Restaurants Closing Earlier

[Alpha8472]

Restaurants are closing 6 hours per week earlier than before the pandemic. There is a shortage of employees, fewer people dining indoors, and more people staying at home.

If we could get more employees who would work for low wages and few benefits, would this help?

If only there were a huge supply of people willing to work for low wages? Where can we find these people?

https://www.nrn.com/first-bite/restaura ... -heres-why

[HCal]

I think the restaurant space is oversaturated. Many towns have more restaurants than they can support. Demand is dropping, due to both COVID and higher prices. Independent restaurants face pricing pressure from chains. All restaurants face pressure from fast food, QSR's, and even supermarket delis. Unfortunately I don't think this is going to improve, and some restaurants are not going to survive the upcoming recession.

[storewanderer]

I think the restaurant space is oversaturated. Many towns have more restaurants than they can support. Demand is dropping, due to both COVID and higher prices. Independent restaurants face pricing pressure from chains. All restaurants face pressure from fast food, QSR's, and even supermarket delis. Unfortunately I don't think this is going to improve, and some restaurants are not going to survive the upcoming recession.

The restaurant space is perpetually oversaturated. I don't know the statistics but a very large percentage of restaurants fail within their first year. This has always been a really tough business to break into but there is no shortage of people who take a crack at it and try it. And in a surprising number of cases many people who fail once, try again (after they go work as an employee somewhere for a few years to get back on their feet), and see if they can make it work a second time (or third time, or fourth time...).

There are going to need to be some changes to these restaurants. Many of them have simply gotten too expensive. Menus need to shrink. Portions need to shrink. Hours probably need to be dialed back some (perhaps to go only during certain hours). Some chains have been on the decline for years but for some reason with restaurants it is a very slow decline for chains.

I like to think independent restaurants will make it and chains like Applebees and IHOP will fade off, but that probably isn't what is going to happen.

[pseudo3d]

I think the restaurant space is oversaturated. Many towns have more restaurants than they can support. Demand is dropping, due to both COVID and higher prices. Independent restaurants face pricing pressure from chains. All restaurants face pressure from fast food, QSR's, and even supermarket delis. Unfortunately I don't think this is going to improve, and some restaurants are not going to survive the upcoming recession.

The restaurant space is perpetually oversaturated. I don't know the statistics but a very large percentage of restaurants fail within their first year. This has always been a really tough business to break into but there is no shortage of people who take a crack at it and try it. And in a surprising number of cases many people who fail once, try again (after they go work as an employee somewhere for a few years to get back on their feet), and see if they can make it work a second time (or third time, or fourth time...).

There are going to need to be some changes to these restaurants. Many of them have simply gotten too expensive. Menus need to shrink. Portions need to shrink. Hours probably need to be dialed back some (perhaps to go only during certain hours). Some chains have been on the decline for years but for some reason with restaurants it is a very slow decline for chains.

I like to think independent restaurants will make it and chains like Applebees and IHOP will fade off, but that probably isn't what is going to happen.

Shrinking portions and menus aren't going to win customers. It's the same thing as the dreaded "under new management", especially when food quality, cleanliness, and other things get cut to save costs, but ultimately the restaurant goes under. Funny you should bring up chains, the restaurants in my area that died due to COVID were mostly chains--Fuddruckers, Applebee's, and Red Lobster came up as the big losers in 2020, though I'm pretty sure they were all doing marginal business.

[storewanderer]

Shrinking portions and menus aren't going to win customers. It's the same thing as the dreaded "under new management", especially when food quality, cleanliness, and other things get cut to save costs, but ultimately the restaurant goes under. Funny you should bring up chains, the restaurants in my area that died due to COVID were mostly chains--Fuddruckers, Applebee's, and Red Lobster came up as the big losers in 2020, though I'm pretty sure they were all doing marginal business.

They have to make sure, whatever they do offer, is, you know, actually really really good, to make up for the portion shrink and menu shrink. Many of these restaurants tend to over portion their food. They know they over portion because customers often don't finish all their food and either take leftovers or just leave it (restaurants should be watching what happens with that to figure out exactly what they need to do).

Applebee's remains open in my area, they've never closed a location (fascinating to me), but I am not sure how popular they are anymore. Red Lobster also remains open and is somewhat popular.

