There is no doubt that the leftist inspired attack on the economy is adversely affecting the cost of just about everything, some worse than others. Every SINGLE conservative running needs to repeat the mantra that this can be laid squarely at the feet of this criminal administration which trickles down to just about every democRAT all the way down the chain. We did not have this problem a year and a half ago, now we do. It really is that simple.

It's discrimination,
The people that can afford to eat out will still eat out,

But
They are paying much closer attention to the details.

Are the floors tables,chairs,menus and wait staff clean and presentable ?

Are the people prompt and courteous, is the food just ok, or good or much better ?
Is
Parking a p.i.t.a. ?

Iffy is not for the big spenders.

The iffy s will be shutting down, left and right.

Upping their game will be manditory.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
It's discrimination,
The people that can afford to eat out will still eat out,

But
They are paying much closer attention to the details.

Are the floors tables,chairs,menus and wait staff clean and presentable ?

Are the people prompt and courteous, is the food just ok, or good or much better ?
Is
Parking a p.i.t.a. ?

Iffy is not for the big spenders.

The iffy s will be shutting down, left and right.

Upping their game will be manditory.

Yep, survival of the fittest. I've always voted with my wallet and my feet.

OP's experience could be a sign of things to come or it could be a one-off slow night. But between overall inflation reducing discretionary income and the increase in the cost of going out to eat, it wouldn't be a surprise to see people doing a whole lot less of it.

Recession = loss of jobs

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:...It really is that simple.

Yes, all you said.

Ironical ain't it, that all the lefty chuckelheads laff they asses off about Regan's "Trickle down economics" as if it was bullshit and had no basis in fact. That only the rich would benefit and the poor proletariat would be starved or worse, eaten by the rich?

Well, this is the reverse of it, and yet they still try to blame everyone and everything to the right of them as the cause and problem, rather than what is so obvious to any person with a shred of honesty.

I hope the pain is so deep that people will vote militantly and ferociously lay waste to the evil career criminal politicians.

Often, the sale of a family owned restaurant is the death knell. The new owners just can't resist fiddling and changing things. They fail to realize that changes to recipes and other small things are screwing with exactly what customers want. They want the familiar. Even a change that is objectively neutral (or even a small improvement) is not welcome.

You don't want shoo-fly pie from the other place, you want the old shoo-fly pie.

We had a family Cajun place near us. We loved it, for a lot of reasons. They sold it, and the new owners, who were also local, just wrecked it. They cheapened the ingredients, and changed lots of small things. It was suffering, and then COVID killed it off.

It’s not just restaurants. Every small business has to jack their prices up just to survive. Pay attention. Look around. Doors are slamming shut everywhere because small family owned businesses can’t compete with big box stores that can buy by the gross for a lesser price.
This is THE time to support your small business owner, be it a restaurant or what have you. They are all dying because people are complaining about prices. And when we are all gone, the monopolies can set whatever price they like.

You are supporting your community when you buy small and local. The money stays right there. They buy goods for their families and businesses from other small companies as much as they possibly can. Try to do the same and you’ll keep variety and options. Please don’t complain. They are struggling as much or more than you to stay alive.

Monkey I hope you are right about voting punitively agains the perpetrators of the current woes that plague our great nation, as I think you are.
Which is why we are seeing such efforts to buy votes with our money before the midterms.

Abolishing college loan debt is the first of such efforts on the part of the dims. Here in NC, the dims are proposing $200 rebates to drivers as a repsonse to increased gas prices. Dont know how they will decide who gets what...all DL holders?

As insidious as it is, its actually kind of brilliant. If it works, they get credit for itwhich might resonate with some voters. If R's block, as they should, the dims cry foul "We tried to give you money but the evil R's hate you so they blocked the bills!!!!"

R's should point to the fact that the dims caused this mess and should all be voted out of office as a first step towards fixing it.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:...It really is that simple.

Yes, all you said.

Ironical ain't it, that all the lefty chuckelheads laff they asses off about Regan's "Trickle down economics" as if it was bullshit and had no basis in fact. That only the rich would benefit and the poor proletariat would be starved or worse, eaten by the rich?

Well, this is the reverse of it, and yet they still try to blame everyone and everything to the right of them as the cause and problem, rather than what is so obvious to any person with a shred of honesty.

I hope the pain is so deep that people will vote militantly and ferociously lay waste to the evil career criminal politicians.

I’m with irreverent on this one. If you like having locally-owned businesses, support them through these times, even if it stings. When they go away, and they will, you will not like their replacement. The little diner that two generations have owned will get torn down and replaced by an Applebee’s that will serve shitty industrial food manufactured in some depot in the Midwest, and it’ll be microwaved by people who don’t care and brought to your table by people who hate you because their corporate overlords treat them like human cattle, and your very presence makes that possible.

The situation in the OP is one thing, but if you have local joints like this and you stopped eating at them because the prices went up, don’t cry when they shutter - know that you did your part to kill them.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
I’m with irreverent on this one. If you like having locally-owned businesses, support them through these times, even if it stings. When they go away, and they will, you will not like their replacement. The little diner that two generations have owned will get torn down and replaced by an Applebee’s that will serve shitty industrial food manufactured in some depot in the Midwest, and it’ll be microwaved by people who don’t care and brought to your table by people who hate you because their corporate overlords treat them like human cattle, and your very presence makes that possible.

The situation in the OP is one thing, but if you have local joints like this and you stopped eating at them because the prices went up, don’t cry when they shutter - know that you did your part to kill them.

Absolutely

Prosperity breeds more prosperity

Here in OKC we had a locally owned and operated store (Father & Daughter) that sold only products made in the USA. Period! Nothing imported, only USA Made products.

