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Posted on 05/30/2022 5:11:46 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
Many small businesses continue to struggle and now a growing number of pizza shops in the Grand Rapids area are closing.
Just over a year after Rico Nelson took over Franco’s Pizzeria on Alpine Avenue in Walker, he had to shut the store down. He’s far from the only one.
"Business usually takes a while to get your niche and get it figured out," Nelson said. "But it’s just so hard with the uncertainty of the future right now, you know?"
It’s the perfect storm facing small businesses right now: employee shortages, rising food and gas prices and supply chain issues.
Nelson needed four employees to run Franco’s Pizzeria, and he usually only had two. When he did find workers, many did not stick around long.
"They’ll come in and maybe work a day, then not show up the next day, call you at the end of the week and ask when payday is," Nelson said. "It gets to the point that you’re just throwing money away at hiring them ’cause they’re just gonna be gone anyhow."
It forced him to ask friends to help out around the shop.
"Old friends come around to help me out," Nelson said. "Guys that got full-time jobs. They’re just coming in. They’re just loyal."
Recently, Nelson has paid more in order to make pizza sauce, get meat and even flour.
"I never knew flour came from Ukraine and Russia," he said. "I didn’t really know that. I just knew that we ordered flour. And now that’s gone up to 30 bucks where it was 22."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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This is getting series!!!
Are they sure the pizza places aren’t just closed for the holiday?
We need to identify the countries that make the most pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and pizza crust, and prepare an invasion force.
Preceded by two years of lockdowns, social distancing, and quarantine.
Golly. It's almost like the US government is trying to trash the US economy.
What is the relationship between demand destruction and inflation?
sure; drill your own oil as well
Yeah, since the pandemic started I’ve exclusively been making my own pizza. Healthier, tastier, and cheaper.
Whats a good dough recipe you use?
Oil is optional in pizza dough. Wheat scares me but got a years worth of flour and buckets of wheat berries I can mill. Easy to stock up on tomato products, do it now. Quail or rabbit as protein, if necessary. Rabbit milk mozz?
I apologize if I don’t quite understand your question.
I see many moving parts at work.
Some small businesses went under in recent years because workers didn’t come in, or customers didn’t come in. Restaurants suffered but it wasn’t just restaurants.
We were energy independent and exporting oil just 2 years ago. Now our pipelines are shut down, drilling is reduced and oil prices are sky high. That causes inflation at all levels.
Mandatory vaccines annoyed truckers and other supply chain workers and led to supply problems with food and non-food items alike.
Interest rates are going up and businesses that need to use credit are paying extra.
Lots of moving parts here, but for 2 years it’s been one hit after another for a wide variety of businesses. And although I see Help Wanted signs everywhere, it seems like many people just don’t want to apply for those jobs. Sometimes “Help Wanted” indicates boom times, and business expansion, and endless opportunities for all. I don’t believe that’s the case here.
I see a lot of bad stuff, and, one way or another, I think government policies have hurt us a lot more than they have helped us.
Let’s go Brandon!
A week or so ago a Sam’s Club in the Grand Rapids area shut down their lunch counter/cafeteria (place that sells pizza and hot dogs ready-to-eat) for a while due to “supplier difficulties”.
Was open again today.
Retail & restaurant jobs always had a high turnover. Before the pandemic, I took a retail job. Many of the workers either quit on the spot, walked out, didn’t show up, or got fired, and some were arrested, and the boss would call me in, in a panic at the last minute.
That hasn’t changed. But, now, there’s much more going on. Inflation is the biggest problem.
Maybe, just maybe, he picked a bad location, etc.? Someone was selling it for a reason.
Do you know the forum pizzamaking.com? Serious stuff. The largest pizza data base in the world. Newbies and owners of nationally recognized pizzerias converse easily.
Watched one guy go from hopeful opening to Yelp's Best Place to Eat in the USA in a few years. Not just pizza.. best place to eat. (Smiling With Hope Pizza) A frau with a farmer's market stand twice a week won The Caputo Cup International Pizza competition. A fella in Texas has won a BBQ cook off years in a row with pizza.
If you want to up your game check it out.
“When he did find workers, many did not stick around long.”
This is normal.
My brother runs and owns 3 restaurants in a certain city. Eateries have a high turnover rate, and if you think you can run everything efficiently in an office, you’re wrong. It’s already a given that one employee on average will quit or no-show in a month. Heck, it’s also a given they will steal something.
Geez that’s beautiful.
End all of the sanctions and ensure the free flow of fuel, fertilizer, and food.
“They’ll come in and maybe work a day, then not show up the next day”
You get what you pay for. You want consistent and dependable, pay for consistent and dependable.
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