[jamcool]

I think the restaurant space is oversaturated. Many towns have more restaurants than they can support. Demand is dropping, due to both COVID and higher prices. Independent restaurants face pricing pressure from chains. All restaurants face pressure from fast food, QSR's, and even supermarket delis. Unfortunately I don't think this is going to improve, and some restaurants are not going to survive the upcoming recession.

Restaurants were over saturated before COVID, according to the trade magazines in 2019/2020, there was talk of “ghost kitchens” and fewer brick and mortar sites then.

[jamcool]

I think the restaurant space is oversaturated. Many towns have more restaurants than they can support. Demand is dropping, due to both COVID and higher prices. Independent restaurants face pricing pressure from chains. All restaurants face pressure from fast food, QSR's, and even supermarket delis. Unfortunately I don't think this is going to improve, and some restaurants are not going to survive the upcoming recession.

The restaurant space is perpetually oversaturated. I don't know the statistics but a very large percentage of restaurants fail within their first year. This has always been a really tough business to break into but there is no shortage of people who take a crack at it and try it. And in a surprising number of cases many people who fail once, try again (after they go work as an employee somewhere for a few years to get back on their feet), and see if they can make it work a second time (or third time, or fourth time...).

There are going to need to be some changes to these restaurants. Many of them have simply gotten too expensive. Menus need to shrink. Portions need to shrink. Hours probably need to be dialed back some (perhaps to go only during certain hours). Some chains have been on the decline for years but for some reason with restaurants it is a very slow decline for chains.

I like to think independent restaurants will make it and chains like Applebees and IHOP will fade off, but that probably isn't what is going to happen.

Shrinking portions and menus aren't going to win customers. It's the same thing as the dreaded "under new management", especially when food quality, cleanliness, and other things get cut to save costs, but ultimately the restaurant goes under. Funny you should bring up chains, the restaurants in my area that died due to COVID were mostly chains--Fuddruckers, Applebee's, and Red Lobster came up as the big losers in 2020, though I'm pretty sure they were all doing marginal business.

You know Red Lobster was having problems when they switched to Pepsi.

[BillyGr]

Shrinking portions and menus aren't going to win customers. It's the same thing as the dreaded "under new management", especially when food quality, cleanliness, and other things get cut to save costs, but ultimately the restaurant goes under. Funny you should bring up chains, the restaurants in my area that died due to COVID were mostly chains--Fuddruckers, Applebee's, and Red Lobster came up as the big losers in 2020, though I'm pretty sure they were all doing marginal business.

Though shrinking portions in packaged items doesn't seem to make people stop buying them, so maybe it will work here as well if they do that in lieu of raising prices (which is what the packaged companies do).

[pseudo3d]

Shrinking portions and menus aren't going to win customers. It's the same thing as the dreaded "under new management", especially when food quality, cleanliness, and other things get cut to save costs, but ultimately the restaurant goes under. Funny you should bring up chains, the restaurants in my area that died due to COVID were mostly chains--Fuddruckers, Applebee's, and Red Lobster came up as the big losers in 2020, though I'm pretty sure they were all doing marginal business.

Though shrinking portions in packaged items doesn't seem to make people stop buying them, so maybe it will work here as well if they do that in lieu of raising prices (which is what the packaged companies do).

It's not the same, partially because packaged items are required to print the size, and people DO notice when portions at restaurants go down. I guess restaurants can and do get away with slowly cutting portions and gaslighting people into thinking that their portions were never that large, but that's never something that should be encouraged.

[BillyGr]

Shrinking portions and menus aren't going to win customers. It's the same thing as the dreaded "under new management", especially when food quality, cleanliness, and other things get cut to save costs, but ultimately the restaurant goes under. Funny you should bring up chains, the restaurants in my area that died due to COVID were mostly chains--Fuddruckers, Applebee's, and Red Lobster came up as the big losers in 2020, though I'm pretty sure they were all doing marginal business.

Though shrinking portions in packaged items doesn't seem to make people stop buying them, so maybe it will work here as well if they do that in lieu of raising prices (which is what the packaged companies do).

It's not the same, partially because packaged items are required to print the size, and people DO notice when portions at restaurants go down. I guess restaurants can and do get away with slowly cutting portions and gaslighting people into thinking that their portions were never that large, but that's never something that should be encouraged.

I never said that they wouldn't notice that the portion got smaller, but if they also see that the price has stayed the same (while most if not all other restaurants are raising prices), people could easily see that as a valid trade off.
Getting a little less food for the same price vs. getting the same amount of food for a higher price is just two different ways of doing the same thing (raising the price per unit, if you will).