A quarter of US restaurants will go out of business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a forecast by OpenTable, which reported that total restaurant reservations and walk-in customers have fallen 95% over the previous year ending May 13.
The company tracks over 54,000 restaurants on its reservation site, which offers the ability to make online, walk-in, and phone reservations – but does not track data for take-out and deliveries, according to Bloomberg.
Submitted by Vixen Vic
Salzburg may not be the official capital of Austria, but some would argue it’s a cultural one. Its most remarkable notoriety lays in the field of music, having been the birthplace of Mozart and home to the famous hills that housed the von Trapp family — in real life as well as in The Sound of Music. The city boasts other famous and historical sites, however.
Continue reading “Take a Look Inside the 1,200-yr-old Oldest Restaurant in the World”
“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” ― Thomas Jefferson
Yesterday the government reported a “modest” August budget deficit of $108 billion. That’s one month folks. This is another example of how the government and their mainstream media mouthpieces portray horrifically bad, extremely abnormal financial data as normal and expected. They pretend everything that has happened since 2008 is just standard operating procedure. They follow the Big Lie theory to the extreme. The masses have been so dumbed down, desensitized, and taught to believe delusions, they can’t distinguish the abnormal from the normal.
Month after month I watch as the MSM mouthpieces try to spin declining consumer spending in a positive light. They are practically out of excuses. They are befuddled, because month after month they report “awesome” job gains and can’t understand why all these gainfully employed Americans aren’t buying shit they don’t need like they used to. These faux journalists, spouting propaganda for their ruling class bosses, are willfully ignorant of the fact the job gains are in low paying part-time jobs and the fact that Obamacare and record high rents are sapping any discretionary income households would use to buy stuff.
Despite the propaganda from the media and happy talk from the Liar-in-Chief, the country is currently in a recession and the Fed has no ammo to fake another recovery. We are going down and going down hard. When 70% of your economy is based on Americans buying shit they don’t need from China on credit cards, a dramatic slowdown in consumer spending equals recession. When sales actually fall from November to December during the holiday season, you are in recession. We’ve arrived.
The December report was a disaster and portends horrible retailer results coming down the road. More ghost malls coming to your neighborhood. The annual results were pitiful, with the more recent months even more dreadful. So after adding 10 million jobs, according to Obama, spending declines? They must be great jobs.
I think the results are even worse than portrayed in the results presented by the Census Bureau. Retail sales grew by only 2.2% in 2015 versus 2014. That is significantly less than the real inflation being experienced by real people, so on an inflation adjusted basis they fell. Even the 2.2% increase is artificially pumped up by the Fed induced auto debt fueled boom in car sales (or long-term rentals in reality). The 7 year 0% auto loans, subprime auto loans to deadbeats, and record levels of auto leases have created fake demand that will end in tears when the defaults skyrocket. If you remove these fake sales, then total retail sales are up a pitiful 0.9% over 2014.
Two recent surveys, along with numerous other studies and data, reveal most American households to be living on the brink of catastrophe, but continuing to act in a reckless and delusionary manner. There have certainly been economic factors beyond the control of average Americans that have resulted in real median household incomes remaining stagnant for the last 36 years. The unholy alliance of mega-corporations, Wall Street and bought off corrupt politicians have gutted the nation of millions of good paying jobs under the guise of globalization, while utilizing debt, derivatives and financial schemes to enrich themselves. The malfeasance of the sociopathic privileged class does not discharge the personal responsibility of citizens for living within their means. A lack of discipline, inability to delay gratification, failure to understand basic mathematical concepts, materialistic envy, absence of critical thinking skills, and a delusionary view of the world have left the majority of Americans broke and in debt.
The data that captured my attention was how little the average American household has in savings. Roughly 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings and 21% don’t even have a savings account, according to a new survey of more than 5,000 adults conducted this month by Google Consumer Survey for personal finance website GOBankingRates.com. This dreadful data is reinforced by a similar survey of 1,000 adults carried out earlier this year by personal finance site Bankrate.com, which also found that 62% of Americans have no emergency savings for a medical crisis, car repair, or unanticipated household expenditure.
Only a government drone, liberal moron, or union douchebag couldn’t see this coming from a mile away. Instituting a mandatory $15 minimum wage is about the dumbest government enforced idea ever. When Seattle announced it, Obama and his liberal minion hordes applauded and declared victory in the war against greedy capitalists. Now it goes live in two weeks. The impact in the real world is already being felt and will really sink in after more small businesses close up shop, more workers lose jobs, and prices jump for everything in the socialist paradise of Seattle.
Of course restaurants were going to close. All restaurants operate on very thin margins. That’s why very few survive over the long-term in the first place. Family owned restaurants are always living on the edge. This is how it works in the real world. Waitresses at restaurants are paid approximately $2.83 per hour. Oh the horror!!! A waitress working a 4 hour lunch shift or dinner shift at a moderately priced bar/restaurant can generally make between $80 and $120 in tips. That is $20 to $30 per hour, along with their $2.83 pay. According to the IRS, 10% of their total sales must be declared as tip income.
The restaurant only incurs $11.32 of expense for the 4 hour shift for each waitress. They incur huge costs for food, liquor, equipment, utilities, and the avalanche of taxes, fees, and regulatory expenses weighing them down from government drones. With profit margins of 5% or less, a mandatory $15 minimum wage for every waitress increases that labor cost by more than 500%. Their choice is to raise prices drastically, which will drive patrons away, or shut down. Consumers will not accept menu prices going up 25%. The restaurant is forced to close by government mandate.
It’s the same with mandatory sick days. Philadelphia just passed a law requiring small businesses to give every worker 10 sick days. In the restaurant industry, if you are sick you call a fellow worker to take your shift. It’s rarely a problem. Now the restaurant is stuck with the drastically higher expense of owing sick days to dozens of workers.
The control freak liberals act like they are helping the poor and disadvantaged, when all of their laws, regulations and taxes do is make more people poor and disadvantaged. What a fucked up country.
Guest Post by Rick Moran
Seattle is about to embark on a civic experiment that most experts predict will be an economic disaster; a $15 an hour minimum wage is set to go into effect on April 1st. And some restuarants in the city have already shuttered their doors and are either going out of business or moving to friendlier climes.
This was entirely predictable – and was predicted when the measure passed the Seattle city council. Restuarants are particularly sensitive to this sort of increase in wages since most of their employees are paid at the minimum, and such a large percentage of their operating costs go to labor.