For all you restaurant complainers
 

Study: 49% of small restaurant businesses couldn’t pay October rent | Nation's Restaurant News

And before you think that because the restaurants you go to are full, that doesn't mean that there is enough gross profit after the increases in COGS (cost of goods sold) and labor increases to pay ALL the rent.

So yes, its a tough industry right now, and there will be times when there is crappy meals and crappy service based on the price of the meal.

Will the landlord throw them out? doubtful, as 1/2 rent is better than no rent, and with 1/2 the restaurants in the same position. . . . but then again, there are greedy SOBs landlords out there.

And your point is?

I think the OP point is that 1) accept high prices, regardless of high they go, and stop your sniveling 2) accept poor service (but still tip 20% plus) 3) Landlords that expect their tenants to pay their full rent as promised are heartless, and they should suffer any financial hardship instead of their tenants.

I don't see this as a problem at all. Restaurants are not essential businesses. The ones that can't compete will go out of business. So what? The ones that remain will be the better ones, and some people may choose to spend more money at the grocery store.

Read paragraphs 3 & 4 and you will have your answer.

:loco::loco:

4) We should have empathy for mismanagement and for those who make poor business decisions. Perhaps even forgive their debt and give them a participation trophy, because that's how the USA works today.

$18 for two number 6's at Mcdonalds is pretty ridiculous. Don't tell me that aren't making money!

Sorry, not a MD fan so that does seem like a lot.

30 percent off if you use the app plus earn rewards

What is a number 6 at that store? A $5.50 sandwich, $2.00 drink, and $1.50 fries doesn't sound unreasonable and would be $18 for two.

You’ll pay more at the grocery stores but won’t accept paying more at restaurants. Yet, big corporations have increased their profit by nearly 40-50%. Let’s just ignore that. Price gouging proposals were made but voted down. Let’s ignore that too.

Should you decide to sell your house, please do not gouge the buyer.

Bravo - 2 medium pizzas to go yesterday -$53 yikes

Holy crap! Never had pizza from there and doesn't look like I'm going to any time soon unless I hit powerball

We all know that's different

It has ALWAYS been a tough industry. The numbers are all over the board, but in clicking around the numbers that appears most often are that 60% of restaurants fail in their first year and 80% within five years, the #1 cause of failure being lack of experience in the business.

Thank goodness we have the ability to vote with our feet, so to speak. I am unforgiving of poor service and/or poor food quality no matter where I encounter it, all the more so in these days of rising prices. I tip 10% no matter what, 15% for average service. For really excellent service and food I’ll tip as high as 30%, especially if we are frequent patrons of such a place, which drives my wife up the wall but there is a definite advantage to being known as a good tipper. It guarantees good service the next time out. Example: Americanos in Spanish Springs. We eat there frequently; good food, really competitive prices and excellent service. We’re on a first-name basis with a couple of the waitstaff and we always get good service there.

You had my attention until you mentioned that you consider Amerikanos the place you can act like the Frank Sinatra of The Villages.

To the best of my knowledge, NO ONE has the job or is responsible for making sure restaurants, or any other business is successful by spending our money there if we don't want to. We should patronize places we like and spend what what we feel is reasonable. It is not our responsibility to tip outrageously to put a waiters kid through college or to fill the pay gap the business owner won't pay so they can keep a larger portion for themselves. If a business fails, it is sad, but it is not my fault or yours. No need to feel guilty.

I believe the OP is sayin' in a nutshell..
 

To all the winey Villagers who grab any chance to jump on here and spread the news far and wide when their sandwich was crumpled or an eye roll has occured from staff, that the entire restaurant should be shuned and cancelled. Then they are the first to complain there is no variety or "good" places to go.. In my 3+ years here I've seen and heard it all...With all the things happening in our world they still feel the need to get up and relive their experience to all like we are waiting with baited breath daily to hear. Now I insert my eye roll...

