In my local village, empty.
Indian places - empty
Thai places - empty
Italian places - empty
French places - empty
Lebanese places - empty
The only exception? Burger King. McDonald's. Pizza Hut. They're heaving.
People still gotta eat. They just trade down to crap.
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48 comments:
Actually, this is a very interesting study. It's not a simple as the nicer places are going down because everyone is eating fast food.
On my corner, the Carl's Jr. (fast food) is closed indefinitely. Chili's has gone under. However, the local Greek and Italian places are still open. In addition, an Indian/Pakistani place is opening next month. In general, it seems like the franchises are dying, but the mom 'n' pop places are not.
Here's my theory:
- Non-conventional thinkers seek out unique eateries. Non-conventional thinkers weren't as easily fooled by the REIC as joe sixpack.
- Outback/Applebees/Olive Garden are populated by people who are influenced by advertising. These are the same people fooled by the REIC.
- Franchise restaurants exist for the purpose of making a set amount of money. Once they fail at that, the parent corporation closes them quickly.
- Independent restaurants are extensions of the owner's personality. The owner is not just in the business to make a buck. He has some passion for making food and serving people.
- Family-owned restaurants have employees with a long-term interest in the business. The restaurant could be their inheritance. They are willing to work for peanuts for a few years to keep the thing afloat.
- Franchise restaurants employee a bunch of people living check-to-check. Even up the management chain, the employees are simply looking out for themselves in the short term. When things get rocky, the good people move on.
Is anyone else seeing similar trends?
If the Chili's and Carl's Jr. closing is the sign of things to come, bring on the depression.
In Manhattan and suburbs the ones that are always crowded are still, and the ones that aren't still aren't. It does seem like an unusually large amount are shutting down though.
The turnover can be ridiculous. A restaurant will open and six months later it will close. Then six months later it will be renovated and opened as something else.
My brother ownes a very nice restaurant near the beach. He's been in the business for over 20 years. For the first time ever he's been forced to close during the week. He's only open on the weekends.
Yikes.
I always ask the servers/bartenders most say things are doing fine. I did notice the other day that one of my favorite places was really slow, lots of empty tables. I always watch the parking lots at restaurants and there are usually packed, This is a military town so on the 1st and 15 and several days after they are always busy. We have been eating out less, do to the economy (packing away the cash) and nothing like a second baby to keep you at home. I'm in the Norfolk/Virginia beach area.
Basically most people love to go to restaurants BUT therefore it became an inflated product. Now this is going to end. Bill shock no longer. Mom and pop small quality restaurants with reasonable prices will do great in any economy. We have money because we will NOT overpay for anything at anytime ever no matter how much we make.
In my neighborhood the biz at restaurants is definitely down. The traffic in a liquor store -- a big wine and spirits place -- across the street is down too; the owner now thanks me for patronizing his place every time i make a purchase; he never did that before.
i've actually tried to patronize local shops/eateries more due to the economic crunch. i don't want these folks to go out of business and since i haven't been impacted by it -- and don't think i'll be -- i want to help out where i can. having the stores in your neighborhood go under would not be a good thing.
We went to a family franchise restaurant a month ago and decided to stop wasting our money on crap right there and then. The bill came to 80$ and frankly, we would have enjoyed Wendy's much more for 25$! That says a lot about the experience.
Now we're buying good, healthy more expensive food at a specialty grocer and eating in for much cheaper.
Restaurants ar dropping like flies here in roseville ca.Fast food is hanging in there.Mcdonalds is getting real expensive to me.2.79 for an english muffin, give me a break.I am going to jack n the box for 1.29 breakfast jacks.
I am clipping coupons now.
a co-worker and I went to a new-ish bar-be-cue joint in the bubbly/expensive ashburn area of Northern VA. we were literally the only 2 people in the whole restaurant other than the servers. I didn't see hardly any cars in the whole strip mall, this is a new area that was built in the last 3 or 4 years.
"In general, it seems like the franchises are dying, but the mom 'n' pop places are not."
That's my observation , too. YOKO fast food is doing pretty good. A small independent eatery. Panda Express is out.
Chatted with a lady the other day, she frequents this fancy restaurant located inside a golf course outside of NYC. Complained that the place recently laid off all the busboys, now no one refills the water glasses and or picks up the appetizer dishes like they used to. All the waiters as 'doubling up'. She sees this as a huge issue. Just wait until the Wall Street, Municipal Gov't layoffs come, lady.
