Yeah the whole 50% thing for restaurants sounds good, but there’s no way they can operate that way at a profit. That industry is run on razor thin margins.
Quite honestly, most folks should be staying home and making their own dinner instead of going out to eat multiple times per week.
I remember walking to school in the snow uphill both ways as a kid, and going to a restaurant was a BIG deal. It simply wasn't in the poor Throbber family household budget until college was all saved for and the bills were all paid and 10% was put away for a rainy day.
The Throbber parents slid into the grave still holding a pretty decent estate and no financial worries well into their 80's when they died of the COVID four years ago.
2/3 of the restaurants shouldn't be open in the first place. Probably the same for craft brewers.
While I agree in principle about not going out as often as many people do from a frugal/financial standpoint, I also disagree about closing a bunch of restaurants.
The personal finances of this country are pretty sad. But that’s not really gonna be solved by shutting down the craft brewery and the fancy burger place.
Plus I like having those places around as options, and the people that work there need jobs too.
But right now, that decision-making has been legal removed from the market.
Yes, but most places shut down or limited/modified operations before any government intervention. Probably to match the drop in customer traffic. I see your point, but the bottom line was ruined by the virus/fear before any political intervention took place.
Since we govern by anecdote now, I'll give you one: I can tell you first-hand that a business was ahead of the government, adapting, and doing ok, all things considered, prior to Inslee stepping in to save the day.
Furthermore, the businesses by Inslee's magnanimous graces allowed to continue operating have adapted, again often before legal mandate, and are doing just fine, all things considered.
I’m not a fan of saying who can or cannot operate. Bit we also have more information now than we did then.
We have much more data, but is the understanding any better? I've seen nothing to materially change my mind from early March. On the flip, the virocrats running the show demand more and more data as a condition, but doesn't look like they have any better understanding either. Data collection has become a goal unto itself.
I’m in finance as a profession, I see this a lot. Whenever an executive or sales asks for more and more data/reports, different formats, etc that don’t tell you anything different to make a decision it always screams to me that they don’t know what to do and are stalling for time, thinking that some magic answer will appear. The perfect data point generally doesn’t exist, and if it does it’s easy to find. That totally seems like what is happening here, paralysis by analysis.
Totally agree. Nobody wants to be the leader that opens it back up and gets blamed for a spike in cases. They’re stalling because they’re scared and paralyzed by indecision and fear.
AGREE
Wow. Mark your calendars folks. You’ll be subpoenaed about this moment someday.
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