WatchFlorida based restaurant boss John Metz, who runs approximately 40 Denny's and owns the Hurricane Grill & Wings franchise has decided to offset that by adding a five percent surcharge to customers' bills and will reduce his employees' hours.
With Obamacare due to be fully implemented in January 2014, Metz has justified his move by claiming it is 'the only alternative. I've got to pass on the cost to the customer.'
Which will kill off even more jobs as people will have an additional incentive not to eat out.
Follow
Befriend (2)
61 threads
1,307 comments
Premium
elliemae says
Ellie, that is inaccurate. There is no way a restaurant achieve 90% gross margin overall.
It's more like 60%-70%, even with drinks included. That is the benchmark. For a 24/7 place like Denny's with $2.99 grand slam, their gross margins are probably around there.
But overall, Obamacare will increase the bills slightly, almost invisible as I've seen it firsthand in San Francisco what $10.50 minimum wage, vacation and health care mandate will do. It is actually a very good thing. Most will just reprint their menu with slightly higher price in the next cycle or lose a couple of door buster specials like $5 subway footlongs
Follow
Befriend (4)
25 threads
1,520 comments
Laguna Beach, CA
Premium
I buy a weeks worth of bacon for $2, pancake mix $3, and dozen eggs $1.29.
Sure it takes me about 10 minutes to get everything cooked up, but no way I'm paying $11.99 for an IHOP combo.
Follow
Befriend (31)
34 threads
2,552 comments
San Jose, CA
Premium
Slow down here. Obamacare doesn't kick in till January 2014. Why the hell is he charging the customers the 5% surcharge now? Sounds like a sleazy way to increase his profit margin. Not sure if it will backfire on this business move.
Follow
Befriend (2)
61 threads
1,307 comments
Premium
E-Man with the new San Jose minimum wage, prepare to see new menus as well. lol. When I am in the southbay, I always head for Tully/Story for Pho. Maybe $7.95 will become $8.95.
I forgot whether or not you support it, but I have to say higher minimum is a good thing overall. The idea that it will kill jobs is non-sense. Business will adjust.
Follow
Befriend (31)
34 threads
2,552 comments
San Jose, CA
Premium
SFace says
What? We have a new San Jose minimum wage now? How much is that? $8.75/hour? The sad thing is that every time there's a minimum wage increase, rent, gas and food go up proportionally. It sucks to be the servant.
Follow
Befriend (31)
34 threads
2,552 comments
San Jose, CA
Premium
Man, I remember the days where Pho was $4.50 for a small bowl & $4.95 for a big bowl. Talking about inflation. I guess real estate is a great inflation hedge. We quadruple our return by leveraging OPM.
Follow
Befriend (2)
61 threads
1,307 comments
Premium
San Jose Measure D, $10 /hr
Follow
Befriend
41 threads
907 comments
Ross, CA
The restaurant industry has always been a leader in denying health insurance to its employees. If you think about it for just a second, you realize their concerns are nonsense.
Their competitors will ALSO have to provide health insurance so the playing field remains level. Sure, they will have to raise their prices. EVERYONE will have to.
I can understand some businesses feeling screwed by this. My business competes with companies that outsource their labor overseas. Still, we've always provided health care, because it attracts better employees and it is the right thing to do.
If every country in the world enacted a living wage law - that businesses had to pay employees a wage that was aligned with the cost of living, two things would happen:
1 The world economy would grow faster.
2 Unemployment would go down.
Follow
Befriend (31)
34 threads
2,552 comments
San Jose, CA
Premium
SFace says
I'm pretty neutral on this. In fact I don't care one way or another. I just notice that every time these employees get a "raise". Here comes higher cost of living, or is it the other way around? It sucks making minimum way.
If I were a waiter, I would apply to work for a fancy restaurant and banking on the tips. :)
Follow
Befriend (31)
34 threads
2,552 comments
San Jose, CA
Premium
SFace says
Ah, I didn't see it because I live in a small town next door.
Follow
Befriend (28)
171 threads
4,211 comments
Premium
CaptainShuddup says
Oh, god, please, don't tell me it's closed.
Follow
Befriend (1)
249 threads
4,739 comments
Years ago :_(
Follow
Befriend (3)
5 threads
172 comments
Turning bacon and eggs into a political battle? I can't wait for him to go out of business.
Follow
Befriend (13)
52 threads
2,639 comments
Premium
CaptainShuddup says
I'm sure I've passed it, but never stopped there.APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says
It's a fancy schmancy gourmet market, across from all the Trump Complexes.
Follow
Befriend (1)
249 threads
4,739 comments
epitaph says
Oh but it's fine when the Gay Liberal movement politicized Chicken and Pickles on a white bread bun?
