Post: #151

(06-09-2017 01:38 PM)TravelerKai Wrote:  

(06-09-2017 12:58 PM)Truth Teller Wrote:  These restaurants are losing money because tastes are shifting more generally. Nobody is going to pay $15 for some reheated chicken dish.

More generally, they're just awful places to go. My friend and I went to an Applebees to drink a few weeks ago, for whatever reason. Their beer tasted like yeasty water and the "mixed drinks" were questionable.

I have problems with this as well.

Sometimes when you want to have an after work drink with a client, work buddy, business partners, etc. you get watered down drinks at the bars of many of these types of restaurants.

Problem is, you don't exactly want to take your guest over to a legit bar or lounge bar either. Sometimes those places are not appropriate to take a guest, but on the other hand, no one at the table likes the drink they got or it's so-so, which is not good for first impressions or whatever.

The obvious solution is to go to higher end restaurants, but that backfires or doesn't always fit either. Sometimes even if you are the one footing the bill for it, it can still give the wrong impression.

When it comes to beers, always ask for a bottle, but for whiskey and mixed drinks, they will either cut you on the amount, put ice or water inside, water down the coke, or use the really cheap shit.

It's really sad when you ask for a Tall and a Double, and the glass is still small and the drink is still weak. Next time go down the street to a competitor and it is still the same. They know their competitors do the same shit. Just can't win.

I'll second this - I recently purchased some DIN (DineEquity) stock which owns Applebee's and IHOP. Trying to be a conscientious stockholder, I went to Applebee's for the first time in my life a few months ago and sat at the bar. Happy hour pricing is actually really aggressive, but the drinks tasted awful. I saw that they were using that really shitty "Long Island in a bottle" mix instead of pouring out vodka, tequila, rum and triple sec bottles respectively. I love a great deal, but paying $3 for that "Long Island" was a huge mistake.

You got it right: sit at the bar and stick to bottles of beer and maybe a call drink with soda.

Post: #152

I rarely eat at chain restaurants for a reason that I will not compromise on: There's too much DAMN SUGAR added to everything. Sauces, creams, drinks, etc. Sugar is the last thing I want more of in my diet, and paying extra for putting junk in my body isn't my idea of a wise investment. Better off cooking at home and saving the money.

Post: #153

There's a Canadian chain called Scores that I go to sometimes, because they have an OK salad bar buffet and do roast chicken well. Still could do a lot better with their desserts but it's a pretty decent meal nutrition wise if you start out with a big pile of greens. I think that's where those American chains are headed eventually, a healthy buffet and a narrow main dish menu.

Post: #154

(06-09-2017 03:53 PM)booshala Wrote:  

(06-09-2017 01:38 PM)TravelerKai Wrote:  

(06-09-2017 12:58 PM)Truth Teller Wrote:  These restaurants are losing money because tastes are shifting more generally. Nobody is going to pay $15 for some reheated chicken dish.

More generally, they're just awful places to go. My friend and I went to an Applebees to drink a few weeks ago, for whatever reason. Their beer tasted like yeasty water and the "mixed drinks" were questionable.

I have problems with this as well.

Sometimes when you want to have an after work drink with a client, work buddy, business partners, etc. you get watered down drinks at the bars of many of these types of restaurants.

Problem is, you don't exactly want to take your guest over to a legit bar or lounge bar either. Sometimes those places are not appropriate to take a guest, but on the other hand, no one at the table likes the drink they got or it's so-so, which is not good for first impressions or whatever.

The obvious solution is to go to higher end restaurants, but that backfires or doesn't always fit either. Sometimes even if you are the one footing the bill for it, it can still give the wrong impression.

When it comes to beers, always ask for a bottle, but for whiskey and mixed drinks, they will either cut you on the amount, put ice or water inside, water down the coke, or use the really cheap shit.

It's really sad when you ask for a Tall and a Double, and the glass is still small and the drink is still weak. Next time go down the street to a competitor and it is still the same. They know their competitors do the same shit. Just can't win.

