Plunging sales and customer traffic at restaurants is surely a sign of an improving economy. Right? If all those Americans were getting jobs, as reported by the BLS last week, why would restaurant traffic be plunging? Inquiring minds want to know. I thought consumer spending was strong. The MSM told me so. This couldn’t possibly have anything to do with rising gas prices and the $1,000 tax increase for the average household. Could it? It couldn’t be because of rising healthcare costs due to Obamacare. Could it? It couldn’t be because of rising tuition costs created by the Obama student loan frenzy. Could it? Just because the last time we saw a plunge of this magnitude the country was going into a deep recession, doesn’t mean we’re not really in a strong recovery. Right?
“Although restaurant operators reported softer same-store sales and customer traffic levels in December, they are cautiously optimistic about sales growth in the months ahead,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the Association. “However, operators remain decidedly pessimistic about the overall economy, with only 17 percent saying they expect business conditions to improve in the next six months.”
bluestem says:
just wait until that $20,000 per family per year bill for Obama care hits this fall, we ain’t seen nothing yet. john
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4th February 2013 at 11:07 am
AWD says:
8 million people have left the workforce (vanished), and are not eating anymore. It’s okay, the rest of the boobus obesus Americanus are making up for it.
Mass Vanishing from Workforce Linked to Alien Abduction
With over 8 million people mysteriously disappearing from the US workforce during President Barack Obama’s first term, experts are working on a number of theories to explain this riddle, the most commonly mentioned reason being alien abductions occurring throughout the US on an extraordinarily massive scale.
According to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the number of people disappearing from the US workforce rose from 80.5 million when the president took office in 2009 to the current 89 million, while unemployment has remained steady near 8-9%. In other words, 8.5 million people have simply vanished in a way that can’t be explained by the usual retirement or disability trends.
“Since we can’t blame it on the economy, the only conceivable explanation is that someone is taking people out of the labor market by force,” said Malcolm Lenivie, noted economist for the DC-based Center for Keynesian Economics. “The President has spent $6 trillion in stimulus packages and all our studies indicate that his plan is working, so something else must be at play.”
Early theories included abductions by Mexican drug cartels, but leading security experts agree that it would be impossible to move eight million people across the US border undetected.
“Our border is extremely secure,” said border security analyst Jared Contrabandzis of the American Progressive Initiative, a non-partisan think tank. “No one can cross our southern border in any direction without our knowledge. The Border Patrol catches them all and reports them to the authorities.”
Sources say the President is taking this matter very seriously and is putting pressure on the Pentagon to investigate the possibility of alien abductions and to find a way to stop the disappearance of the American labor force.
Insiders in Washington speculate that if top brass in the US Air Force do not take immediate action, President Obama will likely fire a number of generals and reorganize the command structure.
“The President will not let this crisis go to waste,” said Lenivie, adding that heads will roll all over Washington until one of these theories can be substantiated. “We know for sure the problem is not caused by the economy, since all of our numbers indicate that recovery is well on its way. It isn’t just around the corner, it is here.”
The White House is ordering the Air Force to review surveillance footage from radar stations throughout the world for evidence of alien aircraft, as intelligence satellites are being re-tasked from areas like the Middle East and China to scour the continental US for possible stashes of missing workers.
“All those people must go back to work,” Lenivie said. “They are tax payers, and we need them to be productive in order to keep our economy moving forward and our debt payments current.”
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4th February 2013 at 11:10 am
tom says:
Wake up people! very good analysis
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4th February 2013 at 11:15 am
AWD says:
Food Industry to be Collectivized to Fight Discrimination
The Food Services Division of the Department of Social Justice has announced that, due to numerous cases of anti-progressive and counter-revolutionary activities within restaurants and other food service operations, the State will now undertake measures to seize and directly manage all food service enterprises in the USSA. The Party cannot tolerate the abuse of workers and peasants by Capitalists who insist on imposing their reactionary ideology on the People.