Follow
Befriend
11 threads
775 comments
Dublin, CA
Much better to have breakfast at home - how can you drink 2 shots of vodka or a bloody mary at dennys with your omlette?
Follow
Befriend (28)
171 threads
4,211 comments
Premium
CaptainShuddup says
Goddamn. No justice. They closed the Cracked Conch on the northbound lane between Homestead and Key Largo, too. Dang, what's happening to South Florida? I won't be able to go there and be confident there's satisfying native cuisine available.
Follow
Befriend (1)
249 threads
4,739 comments
I try to explain the south Florida take on a good old fashioned NY Jewish deli to my kids, but it really gets lost in Einstein Bagels. The only thing left in South Florida that merely resembles one.
As for the native joints still left, I think "Tropical Acres(Steakhouse)" and "Tarks(Clam stand though down to one location)" are the only two original establishments left, from when I came here in 1984.
There's Rustic Inn(Crab joint) but it's no where near the same. And a few others that aren't worth noting for the same reasons.
Follow
Befriend (9)
416 threads
4,137 comments
Baltimore, MD
rooemoore says
Their competitors will also cut hours to below 30/week. That's how competition really works.
Follow
Befriend (16)
764 threads
7,710 comments
Boca Raton, FL
Premium
I call bullshit. Since when does Denny's or any other business charge customers as little as possible? All businesses price their goods at whatever results in the maximum profits. If they price the goods lower than that, then total profits go down even if sales go up. If they price the goods higher than that, then total profits go down as sales go down.
Every business knows exactly what that price level is. Running a business is 80% about finding exactly what that price is and zeroing in on it.
The thing is, this price level has only to do with supply and demand. It has absolutely nothing to do with cost. The price level at which profits are maximum is completely independent of cost.
Whenever a business says they are adjusting prices because of cost, including Obamacare, they are bullshitting you.
That pair of Prada sunglasses doesn't cost $250 dollars to make. It costs $1.25 to make. It is priced at $250 because enough people are willing to pay that much to make that price the point of maximum profit.
That "grand slam" breakfast doesn't cost $10 to make. It's priced at $10 because enough people are willing to pay that much to make that price the point of maximum profit.
Follow
Befriend (16)
764 threads
7,710 comments
Boca Raton, FL
Premium
FortWayne says
There's an old saying. No one sets out to go do Denny's. You just end up there at 2 a.m. because everyplace else is closed.
Follow
Befriend (5)
31 threads
2,258 comments
Premium
How might Denny's prices change if we stopped subsidizing corn? The combination of subsidizing unhealthy food and medical intervention seems to be enriching corporate executives at both ends of the feedlot.
Follow
Befriend (8)
204 threads
4,415 comments
Davis, CA
Dan8267 says
Screw that, food is at home. Omelette is easy to make and cheap. If I'm on the road and starving I hit Waffle House, might as well get a case of the trots or a fresh cold from some fellow night stalkers. The things that eat in Dennys at 2AM are NOT HUMAN!
Follow
Befriend (25)
413 threads
6,982 comments
Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
SFace says
A friend is a manager of a dennys - the food cost is 10%. Of course, there are other costs including labor, physical plant, etc on top of that. Almost all of the food that Denny's serves is made in some central area and sent frozen. Their steaks (which taste like shit, btw) don't even look like food when they arrive at the restaurant.
Come to think of it, they don't look much like food when they're served to you either.
Follow
Befriend (4)
117 threads
17,655 comments
Premium
Vicente says
Are they vampires or werewolves? What would these creatures do during cannibal anarchy?
Follow
Befriend (2)
2 threads
470 comments
iwog says
thats 5-8 million dollars a year. not small change by any means...
Follow
Befriend (13)
52 threads
2,639 comments
Premium
Vicente says
Waffle House, man those are Scary. I'd rather eat the grease out of the trap at Taco Bell, than take my life in my hands. I've actually never seen a clean Waffle House.
Follow
Befriend (1)
117 threads
971 comments
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/11/15/the-corporate-blackmailing-of-america-is-now-all-the-rage/
"For the past week, I have watched with amazement as one restaurant chain after another—the very people who peddle the high caloric foods laden with the fat and sugar that have contribute so mightily to the nation’s health problems and the resulting costs—announced their plans to cut back on employee work hours."
...
Follow
Befriend (9)
416 threads
4,137 comments
Baltimore, MD
kentm says
It's not like any food chain is forcing people to eat food laden with fat and sugar, it's what the consumers are choosing.
Follow
Befriend (3)
12 threads
600 comments
Yeah but the premiums they will forcibly steal from the middle class will pay for the deficit. I will go from paying 4000 a year to 13000. I still don't use it. I never use. Their s a large fraud occurring once again. I should be able to not pay based on my own damn choice!