I'll second this - I recently purchased some DIN (DineEquity) stock which owns Applebee's and IHOP. Trying to be a conscientious stockholder, I went to Applebee's for the first time in my life a few months ago and sat at the bar. Happy hour pricing is actually really aggressive, but the drinks tasted awful. I saw that they were using that really shitty "Long Island in a bottle" mix instead of pouring out vodka, tequila, rum and triple sec bottles respectively. I love a great deal, but paying $3 for that "Long Island" was a huge mistake.

You got it right: sit at the bar and stick to bottles of beer and maybe a call drink with soda.

Did call your broker the next day and short the stock?

Post: #155

Chipotle isn't the type of place we're talking about, but it's good as fuck and healthier if you do it right. I get a bowl with double brown rice, double black beans, double vegetables, chicken or steak, double green salsa, and lots of lettuce. They only charge more for guac or extra meat. They'll give you a little more meat without charging if you ask nicely.

I turn that into two meals, and for $8. I'll take that over the overpriced garbage at Applebee's any day.

Post: #156

Obviously the fact that I live in a world class food city in Asia probably helps, but aside from grabbing a bite at Burger King from time to time, I eat exclusively at restaurants that are part of a chain of no more than 4-5 locations, all within Beijing itself. My favourite places are fully independent with just one location. The others started as one location and due to popularity, expanded to a few different areas of Beijing.

I feel bad for people who live in the suburbs, which I'm guessing have so many boring people that the only sitdown restaurants that can stay in business are ones with a strong enough brand to bring people in even if the food sucks.

You'd think that having good food would be a powerful selling point, but the truth is that in a lot of markets, it isn't. Most people are so terrified of trying the unknown that cooking phenomenal cuisine isn't often enough to make a profit, even if you are in a neighbourhood with a ton of people, apparently.

Post: #157

(06-09-2017 11:04 PM)Suits Wrote:  Did call your broker the next day and short the stock?

Hah, how old are you, guy? Calling a broker is so 1999. Applebee's is likely destined to muddle away for years but IHOP has such strong profit margins and diner-style food seems solidly embedded in American culture so I think it's worth it. 8%+ yields also help a lot.

(06-09-2017 11:10 PM)TigOlBitties Wrote:  Chipotle isn't the type of place we're talking about, but it's good as fuck and healthier if you do it right. I get a bowl with double brown rice, double black beans, double vegetables, chicken or steak, double green salsa, and lots of lettuce. They only charge more for guac or extra meat. They'll give you a little more meat without charging if you ask nicely.

I turn that into two meals, and for $8. I'll take that over the overpriced garbage at Applebee's any day.

I hate to break it to you, but Chipotle isn't all that much better. Everyone knows about the E Coli breakout that seriously knocked out 60 people... for all their talk about organic meat and fairly raised produce, a huge contributor to the E Coli outbreak was the fact that they par braise all their meat in Chicago and a lot of their other ingredients from a commissary in Denver and mail it in huge plastic bags around the country. The stuff you see them grilling is just finishing the product in their retail stores. Doing everything in each respective outlet without any commissary shenanigans would add significant points on their food cost, something that a publicly traded company just isn't willing to do if they can help it.

Ironically, CMG is another turnaround play I have in my portfolio. Guess I love beaten down food service stocks.

Post: #158

Now this is boomer-posting.

Post: #159

(06-09-2017 11:29 PM)booshala Wrote:  I hate to break it to you, but Chipotle isn't all that much better. Everyone knows about the E Coli breakout that seriously knocked out 60 people... for all their talk about organic meat and fairly raised produce, a huge contributor to the E Coli outbreak was the fact that they par braise all their meat in Chicago and a lot of their other ingredients from a commissary in Denver and mail it in huge plastic bags around the country. The stuff you see them grilling is just finishing the product in their retail stores. Doing everything in each respective outlet without any commissary shenanigans would add significant points on their food cost, something that a publicly traded company just isn't willing to do if they can help it.

I can attest that this is true. I was a cook at a Chipotle a few years back over a summer (worst summer job I had, actually). The meat comes in boxes of about 25 lbs. Chicken is pre-marinated, as far as I remember, all you have to do is throw it on the grill, put some salt on it, and it's done. Steak was a bit different. You'd open it up, have to marinate the meat in adobo (which has a shelf life of about 10 years), then grill it. Steak came in these huge plastic bags, which were always an absolute horror to deal with. They never drained the blood properly, so you'd end up with this puddle at the end of each bag.

