[kkingston57]

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy

Self serve is great with honest people, however, I have seen people walk off the streets into a burger king, with a cup, go directly to the soda fountain, get a drink, and walk back out the door.Therefore, the easiest way to stop inviting theft within their process is to stop handing out free cups with self serve soda at the same self serve machine as water.

Remember, its not about you when businesses make decisions, its about them and the customers and the freeloaders.

food prices are not really out of control, the pandemic has accelerated the retirement of many boomers, their move to the villages, and the expansion of the villages in the middle of nowhere has strained the limited service labor pool and competes with wages to keep the business from going bankrupt.

If you live in a capitalistic world, you live and die by capitalistic rules. The villages has been developed in the middle of rural FL, and continues to expand its population, resulting in the need for service labor for the increasing demand on current amenities. Food service is the biggest demand for service labor, and pays the least, minimum wage plus tips, and in a retirement community, tips might be hard to come by. The competition is 1 hour away in Orlando, where there are many jobs and many more than food service which pays higher.

So the local businesses have to pay either the dregs of society to work here or pay more to attract the next talent level up to staff or go out of business. And rural florida isn't full of high quality service labor looking for jobs. There are only so many service labor people who will work for retirees with higher wages and more social life 1 hour away. Likewise, if you want your service labor to live here, you have to pay a living wage, not a minimum wage, so

So pay up if you want the service business to stay in business for your business. Otherwise, maybe living somewhere else would satisfy your expectations of low prices. . .

Well said!!