Restaurants closings

I just can't believe all the restaruants that have closed in this are just in the last  month or two...

Bakers Square, Lone Star, a nice Buffet restaurant, Sandpipers....Blows a persons mind...Getting to where we don't have much of a choice in this area....

Plus car dealerships....4 just down the one street here....closed

 

 

People are holding on to their money while the economy adjusts to the new realities (fuel costs, mortgage crisis, rising unemployment). We are well-off in our house, but we, too, have cut back on eating out. If we're cutting back, then I cannot imagine how many there are who truly cannot afford these luxuries.

 

There is a generation of spoiled people who are going to be shocked as they are forced to make choices, probably for the first time in their lives.

I was just talking with my Sister the other day about the Lone Star closing up.  She wasn't certain if the one in her area had closed and, sure enough, it had.

Anyhow, we were chatting about Lone Star closing and also Baker's Square and she made the very bright observation that it's hard for Restaurants to stay open when folks do not eat out as often any longer.  Go out to eat or put gas in your vehicle...

Personally, I think it will make Restaurants more competitive for the Diner's Dollar and that can only be a win win for folks who enjoy dining out.

Krissy     

I know.  But one thing you have to realize...the failure rate for independent restaurants in the first year is something like 75%!!!  And that's when the economy is good!  Don't know about franchises, but I have to assume it's lower.  All depends on whether you're filling a need & location, location, location!

 

I live in a big city.  When economy was WONDERFUL restaurants came & went with the wind.  Didn't even notice because others were always popping up.  Went to return to one - out of business, but a new one just opened across the street!  What I notice now:  less new openings of restaurants, more "deals" from existing ones, franchises are holding on prices.  In a booming economy, a marginal restaurant will sorta succeed, in a bust economy...down the tubes real quick.

 

I hope I made sense here.  Just because a restaurant was in business for several years doesn't mean it was "successful", just meant it made enough to stave off the creditors.  With less people going out now, those guys are just gone the way of the dodo bird!

I also think that when the economy goes bad, people must make adjustments, and one of the first adjustments for many people is eliminating dining out.  I understand that the restaurant business is tough and many businesses will fail, but I think that recently many of the closings have been related to the dip in the economy.

I heard it said that only 5% of restaurants are in business five years after starting out.  So many go out of business here all the time we scarcely notice.  And a new one pops up in its place.

Seems to me that a good restaurant will stay open if the service is good and the atmosphere is pleasant and, of course, the food is good.  The franchises need to make a lot to pay what they have put up front to run the name-brand place.

I wonder if it is a combination of people cutting back, and also the price of flour and food in general...I noticed also how the coffee cups are getting smaller and smaller...

I mentioned this to a waitress...her cup looked like a tea cup...She went and got me the old larger kind...She even hates them...More work for the waitresses because they have to run and refill these smaller cups more often...She does not see the reasoning for the smaller cups...with free refills...larger cups, less refills.,,,so what is the difference.

Other than Lone Star--which seems to be closing restaurants all over the country, I can't say I've seen many closing around here.  And due to a couple of family 'events', we've been out to eat a few times this week, and the restaurants seem to be doing a good business.  We still have lines at most during peak times.  And there are a LOT of new restaurants opening up, and as soon as they do, they're packed every night.

 

But I honestly do not see that things are as grim here (Philadelphia suburbs) as the national news is portraying.  People are working.  The housing market in this general area is holding, houses are selling for good prices and in my town it's actually UP.  People are buying cars, planning vacations.  I see people who are easily finding different jobs when they feel the need for change.  Interest rates on savings are going back up.  Obviously things are different in different areas of the country, and yes, I'm glad I'm here, where things are still very good.

A friend of my DD's works at a grocery store. She said that someone came in, and tried to steal about 2 - 3 hundred dollars worth of meat.

 

I said they were probably desperate, needed to feed their kids.  Why else would you try to steal meat? Kind of hard to resale it. 

 

Walmarts hamburger has almost reached 5 dollars a lb. Everytime you go, something has raised yet again, and again. No stop on any item just raising once.

 

I paid almost 17.00 for a hundred lb. bag of cracked corn today.  If people has a bunch of chickens, or animals that they depend on food or resale, it is going to be really hard for them. That is almost double the price just a few short months ago.

 

It is bad.

A friend of my DD's works at a grocery store. She said that someone came in, and tried to steal about 2 - 3 hundred dollars worth of meat.

I said they were probably desperate, needed to feed their kids.  Why else would you try to steal meat? Kind of hard to resale it.

 

Folks who are desperate and need to feed their kids don't steal 2-3 hundred dollars worth of meat unless their entire family is on the Atkins diet.

And yes, times are not the easiest right now but sadly, some folks simply steal because they always have and it's their means of obtaining stuff.  Meaning to say, some folks are thieves regardless of what the National and/or Local Economy is or is not doing.

Krissy~~~ 

 

Re: the stolen meat?  Guess you've never been to the inner city?  Stuff like that is sold every day, for pennies on the dollar.  It's a different world than most of us are used to. 

Krissy, you are right.  Now that I think of it,  some guys tried selling meat door to door at my Grandmothers' house. I didnt' open the door. Just figured it was one of those people with the trucks selling it.

 

I just can't imagine, selling meat like that.

 

Maybe they were having a big party somewhere?

 

They just tried walking out the door with it.

Truthfully the area where we live...central Illinois has been rather depressed for years! LOL  However, I did notice a big change when we were at the Lake this year, Osage Beach area in Missouri. ...Years past there would be so many boats on the Lake over the 4th that we rarely went out on the Lake that day!  This year way few boaters and many restaurants on the water have closed and the remaining restaurants were not very busy...many will not survive the slow down.

Molly