Same was true with the black/pinto beans, sofritas, and barbacoa. Besides rice, guac, and some of the salsa stuff, nothing is actually made in-store. Everything is reheated... if I had a nickel for every time I burnt myself on barbacoa, I'd be a rich man.

The "local produce" and "fairly raised animals" are all a crock of marketing shit. I would occasionally supervise our supply shipments, make sure everything got into the walk-in, etc. I can tell you that the vast majority of what we used was not local; I was in a DC-area store and we had pallets coming in marked "Product of California."

By the way, hearing that there were food borne illness problems was not a surprise. The chicken was never properly cooked; the onslaught of customers forces you to take it off before it should. Anyone who thinks Chipotle is any healthier for him than McDonald's is sadly deluded. You're being sold a very well-managed illusion.

Post: #160

(06-04-2017 05:55 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

(06-04-2017 05:46 PM)Kabal Wrote:  My impression of Chili's, Applebees, and TGIF is that their target market has been and is middle-class nuclear families with bourgeois values, a target market that has shrunk relatively-speaking over the past few decades, and maybe even absolute-wise.

I'd thought this too. Fewer families, fewer people going to "family" restaurants. It's worth nothing that Applebees is distinctly WHITE food (Maybe Black too, I don't know, but definitely not Mexican or Asian) and so the changing racial makeup of the US can't be good for them.

Quote:Among singles, some misogynistic jerks on the internet started discouraging buying appetizers for girls, and that toxic masculinist idea may have seeped through and poisoned the populace.

Somewhere on the top floor of Chili's HQ, the vice-president of sales is pouring himself his fifth shot of bourbon for the day. It's Sunday, and it's only the afternoon, but he doesn't care. The room's barely lit, and no one else is in on the weekend anyway. He looks down at sheet of sales numbers, and it's covered in red ink. Everything's down. Stores are closing everywhere. He's tried every promotion he can think of, and nothing's bringing the numbers up. He lets his gaze linger for a moment before leaping out of his chair in fury, ripping a dart out of the holder on his desk and flinging it as hard as he can into the dartboard on the wall.
The dartboard is covered in tiny little holes, the result of days of anger and frustration. And in the center of the dartboard is a picture of a man's yellow head, with bushy hair and a bushy beard. And below the yellow head, in big bright letters, it reads, "#TEAMNOAPPETIZERS MUST DIE".

This is the important part the boomer generation don't notice, same reason why millennial don't buy diamond like previous generations, the main reason for buying diamonds is engagement, since millennial are not marrying that often, then diamonds wont be sold.

Take for example the movie theater, it used to be one of the cheapest form of entertainment, you could bring the entire family during the weekends and go to watch a movie, now, is very expensive to go, is cheaper to pay for a streaming service.

Post: #161

(06-10-2017 06:49 PM)Truth Teller Wrote:  

(06-09-2017 11:29 PM)booshala Wrote:  I hate to break it to you, but Chipotle isn't all that much better. Everyone knows about the E Coli breakout that seriously knocked out 60 people... for all their talk about organic meat and fairly raised produce, a huge contributor to the E Coli outbreak was the fact that they par braise all their meat in Chicago and a lot of their other ingredients from a commissary in Denver and mail it in huge plastic bags around the country. The stuff you see them grilling is just finishing the product in their retail stores. Doing everything in each respective outlet without any commissary shenanigans would add significant points on their food cost, something that a publicly traded company just isn't willing to do if they can help it.

I can attest that this is true. I was a cook at a Chipotle a few years back over a summer (worst summer job I had, actually). The meat comes in boxes of about 25 lbs. Chicken is pre-marinated, as far as I remember, all you have to do is throw it on the grill, put some salt on it, and it's done. Steak was a bit different. You'd open it up, have to marinate the meat in adobo (which has a shelf life of about 10 years), then grill it. Steak came in these huge plastic bags, which were always an absolute horror to deal with. They never drained the blood properly, so you'd end up with this puddle at the end of each bag.

