Posted on 05/14/2024 8:40:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
(The Economic Collapse Blog)—You can get a really good idea how the U.S. economy is doing by watching restaurants in your area. When the economy is booming, restaurant parking lots are full and chains are feverishly establishing new locations. But when the economy is struggling, restaurants get a lot less traffic and poor performing locations get shut down. Sadly, in 2024 it appears that a “restaurant apocalypse” has started to sweep across America.
Most people have very little discretionary income to spend as a result of our cost of living crisis, and that is particularly true for our young adults. Americans under the age of 40 love to eat out, but these days most of them are experiencing financial stress, and this is having an enormous impact on the restaurant industry.
In 2023, visits to sit-down restaurants dropped by about five percent compared to 2022…
Americans are eating out less as inflation weakens the dollars in their pocket, which is leading to some harsh consequences for restaurants across the country.
Visits to sit-down restaurants were down nearly five percent in 2023 from the year prior, according to location analytics firm Placer.ai.
So this is a trend that has stretched on for over a year. People just aren’t eating out as much as they once did.
As a result, we are seeing a wave of closures all over the country. Even in the Big Apple, large numbers of restaurants are being shut down…
Even big metropolitan areas in the US known for their great dining spots are struggling to maintain an environment where it’s profitable to run a restaurant.
Eater NY reported that over 40 bars and restaurants closed in New York City from December 2023 to January 2024, with some of the owners saying business simply never picked up after the COVID lockdowns in 2020.
When times get tough, difficult decisions need to be made.
Survival Beef Company CEO: “No Lab-Grown Meat, No mRNA Jabs, and No ‘Beef Crumbles’ Ever” After closing 46 restaurants last year, Applebee’s has decided to close another 35 locations this year…
Applebee’s is to close another 35 further locations this year, after shutting 46 in 2023.
The restaurant chain has shut at least three locations so far this year and has plans to close even more, president Tony Moralejo said in an earnings call on Wednesday.
Closing restaurants was ‘an incredibly difficult decision’ and a ‘last resort’ for the company, Moralejo said.
And I am very saddened by what has happened to Boston Market.
At one time they had almost 1,000 locations all over the United States, but now the entire chain is about to go belly up…
In the case of Boston Market, a chain that once had nearly 1,000 locations nationwide, the company’s death has been slow, but the pace of its demise has picked up over the past few months.
Now, with its store count continuing to dip, the chain seems to have reached the end even if it won’t confirm that given that there no longer appears to be anyone around to make that decision.
Boston Market owner Jignesh “Jay” Pandya was recently denied Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time and has been barred from filing again for six months. That leaves his company, which faces massive financial obligations, unable to gain court protection from its creditors.
Our ongoing inflation crisis is the primary reason why this is happening.
Consumers simply have a lot less discretionary income now. Meanwhile, restaurants are facing much higher costs…
Jessica Dunker, the president and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association, said the reason restaurants are shuttering is because the cost of goods is up 30 percent and they are having to shell out higher wages to keep staff on.
Unfortunately, things aren’t going to get any better any time soon. For example, the cost of orange juice is expected to go up dramatically because of a very bad harvest in Brazil…
Breakfast lovers are in for another jolt as orange juice prices surge to near-record levels. A new report released on Friday indicates that Brazil, the leading global exporter of OJ, is facing its worst harvest in over three decades. This alarming development compounds existing issues in Florida’s citrus groves, which have been plagued by disease and are experiencing collapsing production levels to the lowest in decades.
Fundecitrus wrote in a note that Brazil will produce 232.4 million boxes—each weighing about 90 pounds—for the growing season this year. That’s a 24% collapse from a year earlier and the lowest production levels in 36 years.
We have reached a point where the vast majority of Americans just can’t afford to eat out on a regular basis.
Needless to say, that is really bad news for fast food chains like McDonald’s.
At one time, serving middle class families was their core business.
But now most middle class families just can’t afford to eat at McDonald’s very often.
In a desperate attempt to lure them back, McDonald’s will soon introduce a five dollar meal deal…
McDonald’s is looking to launch a $5 meal in the US in a move to bring back price-sensitive customers.
The meal includes four items, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg and Restaurant Business. Customers would choose between two of the chain’s signature burgers — a McChicken or a McDouble — and get four-piece McNuggets, fries, and a drink. The $5 promotion would last for a month, Bloomberg reported.
So they are going to bring back affordable food for one month.
That’s just great.
Unless they make the five dollar meal deal permanent, I don’t expect that it will make much of a difference.
Consumers are really hurting right now. In fact, consumer sentiment just fell to the lowest level in six months…
Consumer sentiment plunged to the lowest level in six months as price increases reaccelerated, according to the latest University of Michigan survey of consumers, released Friday.
Additionally, consumers are bracing for even higher price increases in the year ahead compared to readings from prior months, the survey found.
The gauge, which is closely tracked by the Biden administration, plunged 13% from April’s 77.2% reading, to 67.4%. That’s the biggest one-month drop since mid-2021. Economists polled by FactSet were expecting consumer expectations to fall to just 76.9%.
As I have discussed previously, the American people are deeply pessimistic about the economy at this stage.
And they have good reason to be pessimistic, because even though our politicians in Washington are engaging in an unprecedented spending spree in a desperate attempt to keep the economy propped up, the truth is that the wheels are starting to come off and tremendous chaos is ahead.