It all depends on how much you like dining out. It’s a personal choice, and we like it a lot, so will put up with the occasional indifferent service or a not so great meal. A close friend of mine recently said “We don’t do that (dining out).” She cooks at home and prefers that. To each, their own.

Reflecting the costs of doing business, prices at restaurants in TV, and many other places, have gone up. I looked over Thanksgiving Day menus at various restaurants that were posted on their websites. For a Turkey dinner with the usual sides, the going rate was $30-$33 per person. And that was lower than the price of steaks on their regular menus ($40 and up).

Haven’t gone to fast food since my retrievers passed…. They loved the value menus….

Food prices ARE going up. Was at the grocery store yesterday and one lb. of butter was $8.00. Have you priced steak, roasts etc lately?? The restaurant industry is being impacted too.

Greedy landlords who need the rent to pay their mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance?
They are in business - why should they subsidize the restaurant? Is a landlord supposed to take a hit for a business that isn't doing well whether it's a restaurant or any other business?

BRAVO!!! Apples to oranges comparison, with a side of deflection thrown in.:ho:

Doordash. Same food, better dining experience at home

I really don't see how price gouging is an issue with food. The consumer has so many choices about where to eat and what to eat, and there is competition everywhere. You can even go to a soup kitchen for free, if you want. How do you get price gouged on food?

Oh come on I even know that’s false, BUTTER Publix $4.41, Aldi $3.29

I got my free Turkey at BJ’s sales promotion. I don’t believe in welfare and refuse to support overpriced gouging restaurants. Planning a Thanksgiving meal for 6, salad to desert is not over $100 plus the wonderful leftover Turkey Sandwich’s

You’re obviously not aware of they app where you can get some great deals .

Just last week I had a double cheeseburger, fries , drink and 4 McNuggets special through the app for $4.99 plus tax. $5.35 total….

They have a bunch of other deals that may suit your liking…

The business model of some restaurants here, contributes to high turnover. I posted somewhere else in ToTV about this. If you enjoy the food, and want the place to succeed, and want the employees to be glad to work there and express that via excellent customer service, then tip them separately with cash. You don't have to overtip them. You can still do the ACTUAL standard (not the artificially inflated standard created by egotistical men who think flaunting their wealth gets dates)...

15% = did their job correctly, gave the minimal expected customer service. Passed the buck immediately to management on any/all challenges.
18% = did their job well, and gave an attentive, positive experience to their customers. Attempted to handle challenges politely and professionally - escalated only if the customer was still dissatisfied.
20% = was outstanding in every way, especially if they overcame challenges in a positive manner without needing to involve management.

If they were anything less than 15% then tip nothing, and tell the manager why.

But tip in CASH. Reason:

Many of these places require that employees pool their tips. If you pay by credit card, they never see the tip until their paycheck 1-2 weeks later. And they don't get to do the tallying themselves. They get whatever the manager tells them they got, there's no accountability. The AVERAGE pay for wait staff is $10 per hour INCLUDING tips - because Florida law allows the restaurant owner to pay LESS than minimum wage, and then add the tips on top of it. As long as that total comes to $10 or more, the restaurant owner can just pay the minimum. If it is under $10 they have to add to it until it becomes $10.

Imagine your ACTUAL earnings in tips was $100 for one shift, and you worked 5 hours. You earned $20/hour on top of your minimum wage. YOU earned that money. But the restaurant owner takes the $100 and splits it between all employees. The only people who the owner can pay less than minimum, are the ones who are expected to earn the tips. The bus boys, cooks, hostess - they all earn minimum wage because they don't receive tips from customers.

But the manager will split YOUR $100 among all those other people. If you're lucky you'll get $20 of that $100 that you earned.

If you pay the wait staff directly, in cash, they can pocket the whole thing. They earned it, it's theirs. That makes for happier wait staff who are sincerely glad that YOU (as opposed to anyone else) came in. YOU will be treated better next time. It's more likely the turn-around in the place will be less, the standard of care they provide to their customers will be higher, their overall satisfaction with the job will be higher, and the restaurant will prosper more.