Same was true with the black/pinto beans, sofritas, and barbacoa. Besides rice, guac, and some of the salsa stuff, nothing is actually made in-store. Everything is reheated... if I had a nickel for every time I burnt myself on barbacoa, I'd be a rich man.

The "local produce" and "fairly raised animals" are all a crock of marketing shit. I would occasionally supervise our supply shipments, make sure everything got into the walk-in, etc. I can tell you that the vast majority of what we used was not local; I was in a DC-area store and we had pallets coming in marked "Product of California."

By the way, hearing that there were food borne illness problems was not a surprise. The chicken was never properly cooked; the onslaught of customers forces you to take it off before it should. Anyone who thinks Chipotle is any healthier for him than McDonald's is sadly deluded. You're being sold a very well-managed illusion.

I ate at my regular taqueria in NorCal about 4-5 times a week, usually after soccer or rugby games and practices. Their hygene looked dodgy as hell, but somehow I never got sick. I guess it was because the food was so fresh and had a lot of natural antibacterial properties: fresh cut garlic, cilantro leaves, onions, chili/salsa (used loads of it and the hot stuff). Too much natural firepower there for any rogue bacteria, they should have used that salsa in hospitals to get rid of C-difficile.

Yeah Chipotles is crap, but I guess that's all they have in many places.

Post: #162

Why chain restaurants are dying off, in no particular order:

*Shitty product(s).
*Changing demographics.
*Changing consumer tastes.
*Overpriced for what you get.
*More, better competition, including prepared foods from supermarkets and services such as Blue Apron. Even the garden salad from McDonald's will do in a pinch, is tasty and cheap.
*The above ^^ don't require tips, which brings me to:
*Lack of disposable income. Contrary to the MSM propaganda, the economy (outside of housing in some markets) hasn't recovered from the meltdown that started ~10 years ago.

Post: #163

I don't buy this whole "millennials don't have money" thing. Plenty of broke fuckers (hourly to 40K) around my age group (HS friends on FB) have shitty jobs but would rather spend their money on hipster restaurants that offer better items for the same price.

Compare this menu from http://www.brasilcafehouston.com/ to fucking Chill's who has the same shit for almost the same price. I'll rather pay a dollar or two more for better ingredients. Also, the drinks at Chili's and the like taste like sugar and no flavor. I love bitch sweet drinks, and I almost spat their Tamarind margarita out.


   


Families on the other hand, they don't have money to throw around.

I never ate at Red Lobster, Chilis, Olive Garden, and the such as a kid. That food was too classy (expensive) for us to eat. However when I made enough money, I knew they were garbage and opted for smaller but better restaurants. Shit, Olive Garden has their Lasagna for 14 while Grotto by the Houston Galleria (Lasagne al Forno Thin-baked layers of pasta, beef bolognese, ricotta, mozzarella) has theirs at 18. No fucking way Jose, fuck Darden!

At one point in my family, going to Olive Garden was a dress up affair. Only went there twice in my life.

Post: #164

^ Geez, I forgot how expensive food is back in the U.S.... a chicken salad sandwich for $12?!

No thanks. They can go belly up for all I care.

Post: #165

(06-11-2017 09:26 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  I don't buy this whole "millennials don't have money" thing. Plenty of broke fuckers (hourly to 40K) around my age group (HS friends on FB) have shitty jobs but would rather spend their money on hipster restaurants that offer better items for the same price.

Compare this menu from http://www.brasilcafehouston.com/ to fucking Chill's who has the same shit for almost the same price. I'll rather pay a dollar or two more for better ingredients. Also, the drinks at Chili's and the like taste like sugar and no flavor. I love bitch sweet drinks, and I almost spat their Tamarind margarita out.

^This is the answer.

There are plenty of restaurants serving good food for the same price as the frozen shit at Chili's and restaurants like it.

The only time I ever go to Chili's now is when I'm visiting my parents because it's the "nice" restaurant in Zanesville, TX. And even then I'd rather just have Whataburger.

Post: #166

When you're pointing the finger at someone, remember that your other fingers are pointing at yourself.
If you want customers, how about serving healthy food, not frozen shit, hiring American workers, stopping putting corn syrup in drinks, stop supporting gay marriage, and offering good service? Much better than blaming people, and it'll pay off in the long term.

