Current Events > What is the point of opening a restaurant at 25% capacity

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like Waffle House only having 1 person sit at the bar? You cannot profit off of a 25% capacity and you are just endangering your work force to push some moral principle.

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restaurants should stay as takeout and delivery until 2021 tbh

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ThyCorndog posted...

restaurants should stay as takeout and delivery until 2021 tbh

agreed

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i dont understand why capacity matters as long as proper distance can be maintained

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25% is better than 0%

dont be scared wimps guys

i am taking the virus head on. my soul is prepared.

tbh we stopped eating at sit down places when we had kids because its a nightmare, especially with 2

but its nice every once in a while.

Questionmarktarius posted...

25% is better than 0%

It's probably not. The slimmer your profit margins, the more activity you need to break even. As an industry, restaurants have one of the slimmest margins.

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Questionmarktarius posted...

25% is better than 0%

carryout?

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I was asking this last night, it's weird to me. I don't rightfully know if restaurants that are offering curbside pick-up services are doing well or not, though. If they are, I guess a partial reopening is a logical next step.

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Restaurants need to shut down completely until there's a vaccine. "Curbside" pickup is way too dangerous.

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It's very possible that 0% > 25% for profits.

In a shutdown, you potentially don't have to pay labor or supplies.

The restaurant business is economically very 'efficient' in the sense that there are so many vying competitors that profit is driven very low. So not seating at full capacity may mean going negative.

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imo as long as the old folk don't go out to eat we should be fine. i am a scientist after all

do some pushups, don't be obese, and go hang out at the local burger joint bby. really got nothing to worry about

statistically guys

statistically

These reopenings have no basis in science right now. They're just winging it because people are desperate and the government has failed them.

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Some restaurants probably can make a profit at 25% capacity. The bar I own for example makes pretty much 0 profit on food (it is just to keep people inside), and we make all our profit on alcohol sales, which just requires a manager or bartender

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trust me. you're a scientist

AlephZero posted...

Restaurants need to shut down completely until there's a vaccine. "Curbside" pickup is way too dangerous.

That's going too far

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Feline_Heart posted...

That's going too far

Yeah if you don't give a shit about people's lives its going too far

gtfo of here with that bullshit. we. dont. need. to. open. the. economy. to. make. people. rich. at. the. expense. of. lives.

so rather than carryout and 0% capacity in store

you have carryout and 25% capacity in store

this equals more money, as long as the additional staff get paid less than 25% of your capacity's additional profit from carryout only

Romes187 posted...

Yeah if you don't give a shit about people's lives its going too far

gtfo of here with that bullshit. we. dont. need. to. open. the. economy. to. make. people. rich. at. the. expense. of. lives.

I didn't say anything about opening the economy. He said that we shouldn't have deliveries or cubside pickup anymore and i was just saying that we don't need to go that far. A lot of dumb people don't know how to cook at all and would starve if they couldn't order food. As long as restaurants take the proper precautions, deliveries should still be available

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guys do ANY of you commenting on a restaurants ability to stay in business at a certain capacity level

have ANY experience owning a restaurant bc otherwise you're all just guessing

now lets all go out and get something to eat

Feline_Heart posted...

That's going too far

Ignore him, he's a right wing child who can't actually articulate a coherent argument so he resorts to making the other side sound like it's asking the world to shut down for the next 10 years.

Romes187 posted...

guys do ANY of you commenting on a restaurants ability to stay in business at a certain capacity level

have ANY experience owning a restaurant bc otherwise you're all just guessing

now lets all go out and get something to eat

No, but I understand the basic concept of profit margins

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Sewage posted...

Ignore him, he's a right wing child who can't actually articulate a coherent argument so he resorts to making the other side sound like it's asking the world to shut down for the next 10 years.

Alt Right AlephZero is at it again with his sarcasm

imo he shouldn't be allowed to post until a vaccine is created

ThyCorndog posted...

restaurants should stay as takeout and delivery until 2021 tbh

I dont get why everyone has 2021 as the amazing open date. Its not like virus will magically go away in the next year. We have to be realistic here.

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Evening_Dragon posted...

It's probably not. The slimmer your profit margins, the more activity you need to break even. As an industry, restaurants have one of the slimmest margins.

"25% capacity" is likely referring to the fire marshal's sign by the door.
Apart from lunch and dinner rush, and/or snooty "exclusive" places, nearly every restaurant spends most of the day under 25% capacity anyway.

JBaLLEN66 posted...

No, but I understand the basic concept of profit margins

You also understand the basic concept of addition but I doubt you have any understanding of the group structure underneath it

if it were as easy as understanding one metric then analysts and accountants wouldn't be paid very much would they

Aeriis posted...

i don't know, the restaurant I work at is profiting from only doing carry out

so I can see them profiting at 25%

Carryout only has less expenses than carryout/dine in

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Questionmarktarius posted...

nearly every restaurant spends most of the day under 25% capacity anyway.

shhhh

Keep me out of whatever fight you guys have going on lol. I don't think the economy should open up. I was just saying that we don't need to completely shut down every restaurant. You guys are way too sensitive

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Feline_Heart posted...

Keep me out of whatever fight you guys have going on lol. I don't think the economy should open up. I was just saying that we don't need to completely shut down every restaurant. You guys are way too sensitive

i feel bad now. my posts were troll posts. dont listen to them.