We often have a bite at the bar when we go out. the regulars we see there really go for much more than food. It's their social network, occasionally a professional network, and sometimes I suspect an escape from a situation at home. I think these guys will continue going for much, much longer than their wallets would typically allow.
In Gainesville Fl a Wendy's just shut down on Archer Road which is on restaurant row. 40,000 students reside right around it, so that tells you something about the economy. Several other chain restaurants have closed and some family owned restaurants as well. But you know what they say, Gainesville is a university and medical town and we are different.
In Arizona they have year round golf and professional athletes, so the restaurant business should be fine, right?
On a more serious note: the local paper here did a story this summer about restaurants in the area. You had some folks saying that the economy must be fine because the popular restaurants were still very busy. When the reporter talked to the owners/managers and the state restaurant association. At peak times (when everyone goes) they were still busy . . . but the slow times in between were REALLY slow now and many places were considering shutting down for lunch or dinner, depending on when they got their biggest crowd.
And that was this summer before things really started heating up.
Get used to it folks, 20% of everything is going to close before this is over.
I like to eat beaver at the local hooters.Business is booming.Come by and get some action some time.No recession in our kitchens.
I'm in NYC, EVERY restaurant is full no matter what the price. People will cut back on clothing, cars, house upgrade, gifts, but they still want to see others and keep their social aspect firm.
Note I was in London all weekend and the restaurants were jammed, as always. nothing seemed any different.
I did talk to shop owners though and they said they were getting killed, especially ones with imports as the pound has tanked and to replace their inventories is getting much more expensive, at the same time traffic and receipts were down.
But it's really weird what seems to be happening in my village - it's like the people here (w/o london jobs) are in complete lock-down on spending. When I say empty, I mean EMPTY. As in 8pm at night and not a single person in a single restaurant. EMPTY.
It's spooky.
Except McDonalds. Packed.
What's a Restaruant?
Comfortably awaiting Armegeddon.
Mission Accomplished George and Dick.
1-20-09 The END of an ERROR.
Get used to it folks, 20% of everything is going to close before this is over.
Check out Minniapolis, (Moscow on the Mississippi, all bars/eating places are being savaged. Just ask the bartenders, owners. The smart guys have already made plans to bail out next spring when the cycle slows down.
I don't feel sorry for these closet communists. A sanctuary state for illegals. They loved their cheap illegal labor working on their homes that were making them richhhhhhhh. They also enjoyed looking at 20 year tradesmen (working men), telling them they charged to much and were no longer needed because the Mexicans work cheap. This socialist state is morphing into an economic gheto.
Pride commeth before the fall. These greedy scumbags have a long way to fall.
I will sign off with the names they gave me in 04.
Signed: Chicken Little, Gloom an Doom. (suffer greedy bitches.)
Give me a Big Mac over raw fish any day!
Thank goodness for SoCal taco shops. $3.75 still buys a two fisted carne asada burrito and all you can eat salsa bar.
Soon I should be able to get that same burrito AND a quesadilla for $2.50.
I used to hit the Wendys Value Menu-- small chili, side salad, baked potato, and a cup of water totaled $2.97. A full meal for under $3.00
Now the same costs $4.47.
A 34% increase in just weeks.
i stopped buying the large bag of Ruffles chips. It used to be 12 ounces for $3.79; now it's 10 ounces for $3.99. that's a 13% increase per ounce! or triple the rate of "reported" inflation. of course, we all know that figure is not even close to accurate. i'd say a rate of between 8% and 12% is more like it.
Absolutely no slowdown, no matter how hard I look, in Raleigh. Even my jobless friends still go out to eat. It makes me very uncomforable, though, because I look around the table and know none of us can afford it and just wonder about everyone else there, too.
Note: Raleigh is the only city I know where the unemployment rate actually dropped in recent months.
.
San Diego sushi bar
Was always busy,
But now, friday and saturday nights only.
.
well, all the crappy restaurants are closing and that's a good thing here in L.A. cause there's a lot of them still.
on the other hand,taco trucks are making a killing here.I do taco catering on the weekends(PC technician during the week) and business is crazy.Latinos were 90% of my business in '07,this year it's 60% Latinos and 40% whites and African Americans.
it's a golden era for the taco man...