We're seeing this kind of shit here in Thailand too. Last time I went to my local restaurant, I ordered a glass of coconut water - and it wasn't tasting like that at all. I asked the waitress and she told me that it was 30% high-fructose corn syrup, and 70% coconut water. More profits, worse food, but if no one complains, they'll continue doing that.

If Trump really cares about America, he should pass a food law that:
- Forbids using the word "juice" if it is not 100% pure juice
- Forbids adding corn syrup to food unless it is explicitely mentioned in the menu
- Mandates mentioning that your food is frozen

Post: #167

(06-11-2017 11:07 PM)Rawmeo Wrote:  If Trump really cares about America, he should pass a food law that:
- Forbids using the word "juice" if it is not 100% pure juice
- Forbids adding corn syrup to food unless it is explicitely mentioned in the menu
- Mandates mentioning that your food is frozen

Federal over-reach is a big part of what is wrong with the United States.

It should be up to the individual states to implement such mandates.

Post: #168

(06-12-2017 12:07 AM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-11-2017 11:07 PM)Rawmeo Wrote:  If Trump really cares about America, he should pass a food law that:
- Forbids using the word "juice" if it is not 100% pure juice
- Forbids adding corn syrup to food unless it is explicitely mentioned in the menu
- Mandates mentioning that your food is frozen

Federal over-reach is a big part of what is wrong with the United States.

It should be up to the individual states to implement such mandates.

Then make it at state level, but at least, make it.

Post: #169

(06-12-2017 12:07 AM)Suits Wrote:  

(06-11-2017 11:07 PM)Rawmeo Wrote:  If Trump really cares about America, he should pass a food law that:
- Forbids using the word "juice" if it is not 100% pure juice
- Forbids adding corn syrup to food unless it is explicitely mentioned in the menu
- Mandates mentioning that your food is frozen

Federal over-reach is a big part of what is wrong with the United States.

It should be up to the individual states to implement such mandates.

Not to downplay problems with bureaucracy and overreach, but there is an even bigger issue in the US, and increasingly, in the EU, which compounds this problem: the revolving door policy that corrupts government agencies and makes it worse. This problem summarized in one meme:



So when you have the situation above, or the former vaccines divisions director from Merck regulating US vaccine policy, you have a much bigger problem that plain big gummint overreach...

Post: #170

(06-11-2017 09:17 PM)YossariansRight Wrote:  Why chain restaurants are dying off, in no particular order:

*Shitty product(s).
*Changing demographics.
*Changing consumer tastes.
*Overpriced for what you get.
*More, better competition, including prepared foods from supermarkets and services such as Blue Apron. Even the garden salad from McDonald's will do in a pinch, is tasty and cheap.
*The above ^^ don't require tips, which brings me to:
*Lack of disposable income. Contrary to the MSM propaganda, the economy (outside of housing in some markets) hasn't recovered from the meltdown that started ~10 years ago.

I think the whole "people don't want to tip" thing is an over simplification. People who work or have worked in the service biz will understand, tips add incentive. If you're a good bartender or server and do you job well and are knowledgeable, you will make decent money if assuming the food / drinks you're selling are quality. That's why customers tip. I don't care what Mr. Pink says in the intro to Reservoir Dogs. Like Mr. White says, he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about. Serving people is a hard job. Those who go the extra mile tend to be rewarded for it. The pothead working at Mcfondle's doesn't get tips because he's not invested in the interaction, doesn't know anything about the product he's selling, and just squeezes the beef into a tube before calling your number. There's perfectly good reason not to tip that guy while tipping your bartender.


If you aren't getting value for your money (like you wouldn't at Chili's) you would be less inclined to go there knowing tipping is expected when the food is shit and everyone up to and including the person serving it knows that.

Post: #171

There was a Wall Street Journal article that reaffirmed the cost issue that people are bringing up:

Quote:The U.S. restaurant industry is in a funk. Blame it on lunch.

Americans made 433 million fewer trips to restaurants at lunchtime last year, resulting in roughly $3.2 billion in lost business, according to market-research firm NPD Group Inc. It was the lowest level of lunch traffic in at least four decades.

