thegreenerside
05-22-2008, 08:57 PM
I just spent the last 30 minutes reading comments in Restaurant Disscussions forum. There seemed to be a couple of common themes about the restaurants in TV.
1. Poor Service
2. Poor Quality of Food
3. The restaurant is closed
4. Long waits
I wanted to comment on what I feel is happening in The Villages with the restaurants and other businesses for that matter. We here in The Villages ask for a decent product at a decent price in a timely manner. Not too hard to ask for as I feel it is a fair request. What we are encountering is just the opposite in several cases if not many. The Villages is a retirement community (I won't even bring up "leisureville") built in the middle of nowhere and while we have migrated to this oasis in North Central Florida it has not been so easy for the service workers to migrate here. Affordable housing for these service workers has been slow at coming to The Villages outer fringes. Without the affordable housing it makes it difficult for these restaurants to hire decent help.
Any business is as good as its employees and with all of these restaurants in The Villages there are fewer employees to staff. I feel that the influx of so many restaurants has actually made the going out to eat experience a drag on the village lifestyle. Now, I am not saying all the dining spots are horrible (there are just as many nice places to eat as there are not so nice places). With all of these restaurants here in The Villages the people need to properly staff them are spread thin. The demographics of TV makes it look like a windfall for the restaurant chains and mom and pops, but the demographics overlooked is who is going to work there.
I remember when TooJay's opened they bussed their staff in from Orlando for several months and the same is holding true for Bonefish. Maybe that is why chains such as Friday's and the Darden Restaurants have been so slow at coming. These restaurants can not be profitable once they discover the poor quality and quantity of service workers outside TV.
Lets take Dairy Queen Grill and Chill for example. DQ has been a staple of our generation since we were children. In fact the DQ you went to as a child may very well still be standing (maybe updated or moved down the road), but it is still there in your hometown. DQ here in The Villages was open for 3 years (approx) on 441 before it closed and the one on CR466 open 3 years before it closed. Do you know why it closed? The service was horrible, they could not find quality people to work there and it did not take long before we lost that taste for the soft serve ice cream. I don't necessarily blame the management or the company, but the fact that we have very few people to work these positions.
I believe what the Morse family has failed to do in building this wonderful community is help in building a service community to support The Villages. The Morse family should be developing communities that are affordable and enticing for service industry personnel to move here from large metro areas. Right now there is no reasonable person going to leave Tampa, Orlando, NYC, etc to come to TV to work. The Morse family should make that a priority and at the same time be entitled to a profit for bring these folks to our community.
Until there is a reason for good people to move to The Village area we are going to see multiple restaurants and other businesses come and go and we are going to continue to be disappointed with our eating out experience.
With all that said it is time for dinner.
1. Poor Service
2. Poor Quality of Food
3. The restaurant is closed
4. Long waits
I wanted to comment on what I feel is happening in The Villages with the restaurants and other businesses for that matter. We here in The Villages ask for a decent product at a decent price in a timely manner. Not too hard to ask for as I feel it is a fair request. What we are encountering is just the opposite in several cases if not many. The Villages is a retirement community (I won't even bring up "leisureville") built in the middle of nowhere and while we have migrated to this oasis in North Central Florida it has not been so easy for the service workers to migrate here. Affordable housing for these service workers has been slow at coming to The Villages outer fringes. Without the affordable housing it makes it difficult for these restaurants to hire decent help.
Any business is as good as its employees and with all of these restaurants in The Villages there are fewer employees to staff. I feel that the influx of so many restaurants has actually made the going out to eat experience a drag on the village lifestyle. Now, I am not saying all the dining spots are horrible (there are just as many nice places to eat as there are not so nice places). With all of these restaurants here in The Villages the people need to properly staff them are spread thin. The demographics of TV makes it look like a windfall for the restaurant chains and mom and pops, but the demographics overlooked is who is going to work there.
I remember when TooJay's opened they bussed their staff in from Orlando for several months and the same is holding true for Bonefish. Maybe that is why chains such as Friday's and the Darden Restaurants have been so slow at coming. These restaurants can not be profitable once they discover the poor quality and quantity of service workers outside TV.
Lets take Dairy Queen Grill and Chill for example. DQ has been a staple of our generation since we were children. In fact the DQ you went to as a child may very well still be standing (maybe updated or moved down the road), but it is still there in your hometown. DQ here in The Villages was open for 3 years (approx) on 441 before it closed and the one on CR466 open 3 years before it closed. Do you know why it closed? The service was horrible, they could not find quality people to work there and it did not take long before we lost that taste for the soft serve ice cream. I don't necessarily blame the management or the company, but the fact that we have very few people to work these positions.
I believe what the Morse family has failed to do in building this wonderful community is help in building a service community to support The Villages. The Morse family should be developing communities that are affordable and enticing for service industry personnel to move here from large metro areas. Right now there is no reasonable person going to leave Tampa, Orlando, NYC, etc to come to TV to work. The Morse family should make that a priority and at the same time be entitled to a profit for bring these folks to our community.
Until there is a reason for good people to move to The Village area we are going to see multiple restaurants and other businesses come and go and we are going to continue to be disappointed with our eating out experience.
With all that said it is time for dinner.