[RexImperator]

Quote:

This is a whole class of restaurants that just needs to disappear, and no one will ever have to pretend to enjoy their good-timey-ness ever again.

[Rhyme or Reason]

Bumping this thread. As I understand it, these chains have suffered even more since this thread was posted.

At this rate, I'm wondering if ANY bars and restaurants will even exist 20 years. The jobs won't be there. The reason won't be because of automation, but because of ever decreasing margins, minimum wages being what they are, taxes, insurance, ect. There's hardly any money to be made as it is, I can only imagine things getting worse. You'd really have to be delusional to open up a restaurant these days and expect to turn a profit.

[The Beast1]

(01-31-2019 11:30 AM)Rhyme or Reason Wrote:  

Bumping this thread. As I understand it, these chains have suffered even more since this thread was posted.

At this rate, I'm wondering if ANY bars and restaurants will even exist 20 years. The jobs won't be there. The reason won't be because of automation, but because of ever decreasing margins, minimum wages being what they are, taxes, insurance, ect. There's hardly any money to be made as it is, I can only imagine things getting worse. You'd really have to be delusional to open up a restaurant these days and expect to turn a profit.

I think bars and fast casuals will still exist.

We'll definitely see mega clubs, lounges, and corporate sports bars go the way of the dinosaur.

Small time family restaurants that have been around forever who own the building will still exist.

The food needs to be good or simple to make. If it's not instagram worthy, it's not worth serving unfortunately. People want to take pictures of their food.

And for better or worse, you can't run your staff haggard and expect your kitchen staff to deliver on such expectations such as presentation. It's just silly.

The last time my wife and I went to a sit down restaurant was over a year ago. My boss is old school and prefers to do the "business" restaurant thing which I'm happy to oblige since he's paying.

[TigerMandingo]

Places like Cheesecake Factory, Red lobster, Olive Garden, etc. are fucking disgusting. Cheesecake Factory has a menu thats like 100 pages long, I can only imagine the horrors that go on in their kitchens.

The best way to meet friends is to host them at your place, I've learned.

[911]

Chain restaurants do serve a lowest common denominator mainstream segment, it's just that this segment is getting older and poorer, hence their struggles.

[debeguiled]

I wonder if there is a connection with the fact that a lot of the people in their twenties now don't bother to learn to drive, either. It just isn't the rite of passage it once was.

[Kona]

(01-31-2019 02:34 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

I wonder if there is a connection with the fact that a lot of the people in their twenties now don't bother to learn to drive, either. It just isn't the rite of passage it once was.

Probably the case for you guys in Portland.



They don't know how to drive, so they crash the food truck, then everyone goes hungry.

Aloha!

[debeguiled]

(01-31-2019 03:08 PM)Kona Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 02:34 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

I wonder if there is a connection with the fact that a lot of the people in their twenties now don't bother to learn to drive, either. It just isn't the rite of passage it once was.

Probably the case for you guys in Portland.



They don't know how to drive, so they crash the food truck, then everyone goes hungry.

Aloha!

If everyone in Portland has gone hungry, how do you explain all the fat chicks?

[Lime]

(06-04-2017 05:58 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  

On an unrelated note, the declining birth rates coupled with stagnating incomes of the next generations should be of massive concern to everyone with significant amounts of money and assets. This will force the cost of assets back down and immensely lower the velocity of money. All of this in my opinion is a good thing. It will starve the wall street beast and put it back in its place.

This probably deserves a thread on its own, if I check the population pyramid in my country, I already see that the men with top spending age (around 46) will decline very sharply over the next years (this is the biggest age group now here). By 1972 the trend of less children really started. People who were born in 1960-1968 still got children, after that, much less.

[The Beast1]

(01-31-2019 05:22 PM)Lime Wrote:  

(06-04-2017 05:58 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  

On an unrelated note, the declining birth rates coupled with stagnating incomes of the next generations should be of massive concern to everyone with significant amounts of money and assets. This will force the cost of assets back down and immensely lower the velocity of money. All of this in my opinion is a good thing. It will starve the wall street beast and put it back in its place.

