel out of town.
The Mom and Pop restaurants and stores that survived Covid are falling to the minimum wage hikes and trouble finding help generally it seems. I personally know a few that find they do as well catering as they were doing at the end with their restaurants, with fewer hassles. The locally owned restaurants that seem to be thriving have multiple locations which I guess helps build brand loyalty and recognition.
Last week, the only New Orleans style restaurant in my area had to close their doors for good. All the normal reasons, price of food to high, unable to fill the house because no-one has any spare cash, etc, etc. Mackey’s Munchies was a true family owned and run business and the food was GOOD!
Now where am I gonna get my begnets?
All- you’re all right. Dammit… And yes, even the local places are having to raise prices. It’s pretty bad when a local steakhouse (with a ranch supporting it), is forced to charge ‘market price’ for their steaks. And the Mexican restaurant we used to frequent a couple of times a week (and get out for under $30 for three), was $40 for the SAME meal today.
We’re taking our grandson to one of our favorite getaways next week. Thanks to C19 and such, this will be our first visit in a couple of years. Be interesting to see which of our goto places have been affected by C19 and the insane CA minimum wage hikes. We usually go to small family owned places, so here’s hoping they’re doing OK.
The local taqueria opened in 2004 and we’ve been steady customers, as they’ve grown to 4 stores plus a food truck in one of the larger small towns.
They’ve increased prices once, but I discovered the very hard way that they’ve made one of the toppings less expensive with a different ingredient. I suspect it used to be cornstarch (in guacamole, most likely), but is now flour. That is something my GI system objects mightily to, and it takes over a week to recover.
Sadly, that mini-chain is now on the Forget-it list. ($SPOUSE is flat out allergic to the flour, and we’re both mighty wary of foods that try to kill us…)
I think I get to blame Biden/Que Mala for that fiasco.
Java- I’ll be interested in what you do or don’t see.
RC- Ouch…
We always frequent the “Mon-and-Pop” places here. We did back in SoCal, too. It took us four years before we found a really good Mexican restaurant, but it was worth it!
In my area, it’s the fast food and chains that are going under and the mom and pop places are holding their own. A few weeks back, our local pizza place had to raise prices, the owner apologized to me. I completely understand as every time I go grocery shopping the prices go up, so why wouldn’t prices of the products they have to buy to keep their place running do the same?
LL has a point, sadly, and where does that leave us? With “pop ups” and people selling food off-grid at a sensible price? Maybe so.