While that loss in traffic is a 2% decline from 2015, it is a significant one-year drop for an industry that has traditionally relied on lunch and has had little or no growth for a decade.

“I put [restaurant] lunch right up there with fax machines and pay phones,” said Jim Parks, a 55-year-old sales director who used to dine out for lunch nearly every day but found in recent years that he no longer had room for it in his schedule.

Like Mr. Parks, many U.S. workers now see stealing away for an hour at the neighborhood diner in the middle of the day as a luxury. Even the classic “power lunch” is falling out of favor among power brokers.

When he isn’t on the road for a Detroit-based building products company, Mr. Parks works from his home in Carlisle, Ohio, and eats there. When he meets clients at their offices, they have food delivered and work during what they call a “lunch and learn.”

Even some restaurant-company executives don’t go out for lunch. Employees at Texas Roadhouse Inc.’s Louisville, Ky., headquarters order in so often that they know the delivery drivers by name. “A lot of our folks are trying to be more efficient,” company President Scott Colosi said.

Cost is another factor working against eating out for lunch. While restaurants have raised their tabs over the past few years to cope with rising labor costs, the price of food at supermarkets has continued to drop, widening the cost gap between bringing in lunch and eating out.

Restaurants are adapting by offering delivery, faster service and smaller portions. But the shift signals trouble for the industry, which makes more money serving meals inside restaurants, where soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, appetizers and desserts boost margins. Maintaining nearly empty dining rooms is costly.

Among the hardest hit are casual sit-down restaurants—such as Dine Equity Inc.’s Applebee’s and Ruby Tuesday Inc. —because of the time it takes to order, get served and pay. Such establishments last year saw their steepest ever decline in lunch traffic, according to NPD.

...

“Consumers are buying fresh foods, from supermarkets, and eating them at home as a replacement for eating out,” Tyson Chief Executive Tom Hayes said.

The average price of a restaurant lunch has risen 19.5% to $7.59 since the recession, as rising labor costs pushed owners to raise menu prices—even as the cost of raw ingredients has fallen. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. last year posted the longest stretch of falling grocery prices in more than 50 years.

“We believe significant food deflation was the primary culprit behind last year’s weakness, favoring food at home pricing over food away from home pricing to a degree not seen outside of the global financial crisis,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Sara Senatore said in a recent report on the restaurant industry.

...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/going-out-f...1496155377

Restaurant prices have been increasing due to these overcomplicated dishes and rising minimum wage (! Surprise. Surprise.) while grocery store foods have been experiencing mass deflation.

Why spend money eating out when you can get the same thing for literally half the cost?

Post: #172

Between tips, not being able to control actually what they put in food, and beverage markup, eating out is a killer all the way around. Unless you are doing things you just can't get truly the same or otherwise and you like it (high end steaks, prime rib, fish, etc).

Post: #173

(06-09-2017 02:48 PM)Zelcorpion Wrote:  Hanauer mentioned it in his talks - his consumption does not rise when he makes another 100 mio. $, but the consumption of the bottom 80% would rise tremendously if they made 100 mio. $ more.

He glosses over several points which are part of the reality here, in order to make a super simple one that's not entirely correct. I don't even think the hardest core capitalist really buys "They're the job creators" in the same vein as he presents it. Everyone knows it's more of an excuse or pretense for lobbying or maintaining wealth. By the way, that's exactly the same BS that politicians employ when they say "tax the rich" --- maintain power. It's also why neither point will go anywhere until we're honest about ALL the variables.

Post: #174

Don't forget, we have too many restaurants anyway. Started in the go-go eighties, and is finally limping to its death.

These Stepford restaurants, if you ever had a good experience there it was in spite of the food and in spite of theme park like design.

The corporate mentality is hell on the workers, and I once worked at one of these that got bought out by Pepsi, and it was like working for Big Brother.

They promised you stocks, health care, once you worked full time, but surprise surprise, you only ended up working 39 hours and 59 minutes a week, sorry Charlie, not quite.

If you kept track of your hours separate from the time clock, you found they shorted you on time every week. Not much, maybe 45 minutes, but multiply that by thousands of employees.