I loved it and brought in as many family and friends as I could.

It was weird but not unexpected. People would be excited by the idea of buying American made products. Then they saw that the prices were higher than the chinese made crap down at wallymart or target and other such massive retailers.

Unfortunately they shut down a year ago. It was sad. They had a great idea, they ran it well, but stupid people would rather bitch about the chinese made crap in the other stores and go to buy the junk anyway.

I don't know for a fact, but I'm sure that these American made manufacturers were probably hanging on by a thread, and this stores purchasing kicked them one more step to the grave.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
.

I took my wife, daughter and son-in-law out to a new pizza place Friday night. Two pizzas, one order of bread sticks, and 4 root beers. $107 (with tip).

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
Here in OKC we had a locally owned and operated store (Father & Daughter) that sold only products made in the USA. Period! Nothing imported, only USA Made products.

I loved it and brought in as many family and friends as I could.

It was weird but not unexpected. People would be excited by the idea of buying American made products. Then they saw that the prices were higher than the chinese made crap down at wallymart or target and other such massive retailers.

Unfortunately they shut down a year ago. It was sad. They had a great idea, they ran it well, but stupid people would rather bitch about the chinese made crap in the other stores and go to buy the junk anyway.

I don't know for a fact, but I'm sure that these American made manufacturers were probably hanging on by a thread, and this stores purchasing kicked them one more step to the grave.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
.

^^^^

A brief counterpoint. I was at a local IFA store (farm supply store with consumer garden, yard products). They had USA made jeans for $98.00 a pair. These weren't designer jeans either and the quality of the fabric and stitching wasn't different than Costco jeans.

While slightly different, I'll pay more for a Toyota but when they want 6k above MSRP and a nonrefundable 1k deposit on top of an 18 month wait, you've lost your value.

I'll pay more for quality but there comes a point when you are paying for the name and nothing more. To compete, US manufacturers have to provide a quality product at a reasonable price. $98 for basic jeans is not that.

Can't say the same here, stores are full, streets are packed with cars/trucks/suv's Gas stations with $4 to $5 gallon gas are busy, people are going to the larger discount gas, WaWa, Costco, Speedway, etc. some smaller stations with higher prices will suffer like the Foreigner owned Mobil behind the development that charges more for fuel based on location. It's a mile further to WaWa, and people are going there.

We're still rocking in the F L A....

quote:

I'll pay more for quality but there comes a point when you are paying for the name and nothing more. To compete, US manufacturers have provide a quality product at a reasonable price. $98 for basic jeans is not that.

In order for there to be a competition there needs to be equal rules for both competitors. That's not the case, therefore competition as you suggest it is impossible. Unless you're suggesting that US manufacturers can obtain labor at slave rates without the government regulations, and none of the other things employees want (regular working hours, insurance, etc).

I just don't want to hear any complaints when one needs something that is only made overseas and either becomes cost prohibitive or unobtanium at any price. You chooze it, you dooz it.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
I'll pay more for quality but there comes a point when you are paying for the name and nothing more. To compete, US manufacturers have to provide a quality product at a reasonable price. $98 for basic jeans is not that.

A lot of companies have been making a lot of money by counting on people "paying for quality" when in actuality, they're paying for a name and nothing more, but they don't realize that's what they're doing.

I see it everywhere, the gun industry and related support industries, cars, clothing, computers, you name it.

quote:

paying for quality" when in actuality, they're paying for a name and nothing more

This is very true. There not much differentiation between the products produced by most companies these days. I know people who are die hard fans of such and such brand because that's what grandpa always bought...but in reality it's no longer the same company that it once was and now they're peddling the same crap as everybody else.

As to food, prices are way up around here. I haven't really eaten out much since I got diabetes, but the few times I have it's been salads and the cost has been eye watering. I can make a better salad at home, and it costs a fraction as much even with the inflated price or groceries. I took my kids through the Arby's drive-through this weekend and just got them sliders...no fries or drinks...and it was over $20. Those things used to be $1 apiece. This is why we stopped eating out.

The grocery store isn't much better, though. Eggs and milk are more than double what they cost last year, and our annual 1/2 cow purchase was up 20% this year. I can't wait until my garden starts producing! My utility bill last month was what I typically pay mid-winter or mid-summer, and we haven't even turned the air on yet. And don't even get me started on gas or what my 401k is doing.

I got a 3% cost of living increase this year...which in the current economy is going to ammount to about a 22% pay cut.

So is that fight for $15, now a fight for $20? $25?

When I was a little, little kid and my Mom was poor, I got McDonald's or similar as a treat. A family of four at McDonald's would be $26 for two kids meals and two combo meals (excluding double qtr cheese or specialty items). That's over two hours labor at $15 per hour, probably 3 hours of labor after taxes and other salary deductions.

That's nice and all that they got a raise, it was completely destroyed by inflation to get there. My 6% raise which included both a normal merit raise and a promotion is worthless. How am I supposed to keep up? Expenses are up over 10%, so I took at least a 4% pay cut, likely more than that, especially since I have to pay taxes on my raise.

The best part is they are getting ready to forgive billions and billions and billions in student loans. If we are lucky those are loans that are not being paid. If they are currently being paid and these former students will have a windfall of money both from reimbursement of previously paid debt as a lump sum, then magnified by these people having hundreds of maybe even thousands of extra $$$ every month to spend that they were formally using to pay the debt they agreed to pay. It's like a steroid mixed with a catalyst for inflation. Introducing extra cash into an inflationary economy is like putting out a fire with a nuclear bomb.