How many topings? and including tax? Could be about right

Tip on Take Out
 

I would start a new thread, if I knew how to. Question is tipping on take out. During covid when many restaurants were take out only, I tipped on orders I picked up the same as I would if eating at the location. Servers were hit hard and I'm doing ok. Now that it is over, tipping on take out seems to have become a standard thing. Picking up a pizza ($35.00 for a pizza, what is happening), getting Chinese take out. When you go to pay many now ask how much to tip. Some give suggestions from 15%, 20%, 22%. I generally will give 10%, but do not fully understand what that is for. When dining in the tip is for service during the meal, interaction, bussing etc.. Do people tip on take out, and if so how much?

If they bring the order to me at the curb, I give them a buck or two.
If I have to go in (or to a drive-thru) and they just pass it to me over the counter or through the window, they get no tip.

Restaurant owners don't have to pay tipped employees the usual minimum wage. That would be bartenders and waitstaff. Everyone else gets minimum wage.

It's a minimum wage job. Non-waitstaff and non-bartenders don't rely on tips for their pay to equal $11/hour. Only waitstaff and bartenders do. So they're the only ones that get my tips.

The take-out person who hands you a bag is getting minimum wage (or better). Toss'em a buck if it makes you feel better, but don't add a tip to the credit card charge - or you might end up discovering that the waiter inside the place who you never even saw, who waited on other customers but not you - got a share of that tip.

You've obviously never been in the restaurant business.

Waitstaff holding out "cash tips" in a "split tips" business model (which most are) are grounds for immediate firing ... as it should be.

Bus boys, hostesses & bartenders are typically "tipped out" by other serving staff, as they contribute to easing the servers' work load.

Any restaurant that doesn't play fairly with "credit card tips", isn't going to be in business very long. The tip is clear on the CC receipt and state and federal regulators are all over this issue. It would pretty difficult to get away that for very long.

& why should anyone get paid in cash? So they can cheat on their taxes?

Even if pooling tips is the practice at a restaurant, I still tip in cash even if I pay the bill with a credit card. The waitperson sees the tip and knows that it is because he/she did a good job. Conversely, a smaller-than-normal tip gets the opposite message across. A line on a credit card payment slip…not so much.

Back in the day, I would tip using $2 bills or in dollar coins. In some Asian restaurants, Chinese especially, a $2 bill is considered good luck. A $6 tip in the form of three $2 bills got remembered a whole lot more than, say, six $1’s. It is good to be remembered in a positive light when returning to a restaurant. It guarantees good service.

This appears to be "the sign of the times". Restaurants are one data point on a whole spectrum that makes up the overall economy. That is, wholesale supply costs AND retail prices and company profits are in a less stable FLUX than several years ago. That dangerous word........INFLATION has taken over the US and world economies. The FED has some tools to tame inflation and return a RUNNING AWAY system back to normal growth. But it is tricky in that, do they slam on the brakes or do they just tap the brakes through interest rate hikes?

If the FED gets its difficult mandate wrong, then more restaurants will go under. And the restaurant industry could be the "tip of the iceberg" and more and more businesses could be closing.

The "sign of the times" could be........CLOSING.

The general term for ALL those price increases is INFLATION. It had a year-over-year rate of 9.1 % this June. Which is the largest in 40years. In general, older people on fixed incomes are the MOST adversely affected by inflation. That's why it is affecting everyone and especially in The Villages.

Rapid inflation is a destabilizing situation. It affects the group psychic of people. Rapid change of any kind is hard to deal with. "Price gouging" in restaurant prices or any other industry's prices may or may not be gouging. Some businesses may take advantage of the inflation situation to get excessive profits. It is harder to prove in a chaotic situation like rapid inflation. Also sometimes businesses in one local area might engage in collusion. Also, in industries with small numbers.

His point is, in these troubling times, restaurants should not be forced to pay rent.

The same goes for other business and residents, why not?

Actually take a dollar off. The governors cut(tax) is 7%.