Posted on 04/21/2020 10:09:20 AM PDT by Vendome
This has gone on long enough.
This was sold as 14 days, then the new pitch became Easter and "maybe" May 1, 2020.
As I drive around the San Francisco Bay Area I see restaurant after restaurant "CLOSED!!!"
I do not see how they come back. That is, I don't see how most of them come back.
It takes so much capital to open a restaurant and then you are guessing how many people will come in that day, what your rush hours are and what will they order.
That kills 30-40% of the restaurants currently closed.
There are new restrictions going into effect whenever California "Opens" restricting many restaurants to 1/3-1/2 seating capacity.
That should kill another 30-40% as their restaurant runs on capacity and without that they cannot sell enough food, coffee, etc to pay the rent.
Guess I'm going to have cook like I did when I lived with my Mom as a child and teenager. I sure as hell don't look forward to it either. As a lifelong batchelor I've become accustomed to inviting other to the only two things I actually make very well: " Top Ramen or Reservations" "Which do you prefer?"
Except for fried chicken at any place that makes it, I only eat high quality foods and the only way that is going to happen is if I cook it on my own from now on.
Because Vendome ain't waiting in some idiotic line for an Angus or Kobe Burger being told he can't enjoy a glass of wine while waiting. Same for BBQ "Whuddya mean I can't have a beer while waiting?"
Apparently they can only sell capped and unopened beer "to go"
Pour it in a to go cup while I wait.
Very few high end restaurants will come back for reasons I explained above. Capital, fewer tables, zero idea who will come in, when and what they will order.
Moroever, people are not going to spend extra loot on that bottle of wine. Because any of those bottles are sitting in my house and I paid 1/2-1/3 what it cost in a restaurant.
Don't normally mind spending the loot on wine in a restaurant because I know the carrying costs and well, it's convenient but, I'm going to be little tighter with my money for a while and well, they aren't open anyway.
So a meal that runs $75-$150 per person enhance by the purchase of alchohol and wine just ain't happening.
Besides, I have a couple of friends who are well respected actual chefs and I will just buy the food, have them cook it and not have to put up with obnoxious people anymore.
Hell, no Martial Art facility will survive as you will not be allowed gather more than 10 people at a time.
I know this because the place where I take Jui-Jitsu is considering chucking it. Yeah, and after that he will still be responsible for the rent and the current owners are only saying he has a 90 day reprive, at the end of which he has to make up those payments - No Relief.
Another owner out of business with no job and his employees on the dole with no hope of job.
We are going Planet of the Apes
I do wonder how many restaurants will survive. At some places we go to, the tables are squeezed in,and they are very busy on a Saturday night. I bet that they cannot be profitable if they could only have 50% of tables full on that Saturday night, due to imposed social distance restrictions.
You must not live Soviet San Francisco Bay Area...
-——I bet that they cannot be profitable if they could only have 50% of tables full -——
They will just need to raise the prices.
Which will make it more appealing....
You talk about yourself in third person?
But as we know, there are limits to raising prices on any product being sold.
This is going to be a rough ride for us, and I don’t mean the virus here. The economic fallout such as we have discussed for restaurants, is going to cascade through the economy.
If SF keeps this up for too long, the companies and people pouring money into the place will eventually leave. The place is even less fun without the bars and theaters and restaurants. Might as well take your finance company or your internet startup somewhere else. Real estate values will drop, landlords will belly up.
No more other people’s money, unless they suck hard from the Federal teat. Is that the plan?
I bet that they cannot be profitable if they could only have 50% of tables full”
How about we leave it up to them? Maybe just maybe 50% plus carry out might be break even versus bankruptcy for many of them.
Watch for Communist Chinese vultures going around and buying up American restaurants.
It’s a COUP...that’s what it is
Since a lot of properties were bought out by Communist Chinese or dot Indians, going belly-up would be a good thing.
We need the same foreign ownership laws as most countries.
I fully agree, and didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I fully agree, leave it up to all of these businesses how to run their business.
I suspect that some will be doing more carryout business than ever before, after all of this lockdown business is over. Some people have gotten in the habit of getting carryout food from various places, and may continue to do that.
Been to the city a couple times in the last few weeks.
Freaking insane.
No where to park as the parking garages are closed and you take a chance parking on the street.
Weird to go into a building and except for a security guard, I am the only one in the lobby.
Go into the office of my customer and what held several hundred people is now being maintained by maybe a couple dozen
Driving around the city was effortless but, no traffic.
All the restaurants I eat at: Gary Danko’s, Michael Minna’s, Boulevard, Tadich, etc are closed and besides, where would I park.
The only
Check back around 10pm tonight after open a bottle of Balvenie
LOL!
Gotta go pick up a new customer
Have fun posting, jokers...
We are seeing good numbers now regardless of which camp you are in. However, I think Trump is still in a little bit of a catch-22.
The experts are not as optimistic as we are because they are not giving great weight to the anecdotal information about effective treatments or that many more people carry the virus than what we think. Therefore, they are worried about the almost certain fact that we will have spot fires throughout the country when we open it back up. That is guaranteed.
The media is firmly in the camp of the “experts” and they will blame Trump or any governor for every death that will inevitably occur. The experts will not recommend opening back up as if it were up to them I am confident we would be permanently quarantined until there is a “vaccine.”
Trump wants to open back up and has expressed optimism, just as we have, over the fact that we appear to have some effective treatment regimes. He is understandably trying to split the baby with the “phased reopening” plan where we shelter those most vulnerable and get the rest of us back to work with “precautions.”
The lack of widespread testing is really harming the Trump plan. The partisanship and media hatred is really going to harm the Trump plan because they are so devoted to gloom porn and when they can lay it at his feet they will be obsessed with it.
I don’t envy him and hope he will follow his instincts. We will never satisfy the “experts” he has surrounded himself with and he sure as hell will never satisfy the media or the partisan democrats who will seek every advantage from this crisis as they do everything else.
That is where we are at as I see it. I do like that he is trying to put this decision back on the governors for each respective state where it belongs. I am also confident that many more people are carrying anti-bodies now than before and frankly I will feel relieved if I do when I am tested. Having a core group of working Americans with the antibodies would be a great place to start.
Given the fog of war with this thing I think he has done a good job overall. In a few months we will be in a better position to grade the response, but I think most Americans understand his decisions were made on the best data possible.
One thing that has gone unremarked that I am certain of.... Trump was brilliant to have the daily pressers. There is now a public record from the health experts on what they were telling the President in person so that will make it much harder for the media to second-guess him. I think they were important to communicate to the public what was happening and why we were doing certain things, but politically the benefit of having this extended record is incalculable.
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