Follow
Befriend (6)
85 threads
969 comments
44 male
Egg Harbor City, NJ
So let me see if I understand this. He's increasing prices 5% across the board due to Obamacare, and reducing workers hours so he don't have to give them health care. If he's not giving them healthcare, why the hell does he need the 5% surcharge? Sounds like someone is using Obamacare as an excuse to get richer.
Follow
Befriend (1)
249 threads
4,739 comments
thunderlips11 says
I saw a CNN article the other day, that had "Waffle House CEO" in the title.
I commented "Wait a minute, you mean there's a CEO, has he eaten there?"
and got a few hundred likes.
Follow
Befriend (1)
2 threads
324 comments
Sunnyvale, CA
TechGromit says
Likely it's a convenient excuse to raise prices and make a political statement; although with a high enough ratio of wait staff to kitchen employees he could theoretically get there from Federal unemployment taxes, state unemployment taxes, compliance, and recruiting costs
The Federal Unemployment Tax Act wage base is $7000 and rate 6% against which you get a credit for state unemployment taxes, so for each employee earning at least $7000 a year you're out $420.
Federal minimum wage is $7.55 an hour; although employers only need to pay tipped employees $2.13 provided they earn enough in tips for their net pay to equal or exceed the minimum wage.
Tips are included in the wages against which employers are charged unemployment taxes, FICA, and Medicare.
Before Obamacare for 2000 man hours of wait staff work assuming 40 hours a week and 10 national holidays he may have been paying $420 + 2000 * $2.13 (minimum wage for tipped employees provided that tips take them over the $7.55 minimum) + 2000 * $7.55 minimum wage * (6.2% FICA + 1.45% Medicare which employers are required to pay on tips) = $5415 a year or $2.71 / hour
After for 28 hours a week over 50 weeks totaling 1400 hours he's paying $4210 or $3.01 / hour which is 10% more.
OTOH, 2000 hours of non-tipped work cost $16675 before or $8.34/hour
1400 hours of non-tipped work cost $11799 after or $8.43/hour or 1% more.
Follow
Befriend (23)
55 threads
3,810 comments
Scottsdale, AZ
robertoaribas's website
I would boycott Denny's but then again, i don't eat at that shizzle hole... Kind of like I'd boycott chick-fil-A, but I never eat there either.
Follow
Befriend (16)
764 threads
7,710 comments
Boca Raton, FL
Premium
zzyzzx says
To a large extent true, but it's not like consumers have much of a choice. When 70% of the consumer base wants to eat shit, the other 30% aren't worth pursuing except for niche businesses which are typically only opened during peak hours.
When was the last time you saw a 24-hour Salad Creations? Meanwhile 24-hour fast food restaurants and low-quality chains are common.
Follow
Befriend (48)
274 threads
12,572 comments
47 male
Lafayette, CA
Premium
I eat at Chik-fi-la but Dennys can be nasty sometimes.
Not the restaurant but the fellow diners. If the odds of sitting in the next booth from someone who hasn't had a bath in 3 days exceeds 5%, I'm not doing it.
Follow
Befriend (28)
171 threads
4,211 comments
Premium
Denny's is great. You can stand on a chair, belch, blow a fart, offer your dick to a toothless meth-head sow to suck in trade for a french fry and no one would notice, all the while enjoying the sight of the manager kicking negroes to death at the front door. This is what America is all about.
Follow
Befriend
14 threads
1,493 comments
KILLERJANE says
So let's say you got what you want - you don't have to buy health insurance because you don't "need" it. And by the same token, the government doesn't have to guarantee health insurance to you, so you can be denied insurance if you get sick. What if you got a treatable but very expensive disease that is beyond your means to pay for in cash? Would you agree to let yourself die? See, I don't believe that you would. I think that once you got sick, you would change your tune and you would want to live.
Follow
Befriend (23)
55 threads
3,810 comments
Scottsdale, AZ
robertoaribas's website
there are only two reasons to go to dennys:
1. you are shit faced drunk, and stumble in to one to eat some greasy food and sober up before you ride your motorcycle home.
2. your staying at a ghetto hotel in a city you don't know because your flight was cancelled and it is too f*ing late to order a pizza or Chinese takeout. You see a Dennys across the parking lot, and a QT, so you buy a bottle of thunderbird, sneak it in to dennys and drowned the flavor of their shitty food with shitty blueberry wine.
Follow
Befriend
14 threads
1,493 comments
But where else can you get a Lumberjack Grand Slam, that contains almost an entire day's recommended allowance of fat, and almost 2 days worth of cholesterol and sodium?