Posted on 09/17/2021 5:32:12 PM PDT by American Number 181269513
A long-standing Florida BBQ restaurant is closing its doors after the labor shortage left the business with just four workers.
The owner of the Orlando-area restaurant, Bubbalou's Bodacious Bar-B-Que, said that "no one wants to work."
According to a Friday report from Insider, owner Boo McKinnon said that the Winter Park restaurant had already cut its hours before deciding to shut down.
The restaurant, which has three other locations in the Orlando area, closed its doors earlier in September.
Of the closure, McKinnon said, "After 35 amazing years, we have locked the doors on Bubbalou's Winter Park for the final time. Through those years, I have made friendships with clients that are irreplaceable. I learned more about life, tolerance, grace, dignity (and sometimes the lack thereof), and compassion in our little Lee Road Bar-B-Que shanty than you could ever imagine."
"Having spent over half my life based out of that location, I literally 'grew up' there," McKinnon added. "When we began this venture in 1986, I was still in my 20's. I was self serving, arrogant, and had a huge sense of entitlement. Let me tell you how quickly the restaurant business cured those ideals!?!? I am heartbroken, yet relieved. I am sad, but excited to grow other locations into even stronger entities."
McKinnon continued, pointing the finger at the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Damn this pandemic and the situation we were put in," the post continued. "Business has been off considerably, but the hardest part being the inability to find staff to hire. Despite paying more than any restaurant I am aware of, no one wants to work. We closed our Winter Park store with a whopping four employees. We were closed two whole days per week as well as two half days. It wasn't by design, it was simply due to the fact we have no staff and can't find any."
"Yes," the owner continued, "damn you pandemic and the political machine for making more appealing to not work than to be an active part of the workforce in our country. It's pathetic. And it has disastrous results.Thanks to a devoted few Team members, Bubbalou's is still three locations strong. Our Winter Park Team is moving to our Apopka location. Come see us in Apopka for that same degree of Bodacious Bar-B- Que, and an adult beverage in our Lucky Pig Lounge. We aren't leaving, we are just moving…see ya Winter Park!"
McKinnon told WKMG-TV that she opted to close the restaurant after the workforce dwindled to the point where conditions were unsustainable — and that she couldn't even get people to apply for a job.
"The Winter Park location was closed because we absolutely could not find help," she told the station in a statement on the closure. "We cannot even get people to come in and apply. It is just the most amazingly sad thing ever."
Covid did not put the restaurant out of business, the government did. Paying people not to work and telling businesses if you want to hire people pay them more than $15 per hour which is what they are getting in stimulus payments.
So I expect millions of illegal aliens will be available to fill these jobs.
Seasoning the pork and sautéing the steak that American pitmasters won’t season or sauté.
Before, it was mostly due to welfare payouts.
Now it might have added to it the fact businesses are forcing the fax...and also masks...on employees. Maybe lots of candidates don’t want that!
I’ve been self-employed for 20 years. And I believe the minimum wage to be completely anti-business. But the few times I’ve interviewed to the point of getting a wage offer, it has without fail proven to be incredibly less than what I can generate for myself. And what I earn on my own comes devoid of office politics, false promises and general lack of respect for employees.
It's Florida. I don't believe there are any mask mandates imposed on restaurant employees by the state.
Three things:
1- We were in Cocoa Beach in July- we have condos there. Most of the signs on the restaurant read, “Closed Tuesday.” We went to one of our favorite restaurants and asked the hostess why the restaurants were closed on Tuesday. Her reply- “People don’t want to work. Its more beneficial for them to stay home and collect covid and unemployment payments rather than get a job. We can’t staff the way we need too.
2- A week later we were in Disney World. They opened up the California Grill for breakfast- a great restaurant on top of the Contemporary with magnificent views. It was near impossible to get a reservation but I was able to pull one off. We get to the restaurant only to find out 60% of the tables are empty. I asked the waiter why is it so difficult to get a reservation with so many empty tables? His response? “We only take reservations based on the amount of waiters we are able to get here to work.”
3- Last week i was in Columbus, Ohio for the Ohio State game. Ny wife and i get to a restaurant called First Watch just off campus around 8:15 for breakfast. Kick-off was noon. There are about ten people in front of us waiting. There were two waiters for the whole restaurant and one was working the cash register. Half the tables were empty and a quarter had dirty dishes on them. We left after 20 minutes. 45 minutes later they sent us a text letting us know our table was ready. Sunday we went to breakfast at a place called Scrambles. Same thing- there was a 15 minute wait despite the fact 60% of the tables were empty.
No one wants to work when they are getting freebies.
They definitely don’t want to work for 10 bucks an hour or is it 2.35 an hour at restaurants. Amazon is paying 18 an hour. Doesn’t appear they are having shortages of workers.
1. some folks may be afraid of catching the damned virus, especially with all the 24/7 scare talk on the mass media
2. mostly, however, the problem is all the give=away welfare from the government ...
paying people to become lazy and unproductive (and dependent upon the commie politicians)
The democrat taliban party and all its voters are the enemy.
No freebies anymore. And Florida unemployment is 235 a week. There are different reasons people are not working in poorly paid businesses.
That’s what we heard from some back in July.. “Its not that people don’t want to work- they are getting better paying jobs.” I call BS
Question: I thought the extended unemployment and so-called "stimuless" monies have been stopped? Whatever happened to all the "stimuless" that was suppose to help small business?
I swear, the Biteme bunch couldn't have screwed this more if they planned it. Oh, wait...
They just want to bang on the drum all day.
Most of the stimulus/COVID money has run out now, so that can’t be the whole answer. I hate to say it, but I think the answer goes deeper. People have been free to do as they want for almost two years, and have been exploring hobbies and side hustles... many young people especially have blogs, vlogs, YouTube channels... . I doubt they are making a lot of money, but maybe enough to subsist on while living with their parents, or driving around the country in a van, etc. This could reflect the emergence of a new segment of the economy they we older folks are just not tracking.
I am in Durango, CO today and saw a “WORKERS HIRED NOW FOR ALL POSITIONS” sign on the Post Office. We are screwed.
We were in St. Augustine a few weeks ago.
Help wanted signs in virtually every business there and all the way down and back.
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