Romes187 posted...

i feel bad now. my posts were troll posts. dont listen to them.

It's alright

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Ludwig Von 2 posted...

I dont get why everyone has 2021 as the amazing open date. Its not like virus will magically go away in the next year. We have to be realistic here.

it's a minimum. no one said it was magical

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They probably won't be bringing in much more workers than they already are for their takeout/curbside.

So it's just additional profits from what they're making currently I'd guess?

They'll figure it out I guess
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sometimes we just need to let the forest fire burn out the dead wood so the new forest can grow in its place

rite

If the goal is to save lives, we need a scorched Earth approach and not this half measure stuff. Either way though, it's still way too early to open restaurants up even at 25% capacity.

Romes187 posted...

sometimes we just need to let the forest fire burn out the dead wood so the new forest can grow in its place

rite

Say that again in non-troll language?
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

i dont understand why capacity matters as long as proper distance can be maintained

Cause the 6 feet distance isn't a "safe" distance, it is the bare minimum to go out for an emergency or for groceries.

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uwa ej posted...

If the goal is to save lives, we need a scorched Earth approach and not this half measure stuff. Either way though, it's still way too early to open restaurants up even at 25% capacity.

Ehh, I disagree. Depends on the restaurant i guess. I mean, would opening up outdoor seating for example, really be that dangerous?
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AlephZero posted...

Restaurants need to shut down completely until there's a vaccine. "Curbside" pickup is way too dangerous.

Restaurants near me have had their patios open just about this whole time. They arent waiting on the people, but the people are getting their carry out and just chilling there eating. Pretty wild.

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Im convinced Georgia is allowing certain businesses to be open to slash people off of the unemployment rolls. No other reason. Dining out now is not safe. We should have to wear face masks in public but you cant do that while youre eating.

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Alpha218 posted...

Im convinced Georgia is allowing certain businesses to be open to slash people off of the unemployment rolls. No other reason. Dining out now is not safe. We should have to wear face masks in public but you cant do that while youre eating.

Yep. That's what I've been thinking as well.

Another thing I don't understand is why they're reopening theaters. Every movie can be bought right now for $20. No studio is gonna release a new movie.

So people would be going there, paying more and risking their lives just for the experience, which is so stupid.

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archedsoul posted...

These reopenings have no basis in science right now. They're just winging it because people are desperate and the government has failed them.

Shutdowns have no basis in science

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emblem boy posted...

Say that again in non-troll language?

"Like of course, of course, children who have nut allergies need to be protected, of course. We have to segregate their food from nuts, have their medication available at all times, and anybody who manufactures or serves food needs to be aware of deadly nut allergies, of course, but maybe. Maybe if touching a nut kills you, youre supposed to die. Of course not, of course not, of course not. Jesus."

ThyCorndog posted...

it's a minimum. no one said it was magical

The post didn't say it was a minimum either.

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Ludwig Von 2 posted...

The post didn't say it was a minimum either.

it's implicit. you could add "at least" but it's unnecessary unless you're a pedant

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Restaurants will be the last business sector to open back up (obviously not talking about red states that are fucking this whole thing up). Hopefully states and Congress extend unemployment benefits for them in an future instance of everything else being open except for this sector.

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AlephZero posted...

Restaurants need to shut down completely until there's a vaccine. "Curbside" pickup is way too dangerous.

This is an extreme position. I don't see how it is necessary at all.
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Look, man, Republicans have been projecting a false reality for years in order to dick around the working class and boost corporate profits. The problem now is that a good number of political figures grew up during that time and were conditioned by that environment to actually believe that stuff. So now when there's a huge crisis at hand, they don't have the capacity to question the reality in which they've lived their entire lives. To acknowledge that would be a threat to their entire identity. I'm (or was, I guess) a bartender, so trust me when I say that I've seen a lot of this.

Basically, these guys know deep down that we're dealing with an unprecedented crisis that we don't have the capacity to handle. They know that people largely don't have the resources to deal with it. They know that combating it would take a massive restructure of our society and the principles on which they base their political belief system. So it's either that or embrace denial, stick your head in the sand, and hope that it all goes away. I'm not even kidding a little bit.

To reopen restaurants during a pandemic (after getting ahead of it, mind you, which we haven't) you'd need to restructure them to be reservation only for dine in. You need a common app used by restaurants all across the country that would give timeslots weeks out that people could register for on a first come, first serve basis. This would give restaurants the ability to staff appropriately to their anticipated business, and protect people from the chaos of everyone just wandering around and trying to get into places. It would ALSO be an effective metric by which to track who had been where, so that if there was an outbreak, it would be easier to track and isolate it.

Speaking of testing and tracking, you need to give everyone healthcare through the government and mandate sick leave. The alternative is the working class continuing to show up to work when they're sick because they have no other choice. The alternative is at least half the country being unable to afford going to the doctor or getting a test, or treating a life threatening disease. Letting business continue as usual is simply not a feasible option during a pandemic you're trying to control.

Now watch none of that happen. These states that are reopening are going to get fucked. People will have their lives destroyed. And Republican officials will continue punting the responsibility away and making their buddies money because they can't accept that their beliefs are built on a lie.

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