2/3 of restaurants will go out of business & would you pay extra fees?

[ua_guy]

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of restaurants are now operating food trucks. Some did previously and did a strong business in the downtown core and/or signing up with big businesses to park on campus during lunchtime. Now a lot of them have expanded into bedroom communities outside the cities. We now have big-name food trucks coming out to the eastern parts of our county, away from the city. They park in proximity to big housing developments and they appear to be doing quite well!

[disneysteve]

There are also a growing number of "ghost kitchens" where a chef rents a space and puts in a commercial kitchen but in some industrial park where rent is cheap. No physical restaurant - just a kitchen. Cook higher end food for pickup and delivery only. Low overhead. No servers or bus staff needed.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Yes I paid this service fee a lot when we went out over 4th of july. The only time I was angry was when it wasn't upfront on the restaurant about the new fee.

[Snicks]

As long as you know the terms up front, then it's your choice. And, in very busy locations, they can do things that would not fly in other locations.

[myrdale]

If their food is worth $100 a plate, they can demand it and people will pay it.

If you're canceling a reservation last minute, means they loose the sale if there is no one else to take your seat, then they are damaged. The deposit protects them.

I can appreciate paying for a good meal, but if you get much past the $40 a plate mark, I have to start questioning the true value.

[Snave]

Definitely not something we would institute at our restaurant. Also, this becomes challenging if you serve lunch and dinner. Do you change the fee? We have discussed the reservation challenge and cancellations. We get large parties that cancel all the time and it is ridiculous. We at least call that day and confirm so we can open the tables back up if they cancel.

[Syrupy]

If you conduct a sales team tracker of different restaurants and cafes, you can notice huge monetary declines and probably therefore additional monetary fees are charged for visiting and reserving tables in these places. To be honest, the actions are justified and logical and it is possible to understand entrepreneurs who raise prices for fees. However, for many people, this sounds crazy, since they do not understand economics at all and do not understand financial literacy. I would advise such people to first figure out what's going on, and then somehow speak negatively about any institutions or restaurants. Good luck and peace to all!

[ua_guy]

Did 2/3 of restaurants go out of business? Most appear to be open, thriving, and I've even seen some new restaurants where there weren't any before.

[disneysteve]

Did 2/3 of restaurants go out of business? Most appear to be open, thriving, and I've even seen some new restaurants where there weren't any before.

I don't think the 2/3 figure came to be but I found one source that said about 80,000 restaurants had closed as of December 2021 and probably more since then. The restaurants that have survived are seeing lower profit margins, labor shortages, and rising costs due to inflation, so it's very likely that even more will fail. It's a tough business in the best of times but with the ongoing impact of COVID and now rising inflation and a looming recession, even the ones that are still around are threatened.

I know we lost a number of restaurants in our area. At ones that are still here, prices have shot up, menus have been trimmed of options, and hours are often shorter than they used to be. As much as we love dining out, the 30-50% price hikes have really diminished our interest. Just last night we did Chinese take out. Dinner for the 3 of us used to run $30-35. Now it was $56 at the same restaurant. That's just not something we're likely to do nearly as often as we used to.

[kork13]

I don't think the 2/3 figure came to be but I found one source that said about 80,000 restaurants had closed as of December 2021 and probably more since then. The restaurants that have survived are seeing lower profit margins, labor shortages, and rising costs due to inflation, so it's very likely that even more will fail. It's a tough business in the best of times but with the ongoing impact of COVID and now rising inflation and a looming recession, even the ones that are still around are threatened.

I know we lost a number of restaurants in our area. At ones that are still here, prices have shot up, menus have been trimmed of options, and hours are often shorter than they used to be. As much as we love dining out, the 30-50% price hikes have really diminished our interest. Just last night we did Chinese take out. Dinner for the 3 of us used to run $30-35. Now it was $56 at the same restaurant. That's just not something we're likely to do nearly as often as we used to.

I'm seeing the price jumps & smaller (more efficient) menus across the board in restaurants as well, and it's definitely a pinch. It's approaching unheard of to get a meal out for <$10/adult, even including many/most fast food & quick-casual restaurants.

One consideration about restaurant "closures" is that many restaurants also transitioned from brick & mortar locations to mobile (food truck) or exclusively delivery/take-away (warehouse kitchen doing all the cooking, then either sent out for delivery or provided to customers via a pickup window. Alot of new food trucks have also been started.