This probably deserves a thread on its own, if I check the population pyramid in my country, I already see that the men with top spending age (around 46) will decline very sharply over the next years (this is the biggest age group now here). By 1972 the trend of less children really started. People who were born in 1960-1968 still got children, after that, much less.

Yup, deflation. The ultimate fear!

Even more ironically, importing 3rd worlders will not help deflation. If you have a mass of low IQ impoverished people who wouldn't buy your over priced stuff anyway you still don't have a market.

Asset prices rise when a lot wealthy people want stuff scarce resources. When there aren't that many wealthy people, the price has to go down to find that supply/demand curve point.

Or they'll just leave it for sale at silly prices for ever and then no one will buy it.

[Thot Leader]

(01-31-2019 01:26 PM)TigerMandingo Wrote:  

Places like Cheesecake Factory, Red lobster, Olive Garden, etc. are fucking disgusting. Cheesecake Factory has a menu thats like 100 pages long, I can only imagine the horrors that go on in their kitchens.

The best way to meet friends is to host them at your place, I've learned.

Back before we had Cheesecake Factory in Canada, I ate at one in Buffalo, NY. I remember that Yellow Pages-sized menu, it just seemed ridiculous. I ordered a chicken burrito. The thing was nearly as big as a football, 90% rice and cheese. Just disgusting. I ate nearly all of it because I was starving and holy fuck did I regret it.

Yeah, Millennials are definitely more health conscious, meaning we don't like eating garbage, even if it's inexpensive.

[TigerMandingo]

(01-31-2019 07:40 PM)Thot Leader Wrote:  

Yeah, Millennials are definitely more health conscious, meaning we don't like eating garbage, even if it's inexpensive.

Agreed. These chain places were invented by boomers FOR boomers, so they could enjoy their two favorite pastimes simultaneously: stuffing their fat fucking mouths and getting it for cheap.

[Waqqle]

1. Most millennials don't have any money.

2. Most millennials don't have families to take to these family restaurants.

3. Who wants to drop $20 plus tip per person on something that has been frozen for weeks or more and that someone just threw in a microwave in the kitchen?

4. A lot of the former customers of these chains have already succumbed to obesity-related illnesses and either died or don't go out anymore.

5. At least some millennials are probably hesitant to join the ranks of the morbidly obese.

6. Guys are not taking girls out to restaurants as much as they used to.

7. Chain restaurants are mostly located in the suburbs. Most millennials probably can't afford houses and many live in apartments in the city.

8. There is likely at least a bit of resentment for all the lost jobs over the years and a lot of millennials are probably trying to avoid chains on principle.

9. A lot of millennials have experience working in these places and know how the food is made.

10. Why eat at a nasty bar food chain like Applebees or TGIF that uses "nacho cheese" when you could get way better food at the Phở place or taqueria for half the price?

[ChefAllDay]

Chain restaurants suck hard. So much comes pre-bagged/cooked. Look at the size of those menus, there is no way they cook anything fresh, I am looking at you Boston Pizza!

I also think Sysco is killing the food industry. I fucking hate seeing those trucks delivering food to restaurants. They have no soul what so ever.

[Rhyme or Reason]

There's no doubt in my mind that the Applebee's / chili's style chains will die off. That is a forgone conclusion. But will these boutique style restaurants that are so popular now in the cities and the 'burbs suffer the same fate? I can't imagine they are making much more of a profit than the chains.

Smaller restaurants have to pay more for their ingredients. Minimum wage will continue to rise, and these restaurant owners will be forced to continue to pass on the expenses to their customers. Right now they can do this and the customer will pay for it if they think they're getting 'good quality' food that has hipster appeal. These hipster places are essentially banking on the yuppyism of their customers. Janice the NYC lawyerchick would never be caught dead inside Applebees...but she doesn't mind paying 18.99 for a farm raised chicken salad with the balsamic dressing on the side. It's basically a built-in hipster tax most people are willing to pay, at least right now. But at a certain point even people like her will catch on that it's not worth what they're paying, even if it's for entirely different reasons than it would be in the case of crapplebee's.