They bragged about looking after workers, and had a toll free employee complaint line straight to corporate, supposedly to make sure you were heard. Early scuttlebutt was it was just an inadvertent self snitching system, and anyone who used it didn't last long.


All of the minimum wage waiters had something called side work, cleaning tables, refilling salt and pepper shakers, like ten minutes of clean up before going off the clock. They had to pay the janitorial staff more an hour because they didn't get tips, so what did they do?

Fire the janitors, and give all their work to the waiters, just refer to it as "side work," and make them all stay an hour late. They expanded definitions of things like a feminist using the word rape.

Everything and every manager was controlled by computer feedback, and they knew exactly how to have you running just near the breaking point for the whole shift, wearing you out, and they figured, well, we have this new computer system where waiters can order food from the floor instead of having to go to the back, saving time, let's give them a ton more tables. This was a while ago, before touch screen ordering, so you had to memorize a four digit number for every entree, every appetizer, every drink, every modification to every entree or appetizer, essentially doubling the number of things you had to have in your head to do your job. It didn't speed anything up because they gave us more tables, and we were nervous wrecks, and that frustrating the customers too, because things were slow too.

I calculated it once, and figured at any given moment, I had a hundred things to keep track of. Add a bunch of abstract four digit codes to that, which were much harder to memorize, and that was like 175 separate chunks of information in my brain at once, for six hours.


A six hour shift would wear you out, you just wanted to go home and sleep. One time, I stepped in and worked a double shift because someone didn't show up. At the end of it, I got chewed out because I had ordered one extra entree that hadn't been served.

Also, not a joke, the kitchen manager asked me to shine his boots for him.

No one lasted long, perfect corporate environment, constantly hiring involuntary part time workers, over working them till they burned out and quit, and couldn't ever get health care or stock options, but it didn't matter because they were they were always hiring and training new people.

And this was a place where the food was actually good, one of its selling points was that everything was fresh, and on a tour, people could go in the back and see that there were no cans in the restaurant.

They had language manipulation down. In our training, they told us all sorts of pat phrases and strategies to work on customers. I didn't have the bullshit positivity in those early meetings. The trainer, a woman who had bought in to the corporate culture, proudly telling us she was part of the "Tiger Team." told the group that we used a special healthy low cholesterol vegetable oil, and asked us if we knew why we were supposed to say that.

I raised my hand and said, "So customers will be distracted from how much fat they are consuming."

From that day on, I was the opposite of the teacher's pet, whatever that is, even though I never made a gaffe like that again.

We also had a ridiculous policy, we weren't allowed ever to tell a customer no. We were like freaking politicians in a debate. If someone said, "Do you have mango salsa?' would answer, "What we do have is roasted tomato pico de gallo."

Inevitably, some customer would figure out what was going on, and ask questions like, "So, are you gay?' to entertain their friends.

Also, we were like Disney workers, having to play a role, in our Mexican Wedding shirts and having to sing at birthdays in sombreros with much Aye Yi Yi-ing. Fake Fake Fake. Uncomfortable for us and for the customers.

This kind of shit:






Shit food, shit working conditions, shit customer experience. This is a whole class of restaurants that just needs to disappear, and no one will ever have to pretend to enjoy their good-timey-ness ever again.

P.S. Not saying this was where I worked, but don't go to Chevy's




"FRESH MEX! IMMEDIATE SEATING!"

Post: #175

Fuck eating out for lunch, every cubicle motherfucker is trying to eat at the same time. You cannot eat out for lunch if your lunch is at noon. There's no time for it. 10-15 mins to get there, 10 mins to get your order. then another 10-15 mins to drive back. That means you only have 20-30 mins to eat your meal. That's not enjoy your meal. When I interview I always ask if lunch must be at noon, any place that demands this is out of my list.

I hate how the media says "in roughly $$$ in lost business"....no, the money isn't gone. It's just spent somewhere else.

I just remember why my dad never took us to Chilis. He used to work in these type of places during his 20s. He would see servers drop meals in the kitchen, pick them right up, give them a quick wipe, and walk out to serve them. "Chili's is not much different than McDonald's But in Chili's you don't know what happens in the kitchen area. In McDonald's you can at least see the kitchen"