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A Sad State of Affairs
My wife and I snuck away for a lunch date this weekend and we decided to hit up the local Chili’s. When we entered we were third in line for seating and noticed that the main dining room was closed off but the bar area was nearly full. We asked if we could sit at the bar and we were told, sure, go for it. We sat at the far end of the bar, by the Marine Corps artwork, and within a few minutes we were given menus and our drink order was taken.
I made small talk with the bartender who appeared to be not only working the bar but much of the seating area as well. He told me that only two people showed up for work today.
However you couldn’t tell that they were short-handed, our food came out rather quickly and all was well, including having our drinks refilled without asking. We observed the other waiter running around and they both worked all the tables in the bar area.
It is so sad that our Government can’t see what they are doing to small businesses. Sure Chili’s is a “big” business, but Chili’s like many restaurants is franchised which means that they are each individually owned by a small business (or medium/large business, depending on who owns it).
To start up a Chili’s costs between $1.3 – $4.6 million to start up, plus royalty fees and all the other assorted fees associated with running a Chili’s franchise annually (source).
All those fees are incurred by the small business that owns the franchise.
A restaurant will not be able to survive if this happens daily. We watched four groups (2-4 people in each group) walk out at the door and one complaint and then leave without paying. That all converts to lost revenue which translates to the restaurant being forced to close its doors.
Our local Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers has resorted to closing every other day in order to stay afloat, and one of our local Wendy’s is drive-thru only all due to not having enough employees. The local McDonald’s is offering $15/hour and a $500 sign-on bonus and yet, they are still short on employees.
The MSM is stating that it is because there are more retirees and that the unemployment rate is lower than it appears. They never once ask the question of whether the $600 per week from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program is to blame. For many that are more than what they are making working 40 hours a week at minimum wage. In my state (Virginia), where the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, you could only make $15,080 a year working 40 hours but with the FPUC you would make $32,000 a year plus your normal unemployment benefits, so it pays you to be unemployed. And it seems in Virginia that the Unemployment Commission is sending out notices to everyone, even if you are employed, letting you know of the benefit. My wife and I both actually received notices stating that our first checks are ready for deposit. We both called the Commission and they didn’t seem the least bit surprised that we received such letters, even though we are both fully employed.
If we want to get our workforce back to work, we need to stop the FPUC payments, we need to stop the stimulus, and let’s get America back to work.
Oh, we tipped them $20 and asked them to please split it.