In a recent case in Oregon Oblast, a baker refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple planning to exchange pre-divorce vows. How can such an outrage occur in this era of Progressivism? Were this baker a patriotic Socialist, he would have baked the cake for free and shared with the oppressed sexual minorities who have nowhere else to turn for pastries but his shop!
In another case of blatant discrimination and forced proselytization of customers, a restaurateur dared to require patrons to show him their church bulletins to receive a discount for their Sunday afternoon meals. Citizens, we know that all religion is false, and we join with our brother atheist in his fight to suppress religious tendencies, but these outrages will not cease until all restaurants are brought under direct supervision of the State!
Only the government, directed by our Party under the leadership of Comrade Party Chairman and President Barack Barackovich Obama, will be able to stamp out bourgeoisie morality and Capitalist ideology that allows such retrogrades to think that they can turn away those citizens who have a social right to eat anywhere in our glorious USSA and be served as they deserve! So long as some citizens reserve for themselves the right to withhold their labor from the Common Good, how can we call ourselves a civilized country?
In both of these cases, the State is rushing to the aid of the oppressed, and we shall soon see the proper punishment of these hateful reactionaries. But, Comrades, more will soon be done in the form of managerial regulations that will strip all ownership from the oppressive Kulaks and place all authority to regulate business in the hands of the Department of Commerce Regulation, which is one of the State’s most effective civil rights organs.
We will soon see glorious days of total equality for all the workers and peasants of the USSA, where we will all eat in state-operated facilities and partake of food prepared to the identical standards of the government. What wonders of progress lie ahead for us!
Patriotic citizens, let us end all discrimination! Agitate for Collectivization of the Food Services Industry!
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4th February 2013 at 11:29 am
rick(a dick) says:
Hunger pains? This the fault of Dunkin ‘Donut , not ours. ALWAYS notify the officer that you have a concealed donut permit (CDP) and hand it over with a giant 40 ounce cherry slurpee when stopped.
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4th February 2013 at 12:12 pm
card802 says:
One billion dollars is spent annually on junk foods, two billion per year on soda pop.
That three billion is given to the FSA from taxpayers in the form of “food” stamps.
Yo it’s free, swipe that EBT………..
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4th February 2013 at 12:19 pm
Eddie says:
Does this mean I should fade the In-N-Out Burger IPO?
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4th February 2013 at 12:24 pm
Maddie's Mom says:
We opted to not have pizza delivered last night and instead had…tuna salad sandwiches while we ignored Beyonce’s half-time performance (as well as most of the game.) lol
Even our 28-yo daughter was thrilled with what was for dinner.
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4th February 2013 at 1:50 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
The 4 of us (2 adult children, Mr. HZK and I) went out to a popular and rather upscale seafood restaurant Saturday night.
It was packed at 5:30 pm. People were stuffing their faces with lobster, oysters on the half-shell, shrimp and salmon (me).
The tab was $200 for all of us, including 4 glasses of wine and a tip. (6 months ago the tab was $180.)
However, the food was absolutely fabulous, the service was great and spending time with the family was beyond price.
I don’t know what is happening in the rest of the country, but Texans are keeping our eateries very busy.
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4th February 2013 at 2:34 pm
Administrator says:
HZK
You aren’t the average American.
The Cracker Barrel crowd is running out of dough.
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4th February 2013 at 2:57 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
@Admin: HAHAHA, very funny, actually 3 years ago, our entire family ate at the Cracker Barrel for Christmas Dinner, so there. It was great, about $20/person, great food and no dishes to wash.
My coronary arteries have just about recovered from that so it is time for another trip, heh.
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4th February 2013 at 6:08 pm
Tim says:
HZK – Last weekend, I flew to Houston to visit a compadre of mine. We went to Pappas, also to have oysters, shrimp, & cold Shiners. It was the BEST! But, you’re right – The place was packed!!
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4th February 2013 at 8:02 pm
Makati1 says:
Those higher priced places will thin out over the next few years. Prices will go up and quality will go down. Oh and BTW, did you remember the Geiger counter to check the seafood? Did it come from Japan? ^_^
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4th February 2013 at 10:16 pm