Ed Dowd agrees that big trouble is coming during the months ahead. He just told Greg Hunter that he expects the U.S. economy “to take a nosedive sometime in the next 12 months”…
What happens to the Biden economy? Dowd says, “The economy is going to take a nosedive sometime in the next 12 months. The real economy is not doing well. . . . The only thing that has been holding up the GDP growth is government spending. We are spending $1 trillion every 100 days. That’s adding $1 trillion to the deficit. The only job creation is government jobs, and they don’t actually add to the economy. . . . Reports are coming out now that the low-income consumer is getting absolutely hammered. McDonald’s talked about it in their most recent earnings call. . . . So, low-income and the middle-class are getting squeezed while the rich continue to plug along.”
I agree.
Of course we don’t have to wait for the economy to come apart at the seams, because that is already happening.
At one time, the entire world marveled at the greatness of the mighty U.S. economy, but our leaders have completely wrecked it.
There is no way that we are going to be able to avoid disaster, and so I would encourage you to prepare for very hard times while you still can.
We’ve lost TGI-Fridays, Logan’s Roadhouse, Applebee’s and Beef O’Brady’s over the last few years.
Chili’s, Ruby Tuesdays and others can’t be far behind.............
Also, lots of people are on weight loss drugs. I’m wondering if that is impacting how much people go out to eat.
Well, butter them up and they’ll gar-LICK the problem....................
Don’t restaurants (and maybe other businesses too) mostly close abruptly, just before payday, stiffing the now jobless employees out of 1.5 paychecks?
There’s not going to be much investment in restaurants or industry if the Biden handlers are here a year from now and complete their avowed taxation plans.
When the Trump tax cuts expire, see what that does to disposeable income. Add into that the new taxes that they are going to put on us.
Make no mistake, the goal of the Democrats is to reduce us to the status of third world drones. And they are well along the way to accomplishing that.
The really crushingly ironic thing is that all the major fast food places would be where you could reliably get something substantial for just a few bucks-— these places were an absolute BOON in lower income babes with a high black p[opulation-—gradually these menus changed and what used to be the half dozen cheap staples got squeezed out onto a special cheapo value menu” off on the side. Meanwhile every conceivable “Combo” of burger, fries, chicken, etc. with meaningless high-profit extras like chips, and drinks were thrown into the mix.The price tags expanded dramatically with this concept of the “combo” Remember seeing a TV thing at least 15 years ago where a largish Hispanic family (maybe 3 kids, mom and dad) would pile into their car, and load up at the drive-in window for mass-produced dreck and expect to pay $35 or more-—it’s even more $$ now,. A sad state of affairs-—far better to get creative and do your cooking at home, “family-style” getting them involved in the economics of “food” and taking care of themselves and each other-—that’s the way it should be.
Mrs. M and I eat out 2x/week when in Mesa, AZ. We choose Chipotle or SmashBurger, as both are affordable and both provide at least 2 meals, perhaps 3, per $10 entree. We take it home, make our own fries, serve our own tortilla chips, get our drinks out of the fridge, etc.
We invariably buy the meals with gift cards (discounted 10%), earned by using certain credit cards, so in essence the meals are bought with kickbacks from big banks. It feels pretty good to eat on their dime. We leave a $3-$5 tip in the tip jar because we can, and it’s the right thing to do.
Mother’s Day Brunch at our local Hilton Hotel was $95 per person. Over $100 with Tax and tip for Bacon and Eggs with cheap champagne.
That’s the whole idea behind the whole bug thing and all other food substitutes. Insidious. “Just say no” to these “burnt offerings” that’s the only solution-—create and forge relationships with your own personal sources of sustenance. Not gonna be easy.....but it is necessary.
My local diners and takeout pizza places are BOOMING.
So is the local grocery store and local organic store and butcher who raises his own grass-fed tasty animals, which costs way less than chain meat on styrofoam.
God’s abundance and flora and fauna are what we need. High fructose corn syrup and soy (and German techno music) are from the devil.
Parenthetically, Michael Snyder runs a fearpr0n website. He’s been crying TEOTWAWKI forever.
We can relate to your parting “get creative” advice. We ate many a time at Chili’s. We order their fajitas. I began experimenting at home, trying to emulate their ingredients and flavor. I nailed it and when we have the family over, I make a big pot of it and it’s always a hit. We get everthing except the sizzling-hot cast iron on wooden tray serving plate.
So yeah, we’ve got to play it smart, stretching our bucks and having good food, good times, to boot.
Heck if I had a bad day, a nice pint of stout with a scoop of vanilla ice cream would taste real good.
“...create and forge relationships with your own personal sources of sustenance.”
We have friendly farmers all around us and a big market every Saturday. They send food to 36 states but still have plenty for us too.
“My local diners and takeout pizza places are BOOMING.”
I don’t know where you live, Bob, but I’m guessing it’s not California. I see restaurants here shuttering, right and left. Just this morning, I noticed that a ~40-year-old Round Table Pizza franchise I drive by had shut down. Minimum wage laws, health-insurance mandates, higyh food costs, weak consumer-discretionary income... the policies of the left are lethal to small businesses.
Nothing like importing new “residents” by the 10s of millions to crowd our groceries and cheap takeout places!
Last night, local pizza restaurant, one drink small pizza for 2, with tax and tip, $65. That used to be less than $40.
I’m not near you.
That’s a shame.
I’d like to see a map of the closures similar to the map of the most violent cities yesterday.
I’ll guess like the violent crime one yesterday, that most are in the blue states experiencing the mass exodus.
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