Restaurants are closed due to Christmas parties. It does seem that they are making up for lost sales in other ways.
Two years ago the main restaurant on the waterfront here in Kingston, WA (across Puget Sound from Seattle) burned to the ground. The owner ran the numbers, perhaps saw the (economic) writing on the wall, and sold the property rather than rebuild.
Speculators bought the charred piece of ground and put up a billboard: “Pre-buy NOW on Luxury Waterfront Condos!” Out of curiosity I grabbed a sales flyer for an entertaining read. One condo was priced at $895K and the rest were over $1 million.
In Kingston, next to the ferry terminal, with all the noise & traffic? Give me a break. Apparently others felt these same sentiments, because eventually the billboard came down, and today this site is overgrown with weeds.
Wondering if other restaurants will suddenly begin burning down in this sinking economy?
-Mammoth
In the north metro area of Atlanta, it's the chain bar and grills that seem deserted. You know, the Applebees, Chilis, Fridays, Ruby Tuesdays. I imagine a few will disappear from this area the way Bennigan's did during the dot-com bust. The fast food places here seem to be doing a lot better, especially Taco Bell. I can't say anything for the independents though, there really were never that many around here.
I went to my client's Christmas party at Ruth/Chris steakhouse in Orange County. Normally packed with parties this time of year - Totally empty. My uber rich client who owns restaurants (as a hobby) in BevHills/Brentwood/Bel Air told me he has seen a 30% decline in receipts. He says even the filthy rich are hunkered down clipping coupons and not eating out.
Me, I'm happy with a $5.49 ultimate burrito from El Pollo Loco - hold the sour cream (too fattening) - Sooooo good.
Eating out is probably one of the expenses that people where people can most easily cut back. You can save hundreds of dollars per month simply by eating at home. Even when compared to eating at McDonald's, eating at home is the frugal choice, and you will get better quality food if you put a minimum of time and effort into cooking. Imagine if people were to save money and do those quaint things they used to do in the past such as living within their means and actually saving up for a deposit on their mortgage ;)
Everything is busy in New york. Olive garden is busy and so are the fancy places. I would guess that some of the more expensive places are down about 15%. The wait at the Olive Garden looked long.
yea i went out for a nice meal for my birthday this weekend. the restaurant of my choice was dead empty as we drove by so we went to another. seemed like everyone else there was there for a special occasion, handing gifts to someone, etc. the place usually needs reservations and the guy was surprised when i said we didnt have one. he found us a table in 3 seconds.
"Moscow on the Mississippi"
Yeah. Firing tradesmen and squeezing the remaining workers to lower wages. Marx would be proud...
Do Americans even know what communism is anymore? Or has it simply become an epithet for anything we don't like?
chslaxcoach, great comment, completely agree. Here in Seattle the restaurants are a little emptier, but still pretty busy, especially on Friday/Saturday nights.
McDonalds, packed. Wendy's, pretty busy. The local diner, busy with local people during the week and tourists on the weekend. Arby's, busier than it has been in years.
The premium dining entities, such as the Settler's Inn and Ehrhardt's, hardly any cars and both used to be packed.
I think it's a tourist issue...the locals don't use many of the 'fancier' places unless they're having a party or wedding.
We don't have any chain places here, so I have no stats to report.
The mom and pop places are okay too...they've raised prices, but the food is worth it.
Why is McDonald's booming? It's cheaper to feed your family there than it is to buy and cook the stuff. Plain and simple.
We did have a major retail store go down...Castle Antiques. They had 100,000 square foot of ridiculous shit no one needs...like 1000 dollar fountains, that kinda thing. Now that the sheeple can't even afford the mortgages on their McMansions, they sure aren't out buying crap to decorate it. Goodbye and good riddance...I'm hoping they turn the place into some much needed apartment space.
Expect most restaurants closing by end of 09! Those still open for business will be heavily guarded.
Yeah. Firing tradesmen and squeezing the remaining workers to lower wages. Marx would be proud...
Do Americans even know what communism is anymore? Or has it simply become an epithet for anything we don't like?
Hey smart guy Minnesota has the 4the highest tax rate in the nation coupled with the best welfare benifits combined with a 5 billion doller budget shortfall. See ya Stalin. (lord help us all!)
