As someone who walks around San Francisco nightly I can say that about 50% to 70% of restaurants and bars are packed, every night of the week.
Just raise the prices a bit ya dummies.
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To be fair Papasan is 138 years old.
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Already in the prototype and public alpha stages. For example:
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The Metreon has a terminator looking automated hand that makes coffee. Mission and 15th there’s a machine that makes fresh baked sourdough bread.
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I know this sounds crazy - but economics shows there’s a way to to address a labor shortage. Why are wages the only expense that can’t be raised?
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If SF restaurants had housing…
"The house is clean,” he said. “The view is beautiful and the people are nice.”
"While many owners and managers were hesitant to talk about pay practices, they more readily acknowledged providing employee housing as part of their compensation package. The Gazette found at least 13 Asian restaurants in Hampshire County where managers say they provide worker housing. "
“Some restaurateurs, like Michael Wou, owner of Teapot Restaurant in Northampton, buy large houses and live with their workers. Wou, who acknowledged providing employee housing at 8 Carpenter Ave. in Northampton, declined to comment on what he pays his workers.”
“That’s secretive,” he said. “They all have it good.”
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Hopefully the servers that go from $18/19 an hour to $0 an hour have the means to GTFO.
This is nowhere my area of expertise, and my initial knee-jerk response was going to be “Greed?”, but then I started thinking about it a bit more.
Let’s say I’m a restaurant owner and I decide to give my employees an extra $5 an hour to help combat the problem (that still might not be enough in SF).
If I had 10 employees per two 8-hr shifts, 20 employees total, that’s $50 less per hour that I’m pocketing. That’s $800 per day lost. In a month of 30 days, that’s $24,000 I’m losing. $288,000 a year.
Depending on how good business is, I may be able to absorb that, but if business is that good I won’t want to, because I’m used to my lifestyle. Living in SF is expensive after all, and I have that coke habit and hookers won’t pay for themselves.
I could raise prices to compensate, so I look at the top 5 dishes that sell the best, and increase the prices enough to offset the $50/hr based on the current data.
But by doing that I’m risking losing customers to competitors, or having the ones that stay cut back on how much they order.
Risk is scary. Best to not do nothing, and let my employees figure their shit out. I did it. How hard can it be?
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Supply and demand seems to be sticky only on the wages piece of the equation. I’m sure they’re paying market rate for space and supplies - but forces exist to keep wages down. The Fed being one.
edit:
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Right. I did say it was outside of my area. The one time I tried running my own business was a massive flop. I don’t have a head/heart for it. And it wasn’t in a public service field, like a restaurant would be.
I still feel (in my heart-of-hearts, based on every time I’ve tried to negotiate a raise for myself) what would keep a business owner from giving any kind of decent raise is the desire to maximize their profits.
If they can stay in business without providing a raise, they aren’t going to provide a raise.
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Welp, there goes the housing market in Phoenix.
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Not just in cities, either. There’s an increasing number of articles about resort areas (with lots of restaurants and B&Bs) running into the same problem. Business owners in places like Martha’s Vineyard, Hilton Head, and various towns along the Jersey shore or Delaware beaches are reducing hours.
In South Carolina, people who worked on Hilton Head could not afford to live there, so Beaufort and Bluffton are attracting those workers instead: https://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/editorials/article98317227.html
The other part of the problem is relying on visa programs when the current administration is cutting back: The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News | Busy Season Has Arrived, but Summer Workers Have Not
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Yeah… automation won’t solve that problem, no matter how much big business may wish it could.
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Soon, only diners who can afford to pay very high prices will eat at full service restaurants. The rest of us will be at the buffet, then trying to figure out the drink machine - or dealing with the robot bartender and barista.
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Would you say you are disappointed in Boing Boing?
Someone had to say it.
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But! But! But! There must be some genius-level AI out there that could solve this inequity issue! So, who will be the first uber-rich tech executive to step up to the plate and fix this once and for all?!
It’s just that here the Morlocks won’t get to eat the Eloi.
Here, the Eloi will feast on the Morlocks, one way or another.
I dunno, People magazine looks more and more like a menu all the time.
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Duplex is currently only capable of making restaurant and salon reservations. But I do feel like self-serve, automated restaurants have something in common with AI assistants handling all of our human interactions.
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Look on the bright side: No obligation to tip!
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