(03-11-2017, 09:50 AM)Galen Wrote:(03-11-2017, 08:06 AM)Kinser79 Wrote: Obviously I can't speak for all businesses but I can speak about the food industry, both as management in it, and a patron of it. With McDonalds in particular, factor 3 is the most important to me. Lets just suppose we have 50 bucks to spend. Now I gotta feed a 60 year old, 2 30-something men, and a teenager.
Now I can go to McDonalds (or in our case Burger King, none of us really like McDonalds) and get a mediocre meal, or I can go to the Chinese buffet, and eat far too much including more than a little sushi, and have two beers for me and the BF, an have a really great time. (Mother doesn't drink at all, and the kid can't drink at a restaurant for obvious reasons--if he wants a beer at home he merely need to ask [as it is either my beer or the BF's beer and to us alcohol is nothing to really fuss over].)
But yes, labor is a major overhead consideration for restaurants. If it gets slow I actually have to cut people, especially hourly people to keep labor costs under a certain percentage or I won't make a profit on the day.
ETA: Chances are good even the junkyest food at the Chinese place is still healthier than McDonalds.
Those of us who have worked in such places and considered the economics understand this. Truth is, I would rather got to a Thai restaurant but then you can't throw a dead cat without hitting one of those where I live. I may spend a little more but the food is much better than any fast food joint. Indeed, some of the best Thai food I encountered was from a food cart in Portland in near PSU. I went their every chance I got.
As for the economics involved it is clear you have more of a clue than Eric the Obtuse or Odin will ever have.
We don't have very many Thai places. And Sunday Lunch is perhaps the most important meal of the week. Mother and the BF do the church thing, and though the boy and I don't it's considered "family time".
As for understanding the economic implications in deciding where to eat I don't know if I should feel complemnted or insulted at the comparison to Eric or Odin. I mean it isn't that hard to be intellectually superior to Eric (my 5 year old nephew is and he struggles with Dr. Seuss--which is hardly high literature). As for Odin, I think his problem is he's incredibly naive. Somehow he's managed to avoid life kicking the shit out of him--but he can't avoid it forever and he'll ether wise up or flounder.
It really is all mathematics.
Turn on to Daddy, Tune in to Nationalism, Drop out ofUN/NATO/WTO/TPP/NAFTA/CAFTA Globalism.
Turn on to Daddy, Tune in to Nationalism, Drop out of