Retail Watchers

Starting in April 2024, restaurants will have to pay $20 per hour. Restaurants initially tried to fight it, but it is not worth the money to try. Now the wage is consistent across all restaurants. So no chain needs to compete on wages.

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail ... 023-09-28/

Which means more people will brown bag, bento box, or cook at home- which means maybe we will eat healthier. Most fast food is not worth the price they are selling it for nowadays.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 19th, 2023, 6:44 pm Starting in April 2024, restaurants will have to pay $20 per hour. Restaurants initially tried to fight it, but it is not worth the money to try. Now the wage is consistent across all restaurants. So no chain needs to compete on wages.

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail ... 023-09-28/

This applys to restaurants with 60 or more locations nationally.

There's a quirky exemption for restaurants that make and sell bread, like Panera Bread. Don't be surprised if you see a lot of fast food places start baking their own bread. Might be a rather quick return on that investment.

babs wrote: ↑October 20th, 2023, 10:22 am There's a quirky exemption for restaurants that make and sell bread, like Panera Bread. Don't be surprised if you see a lot of fast food places start baking their own bread. Might be a rather quick return on that investment.

They had to have been selling loaves of bread for off premise consumption prior to some date that has already passed.

They can't start to sell bread now and exempt themselves.

If Panera thinks getting to pay under $20 is going to get them quality labor when the rest of the industry is paying $20 that is another matter.

Prices will just go up. A lot. And fast food prices in CA are already high.

And as sagaciously Jamcool said......................perhaps we may be encourage to eat healthful food.

There are too many fast food places anyway. I'd be happy if half of them were gone.

veteran+ wrote: ↑October 20th, 2023, 2:05 pm And as sagaciously Jamcool said......................perhaps we may be encourage to eat healthful food.

There are too many fast food places anyway. I'd be happy if half of them were gone.

They can serve healthy food but still will be forced into the higher wage program.

ClownLoach wrote: ↑October 20th, 2023, 4:06 pm

veteran+ wrote: ↑October 20th, 2023, 2:05 pm And as sagaciously Jamcool said......................perhaps we may be encourage to eat healthful food.

There are too many fast food places anyway. I'd be happy if half of them were gone.

They can serve healthy food but still will be forced into the higher wage program.

Does this apply to grocery store delis? Could they be a winner here if they serve sandwiches with a lower labor cost structure?

veteran+ wrote: ↑October 20th, 2023, 2:05 pm And as sagaciously Jamcool said......................perhaps we may be encourage to eat healthful food.

There are too many fast food places anyway. I'd be happy if half of them were gone.

Say Hi to the kiosk. I went to get a shake at Wienerschnitzel yesterday and they're already testing offshore order takers at a call center. By the time this is implemented fully I expect that the net result will be so much more automation that the total payroll of these restaurants will decline from when they only paid $15.50. These genius workers and their state board have signed their own pink slips. I wonder if they have stock in the robot and kiosk vendors?

babs wrote: ↑October 20th, 2023, 4:08 pm

ClownLoach wrote: ↑October 20th, 2023, 4:06 pm

veteran+ wrote: ↑October 20th, 2023, 2:05 pm And as sagaciously Jamcool said......................perhaps we may be encourage to eat healthful food.

There are too many fast food places anyway. I'd be happy if half of them were gone.

They can serve healthy food but still will be forced into the higher wage program.

Does this apply to grocery store delis? Could they be a winner here if they serve sandwiches with a lower labor cost structure?

I'm going to guess that the industrial code in the business license forces the determination. My understanding is that Subway, Jersey Mike's, Jimmy John's and such are all being forced into the $20/hour labor council program. Someone at Panera pulled a real fast one with the bread thing and I wonder if it applies to their other sister companies across JAB Holdings/JDE Peet's?