I think bars will always be around, at least in some form or fashion. Restaurants have a lot more upkeep and more urgency in pushing their product. A pound of chicken only lasts a few days before going bad; a bottle of Tito's is still a bottle of Tito's after sitting there for a week. The flipside to this coin is that alcohol sale comes with it's own set of liabilities, insurance, and not to mention the expense of the liquor license, which, though it varies by city in the US, can get very expensive.

Also, chicks like to go out. They like to be seen. And despite their protestations to the contrary, they like being hit on. Any bar that can successfully bring women in the door will inevitably bring in the men (who actually spend the money). Men are the real target audience. Women are just part of the marketing.

As far as successful restaurant marketing, it seems to me that the Asians have captured the millenial market rather well. At least in my area. Ramen joints typically have massive lines of people waiting outside. These restaurants are quite small (less overhead) and their product is cheap to make (noodles, broth, etc). Add to that the fact that people instinctively think
that if there's a lot of people waiting for something that it must be good.

[PapayaTapper]

(02-01-2019 09:12 AM)TigerMandingo Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 07:40 PM)Thot Leader Wrote:  

Yeah, Millennials are definitely more health conscious, meaning we don't like eating garbage, even if it's inexpensive.

Agreed. These chain places were invented by boomers , so they could enjoy their two favorite pastimes simultaneously: getting rich and getting richer.

^Fixed

Broad life-spectrum tip: Youre either the farmer or the produce and noone cares what the produce feels when it gets harvested

(01-31-2019 07:40 PM)Thot Leader Wrote:  

Yeah, Millennials are definitely more health conscious, meaning we don't like eating garbage, even if it's inexpensive.

Eating healthy has always been more "expensive" in either time or money. Nothing new about this

[Kona]

(01-31-2019 04:18 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 03:08 PM)Kona Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 02:34 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

I wonder if there is a connection with the fact that a lot of the people in their twenties now don't bother to learn to drive, either. It just isn't the rite of passage it once was.

Probably the case for you guys in Portland.



They don't know how to drive, so they crash the food truck, then everyone goes hungry.

Aloha!

If everyone in Portland has gone hungry, how do you explain all the fat chicks?

Lesbians.

Aloha!

[debeguiled]

(02-01-2019 04:40 PM)Kona Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 04:18 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 03:08 PM)Kona Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 02:34 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

I wonder if there is a connection with the fact that a lot of the people in their twenties now don't bother to learn to drive, either. It just isn't the rite of passage it once was.

Probably the case for you guys in Portland.



They don't know how to drive, so they crash the food truck, then everyone goes hungry.

Aloha!

If everyone in Portland has gone hungry, how do you explain all the fat chicks?

Lesbians.

Aloha!

It took you a whole day to come up with that.

Not the Kona I know.

[Leonard D Neubache]

I just hope the windows up front were rolled down.

I hear drowning in chowder is a particularly bad way to go.

[911]

Depends how fresh the clams are.

[mr-ed209]

It's quite profound actually. Me and a friend were in a commercial estate last summer and both said 'this is the kind of place hanging on to the dream of the 90s'. The kind of place with a big retail park, main stream chain restaurants, bowling alley, cinema and a closed down 'Toys R Us'.

It was fun to visit for nostalgia purposes, as the place used to be booming when we were in kids in the late 90s and early 2000s. Visiting now we both were dumfounded as to how the place was still running. We had lunch at a Pizza Hut (something I've not done since I was a kid) the price was over £30 for two people. It just seems way over the odds for a bit of pizza and a shit salad, when you can get 3 course set menus at many actual restaurants for cheaper. You're looking at around £45-50 and over with a dessert and coffee.

The bowling alley adjacent was £10 each for 2 games, which were over in less than half an hour. A shit burger and fries delivered to your lane was something like £7.. Back in the day this place used to be a date spot

Prices like that just seem so out of touch to me and this place was clearly suffering from people taking their business elsewhere, where cheaper and better alternatives have come along. Any major city (where most young people live now), has a range of independent foods, offering worldly food like ramen/sushi or Mexican etc. All for absolute fractions of the price.