It may be a little easier to find a table here, but the places Mrs. Bukko and I go to are still well-filled. The Turkish restaurant on the shopping strip around the corner from us expanded recently to take over the sluggish chocolate store next door; knocked out the wall between them, and still is jammed whenever I walk past. Our local is doing OK because it's built up a trade with regulars from the neighbourhood.
Can't say about McDonald's because I haven't been in one for years except to take a McDump without buying anything. (And for this, I thank them.) We're foodies, and we read a lot about restaurants, but there has been no generalised outcries of woe from that trade.
Oz has Macca's, Hungry Jack's (which is Burger King flying under a different name), KFC, Subway and some other U.S. and Aussie low-end chains. There's not a big presence of mid-level chains like Applebee's though. The majority of restaurants are stand-alone, so they can adapt better than franchises with fixed concepts of what's allowed as part of the brabd identity. So when the crunch comes, it's not going to be a massive corporate take-down that will have visible shock waves. More like single candles being snuffed, one by one. But it's not happening en masse yet, so Aussies can keep pretending they'll be immune to the global Bush Depression.
"Hey smart guy Minnesota has the 4the highest tax rate in the nation coupled with the best welfare benifits combined with a 5 billion doller budget shortfall. See ya Stalin. (lord help us all!)"
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Thank you. Please continue proving my point, if you would...
I've paid taxes in Europe. They're higher. And even that wasn't socialism, much less communism. Borderline socialism (social democrat party like in Europe) would not be squeezing wages - it would be subsidizing them and erecting "protections" for them. Not a system I'd particularly like, but not communism by any stretch.
Please stop embarrassing yourself.
1-20-09 The END of "T"ERROR.
in my neighborhood the local donut shop with the best donuts around started charging 15.00 for a dozen and a half donuts (bought em for the ROTC) I knew they were out of their minds. They used to have regulars a cup of coffee and a donut. A special trip for some heart attack food for me and my son. Now they have an empty shop and an empty parking lot. I have never figured out why do these people think if they charge alot of money people will just acquiesce and just pay it. They don't, they say screw you go out of business. But if they were more reasonable they would keep the business. The last time I went to a restaurant the tab plus a tip was half the cost of my gas and electric bill for the month. When you start making comparisons like that, restaurants are sure to come out on the loosing end. I'll cook at home. But I mentioned that these businesses were failing earlier this year, and you didn't believe me. Watch for problems with COSTCO next. I'd would rather cook at home than eat at McDonalds. At least you can eat what you cooked the next day, McDonalds is only good until it's cold and then its to the garbage. I stopped eating at McDonalds when they charged me 1.50 or something like that for a hash brown and you can buy 12 of them for 3.50 at the store. But even better yet, I bought a big bag of potatoes and started making my own fresh potatoes fried, baked and mashed. the economy has changed a lot of bad habits eating out so much is the best habit to break. Plus I can eat as much as I want. There is a restaurant called in and out burger in my area, they have cut the regular hamburger in half and charge twice as much. I get a real hamburger at home with 2 slices of cheese and fat fresh fries and my own vanilla shake. It may cost more to get all that food but at least there are seconds the next day and everybody gets REALLY full.
Reminds me of the Pork & The Havana Ducks song....
I ein't leaving,
til I'm heaving,
and puking in the parking lot!
keyser soze
I've paid taxes in Europe. They're higher. And even that wasn't socialism, much less communism. Borderline socialism (social democrat party like in Europe) would not be squeezing wages - it would be subsidizing them and erecting "protections" for them. Not a system I'd particularly like, but not communism by any stretch.
Hey Stalin, that's exactly the point. To a communist or socialist they do not and could not exist. 90 percent of the people in this country consider clownifornia and the twin shities to be communist. You don't. Now the responsible conservative states are are being tapped to support their communist governments because they are bankrupt the same way you are mentally bankrupt. They will not succeed and these communist goverments will collaspe like your motherland, the soviet union. Take from the individual to support the collective, all communists are vile. Go back to Europe Stalin.
In my area, a lot of restaurants have died these past few years. Taco Bell, Hardee's, The Copper Kettle, a coffee shop, and some restaurant called "Element" are gone!
And as a surprise to absolutely nobody, McDonalds is still going strong....God I hate that place.
went out to eat tonight in nyc and the place was packed. absolutely full of people. i think it's because of christmas; people want to be out and having a good time. once next year kicks in, however, i don't expect as many people.
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